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
Thanks for doing this, David. Looking forward to part two.
I am a fan of Ted’s and a very regular reader of his stuff, as well as his sponsored guests at truly free film… but I would say there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wonder if he considers, explicitly, his overall goals. So much of what he says is directly contradictory and frequently at odds with even the most basic economic principles I often wonder if he ever thinks of the context of his comments.
Your points about other forms of entertainment are very well taken – there is no reason to think that film is for reason the only form of entertainment suffering under economic hardship. There is no reason – none that is supported by the numbers – to think that indie film will cease to exist. Its overblown form of the previous 10-15 years is dying and well it should. Generating projects that lose enormous amounts of money is bad for basically everyone. But the reality of financing is that it has always been a terrible business because the supply far outweighs the demand, and creators do not (nor should they if they expect it to be any good) consider market conditions for the large majority of what is made. This means that indie, in the current incarnation, is only a job if your time has no value.
I could go on here forever but thanks.
Everyone working across all art forms seems to be obsessed with the idea that you need to “create community” to build an audience, but no one can ever define it more specifically than that.
“Community” is definitely a red-flag word; when someone uses it, prepare yourself for a paragraph or two of obfuscation.