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
Eh, looks all right, vaguely…it’s probably fun enough and will be entertaining. I love Rogen though, so I’m hoping the script is better than it seems.
Jay Chou, who’s been in two movies that I’ve seen is the only glimmer of hope here. He seems to get role he’s playing. Everything else, though true to the original Hornet, I guess, just comes off as a knockoff of other comicbook movies we’ve seen recently. Hell, the introduction of Cameron Diaz was just random. They wan’t us to think this is Rogen’s Iron Man, and I’m just not buying it.
Either way though, Seth Rogen is right there with Michael Cera as two actors that I dislike watching.
Looking forward to the inevitable mash-up in which the Green Hornet does some bongs hit in between fighting crime.
Again, I must ask this because it needs to be asked. Out of every actor out there, you pick Rogen and Cera to dislike? Really? Rogen and Cera? That’s like hating a golden retriever and dachshund. Seriously, that’s just plain weird.
I also have to ask: How many folks out there even know who the The Green Hornet is? How many folks will know what to compare this version to?
http://movingpictureblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/preview-green-hornet.html
leydon — i’ve got a few years on you and am pretty well versed in the lore….i was kind of surprised how good this actually looks…seems like a natural progression…..
Scooterezz: I’m actually pleasantly surprised, too, and optimistic. Seriously.
NickF, what are you talking about? Jay Chou is one of the worst actors from China/HK/Taiwan. The guy’s a huge pop star, but a horrible actor. And he’s not even a martial artist, so we get an actor who can’t act in a fighting role who can’t fight.
This looks painfully generic. You got the rich party boy (Tony Stark) with a famous father (Tony Stark, Batman) who builds an awesome car in his basement (Batman, Tony Stark) and with the help of a wiser sidekick (too many to list) kills lots of bad guys in car chases and slo-mo action kicks (too many to list).
I was pretty skeptical, now even more so.
I’m particularly tired of the rich-playboy-men-in-tights subgenre of comic book adaptations. Can we at least have some ghetto or immigrant bad-asses?
Yeah, torpid…then we get the rousing success of KICK-ASS and DEFENDOR.
Well, Clark Kent is a newspaper reporter. So you know he’s making borderline-poverty wages…
Ghetto or immigrant? We are not France, man. Come on.
I guess Spawn and Black Dynamite kind of qualify in different ways. There are probably others. So I’m an idiot.