April 23, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
will the fact that ‘prince of persia’ is the only movie gayer than ‘sex and the city 2’ have a box office effect?…..and, is liza really in both?….
Is it OK to talk TV here? I hope so. As a huge David Simon fan I meant to watch Treme, but between getting hooked on Justified, finally watching season 3 of Mad Men, and sitting through The Tudors (wife), I just wasn’t able to. Anyone here been keeping up with it? How is it?
I have a friend who has HBO, and he’s liked Treme. I plan to devour it once its on DVD, as that worked best for the first season of Wire. I plan to do the same for Justified, but that’s because my Tuesday nights have been full.
The only one I HAVE to watch regularly is Breaking Bad, as Season 3 has been amazing. There’s a reason Bryan Cranston keeps winning the best actor Emmy.
I love Justified. Perfect role for Olyphant, great supporting cast, good dialogue. Fun show.
I’d like to check out Breaking Bad. Wish there were more hours in the day. Seems like it’s a good show.
Olyphant should forever now wear a cowboy hat for all of his roles. Why mess with perfection, no?
Even in Hitman 2?
Is he going to be in Hitman 2, or is it a direct-to-DVD sequel?
“Treme,” sadly, is not great, partly due to iffy writing and also due to at least two actors performing without any sort of restraint, something that never happened on “Wire.”
Also, kinda late on this but it’s the first BYOB since then: Whoever wrote that “Deliverance”-inspired headline the other day (Ray Pride?) is a genius.
TREME IS FANTASTIC! I do wonder how it translates to people who have yet to go to New Orleans though. The characters are fairly compelling so far but the real star is the music and the Crescent City.
Treme is pretty damn terrific. But in other TV news: Sorry to hear about Gary Coleman. Can’t honestly say I’m bereft, because Diff’rent Strokes really never meant much to me. (I guess I was already in the wrong demographic when it premiered.) I can see, though, that for folks of a certain age who grew up while watching the show… This must be, seriously, a real bummer.
So here’s another “why isn’t this actress more famous?” post.
Does anyone know who Jane McGregor is? She was in that Slap Her She’s French movie from 2002 with Piper Perabo that never got released theatrically in the U.S. because the studio went bankrupt (or something to that effect).
I think she probably would have been a bigger star by now if that movie had actually been released back then. She was pretty good in Bang Bang You’re Dead with Ben Foster as well.
Slap Her trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qa0_fHctpE
Olyphant should be Snake Plisken in the ESCAPE FROM NY remake
Actually, if Timothy Olyphant isn’t in Hitman 2 — don’t you think Billy Zane could take over?
I kind of love “Treme,” but I’m from the Gulf and spent a lot of time in New Orleans growing up.
Oh, and if Zane did “Hitman 2,” he could unify the secret orders behind the Phantom and the Hitmen and Bring Order To The…um, nevermind.
“Treme” is really disappointing to me. While it’s a joy to see great actors like Khandi Alexander, Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters strutting their stuff, two things kill it for me: the preachiness and the annoying white hipster characters. Zahn is simply an embarrassment, both in terms of his performance and his ill-conceived character (Simon clearly thinks his wacky antics are delightful), and I want to punch the screen everytime that mopey talentless junkie street musician character rears his head. Simon is a well-known stickler for reportorial accuracy and while I’m sure there are really enthralled white hangers-on in New Orleans (shades of Mailer’s “The White Negro,” fifty years hence), Zahn’s thread seems like a sop to HBO execs who were scared of making another “all-black” show. I keep watching every week, praying it will pay off, but it seems like an underwhelming “is that all there is?” to me, much like “Generation Kill.”
SJRubinstein: Shhhh. That’s all part of the secret plan.
Agreed on Zahn, diet, but I think John Goodman’s obvious, unbelievable, hey-audience-I’m-talking-to-you-or-rather-yelling-at-you character is even worse.
In complete agreement with chris & dietcock that Zahn and Goodman nearly ruin Treme. As it is, there are WAY too many storylines! We do NOT need to follow the chief’s musician son back to New York! Give us 3 primary…anyone else has to intersect with those main 3. Sorry, maybe other shows can pull it off…maybe the Wire did…but it’s just a sprawling mess with a handful of memorable scenes in each episode…usually Khandi or Melissa Leo’s.
I love when Billy Zane is in movies. I always laugh when I see his eyebrows. I also laughed whenever they brought Boone back to Lost.
Did you know Zane played the evil American heavy in a Turkish anti-American action movie?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493264/
Awesome.
I also believe he was the heavy in the shitty TV movie they made for that awful Joel Silver “Next Action Star” reality TV show.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381980/
Awesome.
Actually, what I loved about bILLY Zane in The Phantom is, he seemed to be one of the FEW super heroes — if not THE ONLY super hero — who acted like being a super hero was the coolest gig on earth.
For me, “The Phantom” will always be marked in my mind as the movie where the filmmakers had the choice between Bruce Campbell and Billy Zane and chose…Zane. Also, it was the first movie I saw as a kid where I felt cheated by the ending as it just kind of stopped, not really a cliffhanger, but obviously attempting to leave it openended so you’d DEMAND a sequel. Pissed me off to no end.
But it was kind of funny to have a meeting in Robert Evans’ office a few years back on the Paramount lot and on that amazing wall of side-by-side-by-side posters alongside stuff like “Chinatown” and “The Godfather,” there was “The Phantom.”
Agreed Joe. And top that off with Treat Williams’s quirky-chatty and oddly friendly arch-villain (who none-the-less murders several people), and you have an old-school adventure flick that has aged very well. There is a scene about halfway through that has the three villains (Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and James Remar) basically discussing the evil plot as if they were old buddies sitting around a poker table that is just music to the ears. And you have to laugh the genuinely funny Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (also very chatty) referring to himself as ‘The Great Kabai Sengh’ and his clan of pirates as ‘The EVIL (insert name of pirate tribe here)…”. That takes genuine self-awareness.
I still have my skull’s head Phantom ring that they gave out at the Phantom junket. Of course, I also have the larm clock they gave out at the Razor’s Edge junket, and I still USE the shoulder bag I got at the Rising Sun junket.
Let me be clear; nothing…NOTHING with Steve Zahn sucks. That is all.
Chicken Little sucked.
Two words: Strange Wilderness. Total suckage.
“who acted like being a super hero was the coolest gig on earth.”
I think that one played by Robert Downey Jr sorta does that too. You know, Sherlock Holmes?
And the other one.
But also Chris Evans in the Fantastic Four movies. Nonetheless, Phantom still rules.
LYT: Good catches. Seriously. I should have mentioned F4’s Johnny Storm, since I singled him out as a happy guy when I reviewed the first film. And you got me on Iron Man — so obvious, of course it slipped my mind. D’oh. I guess I was thinking back to how things were when I originally reviewed The Phantom.
http://www.houstonpress.com/1996-06-06/film/the-happy-hero/
joe — funny you mentioned the phantom ring… i dug mine out yesterday when syfy sent over a screener of the new “reimagined” phantom that airs at the end of june….(and i still use the bag from the hudson hawk/ford fairlaine junket… rising sun is much too classy for me)…..
that should have been die hard 2/ford fairlaine…
I used to wear my Phantom ring (from the comic conventions at the Shrine) when I worked at the Sunset 5 box office. Tapping it against the glass made a loud enough noise that customers in line would realize I was open for business.
My favorite Zane story –
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=115854&page=1
Re: Olyphant. Until I have DNA proof otherwise, he’s Michael Biehn’s long-lost brother.
Olyphant is awesome as the cowboy, but his performance in Go was the glue that kept it from being another Tarantino derivative.
SLAM EVIL!