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HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS ACQUIRES U.S. TV RIGHTS TO PUBLIC SPEAKING, SPOTLIGHTING WRITER FRAN LEBOWITZ

Posted Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 - Comments Off on HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS ACQUIRES U.S. TV RIGHTS TO PUBLIC SPEAKING, SPOTLIGHTING WRITER FRAN LEBOWITZ
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For Immediate Release

Academy Award® Winner Martin Scorsese Directs; Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter Produces

NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2010 – HBO has acquired U.S. TV rights to the documentary PUBLIC SPEAKING, directed by Oscar® winner Martin Scorsese and produced by Emmy®- and Peabody-winning documentary producer Graydon Carter, and Margaret Bodde, it was announced today by Sheila Nevins, president, HBO Documentary Films. Debuting on HBO in November, the feature-length film stars legendary New York wit and writer Fran Lebowitz, known for her unique take on modern life.

Directed in the style of Scorsese’s early documentaries “Italian American” and “American Boy,” PUBLIC SPEAKING showcases Lebowitz’s worldview and experiences. Spotlighting her trademark humor, the film weaves together extemporaneous monologues with archival footage.

Fran Lebowitz is the author of two collections of humorous essays, “Metropolitan Life” (1978) and “Social Studies” (1981), and the children’s book “Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas” (1994). Her eclectic career has included stints writing for Interview and Mademoiselle magazines and serving as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Lebowitz still lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.

PUBLIC SPEAKING was directed by Martin Scorsese; produced by Graydon Carter, Fran Lebowitz and Martin Scorsese; producer, Margaret Bodde; executive producers, Ted Griffin and John Hayes; supervising producer, Jenny Carchman; associate producers, Erin Edeiken and Chris Garrett; editors, Damian Rodriguez and David Tedeschi; director of photography, Ellen Kuras, ASC.

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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