April 29, 2024
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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
Hey, every time Searchlight releases some perfectly marketable “little movie” like Cedar Rapids or Cyrus (or even the unmarketable 127 Hours) on two prestige screens in NYC and LA then lets it linger for two months until nobody gives a shit anymore, EVERYONE asks, “Why didn’t they just go wide with it sooner?”
Is Art of Getting By’s comparatively wide release a sign they’re learning from that mistake, OR just exclusive to this particular movie, which feels more like an “eh whatever just dump it”?
Art of Getting By feels like a dump to me because I’ve seen exactly zero promotion for it and only knew it was being released today earlier in the week. It seems like a really low-key release with minimal expectations.
So, 178 new Academy members, but still no Rob Schneider? 🙂
Bet he’s thrilled they’ve already let Russell Brand in.
Art of Getting By was in Sundance like 5 months ago …
it got a dp/30 with the funny Emma Roberts and got another dp/30 with boring Freddie Highmore .
it should have been on dvd by now if they really wanted
teens to see it .. they could just buy a bunch of tv spots
on mtv all day long ..
another Emma Roberts movie that didn’t get much press was
It’s Kind of a Funny Story it had Zach Galifianakis which should be easier to sell to the general public
it be nice if Emma Roberts switches to real comedy movies once in awhile .. it worked out good for Emma Stone..
at least she could have been in one of the many comic book movies this summer ..
chances of another dp/30 with Emma Roberts this year 1/500..
How did “The Art of Getting By” even get picked up at Sundance in the first place? Was it just because somebody at Searchlight thought Emma Roberts would be a good box office draw right now? It looks like a movie born to be stillborn.
They’re doing the same thing with Tree of Life.
In other news, why do so few people seem interested in discussing (or more particularly, anticipating) Linklater’s latest, Bernie?
Art of Getting By – 20% on RT ..
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_art_of_getting_by/
here’s the trailer of Waiting for Forever ..which pretty
much looks the same …teen romance with a different twist..
..i watched this and i really hated this movie .
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1035836185/
BILSON POWER.
Those Magnum ice cream bar commercials where she runs atop cars barefoot and then eats an ice cream bar are the greatest thing ever; And the online version where she recreates Black Swan. Thanks for reminding me about Waiting for Forever, which I missed during its seven days in one theater in L.A.
“Bilson needs a DP/30.” — lexj
i watched Stonehenge Apocalypse
this movie has the most twisted science logic ever
with plot holes every 5 minutes and yet at the end
it all sorta make sense but doesn’t .
here’s the trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUqdrQqRCgQ
“In other news, why do so few people seem interested in discussing (or more particularly, anticipating) Linklater’s latest, Bernie?”
I’d say it’s because you can’t find any clips or a trailer of it anywhere right now, and it’s only just gotten premiered at the LAFF last night, so the first impressions are dribbling out today.
When that’s the case, and all you’ve got ahead of premiere time is the fact that its a new Jack Black/Shirley Maclaine/Matthew McConaughey movie directed by Linklater then, yeah, not a lot of pre-release buzz is going to be generated in this case.
That being said, the movie looks pretty interesting right now.
is it too early to talk about 2012 movies ?
with over 1000 movie titles its easy to spend 30
minutes just looking around and trying to find
good movies based on the cast and the basic plot
if movie critics start making the top 10 movies i want
to see list – good chance it’ll help the movie get some
buzz
http://www.imdb.com/year/2012/
Linklater is the non-autuer of modern times. He’s made some movies I like a lot, some I’ll never watch, some I barely remember exist– I think people desperately want to embrace him as an interesting filmmaker because of “Slacker’s” importance in the early indie scene or their passion for “Dazed and Confused” or the “Before” movies… But when all is said and done, I don’t think he’s a very interesting director, certainly not someone whose stuff I EVER look forward to ahead of time.
He just seems perennially stuck at a certain, modest level, operating on a type of movie that I can usually take or leave; Yeah, he’ll make a studio comedy every few years, but he’s never done an epic, never expanded out beyond that workmanlike, humble quality that comes off as utterly anonymous.
I’m sure he has his lion’s share of fans, but for someone who’s made a lot of good movies, he’s really boring as a director.
The movie (Bernie) is a tweener.
Black is playing against type (not unlike Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris) and is actually very good… but not awards good. MacLaine is in support and is also good, but there’s not enough there for it to be a HOT role. McConaughey is fine as a dopey/shrewd lawyer, but again, not enough to be a major role.
Good story. Very pleasant. Very Linklater, in a good way. Seems like he took on Soderbergh’s notion for Moneyball, interviewing the townfolk to give the story structure. Works. Some of the best stuff in the film is the “folks,” who I think are mostly actors.
Seems like too much firepower for VOD, but I would be shocked if it got to a distributor who did theatrical first… look for Magnolia to be the baby daddy.
“Bernie” reads a lot like your description of it Dave, but by the same token, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did play in theaters and wound up with a certain kind of modest, “Cookies Fortune” type of success in the art houses.
To Lex’s point, Linklater is America’s Michael Winterbottom.
So when’s the next great out-of-nowhere action movie going to come around? For that matter, since I have the memory of a goldfish with Alzheimers, what was the last one? Kung Fu Hustle?
Transformers 3 might be stupid as hell, but it still looks AMAZING in the ads.
Hasnt every transformers movie looked good in the ads and ended up pretty terrible?
hey DP – i want more youtube people to get a DP/30 … most are in the comedy catagory – some get millions of views -a lot of the stuff people do on youtube are more funny than anything on snl but they just don’t get that type of credit.
its real easy to watch a few hours of online videos and just setup some interviews ..there must be 100’s of people in LA just making videos on youtube
I always look forward to Linklater’s stuff, as he is an eclectic and interesting director. DAZED AND CONFUSED and BEFORE SUNSET/SUNRISE are spectacular movies and SCHOOL OF ROCK is just a joy. He has a lot of fascinating detours like FAST FOOD NATION that, while not entirely succesful, are different and cool. SLACKERS, as has been said, is an important milestone. He’s more along the lines of Winterbottom or even Soderbergh in his willingness to switch it up than a traditional auteur, although I do think he’s generally more muted and less agressive/audacious than the other two (with the possible exceptions of WAKING LIFE/A SCANNER DARKLY).
BERNIE sounds like something I may love from that description. Looking forward to it.
“He’s more along the lines of Winterbottom or even Soderbergh…”
Except those guys have interesting visual styles, and with the possible exception of the two watercolor movies, Linklater is flatter than Kevin Smith.
I don’t think Linklater’s strengths are his visual talent (I would say it’s his specfic takes on material and strength with actors/tone) but I think the impression of his work being flat partially comes from the subject matter/content but also the various styles he’s worked in. The two BEFORE movies, especially the sequel, have really clean and effective looks that bring to mind Woody or even Rhomer. FAST FOOD NATION has a kind of rough, harsh documentary look, and SCHOOL OF ROCK/BAD NEWS BEARS are nice looking, pop comedies. I agree that he doesn’t give off the specfic cinematic kick that you get from Winterbottom and especially Soderbergh (whose movies, no matter what genre, are basically all recongnizable), but I think there is a common intelligence and especially affection and humanity that links all of them.
Also, this is a different discussion, but I actually thought Smith’s visual style grew and personalized to a large degree with CLERKS 2 and ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO. COP OUT was generic and static, but I liked what he was doing with those two.
In other news Pirates4 is just $85m shy of crossing the $1b mark. That’ll be three for Johnny. With this and Alice in Wonderland, they represent flicks that I still can’t find anyone who loved them or saw them twice. Even my kids were detached from AiW.
I dont believe that Cars2 will perform like Toy Story 3, but I’ve been wrong before, so does that mean that the two other contenders for the worldwide crown are Trannies3 and HP 7.2. God I hope HP is as good as it’s newest awesome trailer and hopefully get a few more fans, it doesn’t need that many more, to cross a billion.
I’m also perplexed about the ART OF GETTING BY wide release. It looks good and I’ll check it out, but I find it strange that Searchlight would go so wide with this so soon when CEDAR RAPIDS, an on the surface commercial movie starring a guy who was in one of the biggest comedies of all-time and a hit TV show, not to mention John C. Reilly, took forever to get this many screens…From a marketing standpoint CEDAR RAPIDS had a pretty easy to get across hook, whereas AOGB seems to be a little harder to explain in a few words. I know they know what they’re doing (it’s kind of hard to second guess them after turning BLACK SWAN into a smash hit), but I’m not sure I get the strategy. Maybe this has something to do with paying attention to the expansion of TREE OF LIFE, which obviously needs a bit of finesse in how it’s released.
Speaking of low profiles, how about “Earthwork?” Playing in at least one theater, stars recent Oscar nominee John Hawkes, has a couple recognizable supporting performers, is really good, doesn’t even have an imdb page as of this typing.
what happened to the dp30 with RFKjr?
Is anyone else just flabergasted at the existence of Mr Poppers Penguins?
Its like someone greenlit this film after seeing Happy Feet or March of the Penguins and thought the penguin craze was going to last forever.
I have always felt that Soderbergh and Winterbottom were very alike.
Finally caught MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. Loved it. His funniest movie since the 1990’s.
I finally saw “Cedar Rapids” as its theatrical release was slowly winding down. There was something about it that just didn’t scream “See me now!” Then, after seeing it with several friends we all absolutely loved it. Very funny, very real in its emotions and nothing about it, besides the quality, that would have you believe it wasn’t a mainstream studio release (sadly those days seem to be behind us). One of my favorites of this year and like I said, one I nearly missed catching on the big screen. I hope it finds a huge audience in its video afterlife.
Raise your hand if you care what LexG thinks about anything.
can movie theatres make money if every movie cost 2 dollars ?
DP – you have the power to make all imax films 2 bucks each..
a “look at her” post not written by LexG
Look around the dial and you see lots of pretty faces in TV news..
http://blog.fagstein.com/2011/06/17/catherine-sherriffs-ctv-anchor/
watched Miss Nobody –
secretary discovers that she has a talent for murder as she ascends the corporate ladder.
Leslie Bibb is pretty good .. i liked the movie..
she’s been acting for 10 years = no DP/30 …
trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xIRiocA038