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
Variety actually has “Machete” narrowly edging out “The American,” but it’s hardly a victory for either movie at under $4-million apiece.
Sorry to see “Going the Distance” open so poorly. It deserved (a lot) better.
Another Labor Day Weekend and another slaughter at the box office. These poor movies all deserve better! Here’s a question that I have to ask because I live in the South and school has been in session for over a month. How much does school going back on the East and West coast effect box office this time a year?
Going the Distance is a blast, but it has too much personality for WB to know how to sell it to teen girls.
I’m most surprised about “Machete.” It’s so much fun I thought folks would go for it.
Twice in the past few weeks I’ve seen audiences noisily reject a film (at public screenings of “The American” and “The Last Exorcism”).
Is this a new trend? Or the rebirth of an old one?
While I’m all for democracy in action, the venom of my multiplex lynch mobs was rather shocking. Or maybe it’s just because I liked both of those films.
Man, a Labor Day weekend with three movies opening that I all liked — of course, none of them do any business.
But as great as Yimou is, “Noodle Shop” deserves to be dumped. It’s pretty worthless.
Man, I too thought “Machete” would have been a sneak attack surprise but no. I actually thought the hispanic audience would show up in force for it as well. I guess people just don’t dig grindhouse.
Speaking of Zhang, his latest piece of crap (a high school romance that looks indistinguishable from every other) opens this month, and the distributor is either overconfident or they’re dumping it too — it’s opening immediately before a string of big-budget action flicks instead of the heavily protected release dates Zhang usually gets. The more innocent explanation is that they’re counter-programming and banking on sensitive souls who don’t want to see Donnie Yen breaking more heads.
Anyway it’ll be interesting to see if Sony’s loyalty to the Zhang brand extends to this one too, since that’s the only conceivable reason for picking up Noodle Shop.
If SPC were willing to dump a movie that features A-listers Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried, I guess it is not odd that SPC choose to dump a Zhang Yimou movie.
After to/too/two and there/their/they’re, one of my top writing pet peeves are people who don’t understand the difference between affect (a verb, meaning to influence) and effect (a noun, meaning a result).
As for Noodle Shop, I’m not seeing it so much as a dump as opening the film on a low-pressure weekend and seeing if the word of mouth builds. They already have a hundred additional bookings for the film over the next month and a half, a lot more than the number of theatres SPC put Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles in to after launching it the same weekend in 2006.
I used to think Clooney couldn’t open a movie, but if The American takes the weekend, it really can only be because of his star power.
Also, I notice the TV ads are quite misleading, selling it as full of action/suspense, and showing virtually all of what little action there is.
It doesn’t seem like China will ever get tired of watching Donnie Yen “break heads” 🙂 With Jackie Chan and Jet Li slowed down by age, Yen is finally getting the recognition he deserves. The guy cranks out 3+ movies a year, and they all perform in China.