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
Final number is $35.4M.
Also, I think you can make the argument on behalf of JJ Abrams, Martin Campbell, Barry Sonnenfeld, Michael Bay, (whose filmographies I know well enough), Mimi Leder, and, looking further back, Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper, that those are the best movies of their careers. People may differ on specific titles — I prefer THE ROCK to TRANSFORMERS, for instance, but I do prefer MASK OF ZORRO to either of Campbell’s Bonds — but I think Spielberg must be imparting something valuable.
DP, why’d you exclude TRUE GRIT? Not my favorite Coen, but one of 2010’s best. Is that a different level of Spielberg’s “presentation”?
Christmas, not summer, Sean.
Consider all those other movies that beat it were easier to sell, good job by Super 8.
It’s not stated whether those numbers are corrected for inflation–if not then Super 8 got stomped by almost all but Monster House; even Zorro would have a $31 mil+ opening today. Twister, by comparison, would be $59 mil (was the flying cow the selling point of that one?).
Let’s see if it can beat Twister’s 10% drop between week 1 and week 2.
Twister came out in a world and time where CG tornados were mind-blowing must see stuff. Not a fair comparison.
WE CALL PAXTON “THE EXTREME”! Load me up some more MASHED POTATOES while I talk about the F-5 because we’re so RAGTAG! Hey it’s HELEN HUNT!
God, what were “we” thinking in 1996? “Twister” is more embarrassing than an old Shucky Ducky routine.
I do like the Goo Goo Dolls “Long Way Down” song though. Otherwise, can hardly believe THAT’S what used to constitute a summer mega-movie.
Yep, a great example of a movie that was insanely popular at the time, which the new generation would look at now and wonder “What the ‘eff were you people smoking?”
EDIT: Dang, Lex summed it up better than I could while I was writing.
I still wonder if Universal coughed up the money for a movie to justify the cost of building a tornado attraction for the parks. Kinda like “Pirates” in reverse.
My wife and her family like Twister. Sometimes they put it on during family gatherings. It definitely falls into the “so bad it’s good” category. Did MST3000 ever do a show on it? The dialogue is abysmal and so easy to poke fun of.
Also wasn’t Twister one of the first big “holy shit” trailers of the modern era? In those pre-cynical times way back in 1996, that last-second STINGER at the end of the trailer was like some huge shock– I think it was the cow coming at the camera after the quick credits flashed at the end, and it was MIND BLOWING. Every action trailer since that duplicated that beat, but at the time it was written about as some hot new way to get audiences pumped.
On a quick Super 8 note, can someone please pry Giacchino’s saccharine score from my head? I usually am a big fan of his work as a composer, but that treacly sap that plays over the big dramatic finale has been lodged in my brain for three days– so depressing and miserable. Ugh.
SPEED 2 was inevitable, but among TWISTER’s other crimes it allowed DeBont to remake THE HAUNTING.
MST3K was already on life-support in ’96 (their last Comedy Central season was only 6 episodes). Sure, it lived on for another 3 years at Sci-Fi, but the less said about that the better.
EDIT: (Currently reading the Comedy Channel wiki and I think I might deface it for accusing them of being weaker than Ha! at the time of the merger; Allan Havey stated something like “We’ll bring the hard work and the creativity, and you’ll bring ‘Rhoda’.”)
Saw Twister in a shoebox of a theater where the screen seated about 100 people and it just had one aisle down the middle. That place got torn down about two years after the “stadium seating” plex opened a few blocks away.
Here’s the Twister teaser, Lex, and if I’m not mistaken, that final shot wasn’t even in the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWVah2Do5hQ&feature=autoplay&list=PLA8522FD6A386AD8A&index=5&playnext=2
The final shot was a tire going through the windsheild, and yes that made it a must see. It was a very effective marketing campaign, especially the ad with them asking ‘Where’s the Truck?’ and having it come crashing down from the sky. It was crap, but slightly different crap being that there hadn’t been a disaster movie in a decade and a half. And I forget what it was rated but it was seen as a family friendly action movie, with no hissing bad guys, very little bad language, and a tv star the nation had not gotten sick of yet.
And my first memory of a Stinger in a trailer would have been for Alien3, with that shot of the Alien slowly extending it’s second jaw to a shivering Ripley. They started getting more commonplace after that.
Sean – Those might be their most successful films but most of those directors (with the exception of Abrams and Leder who made names for themselves with television) were already established names when Speilberg produced them. These were not mentoring situations but collaborations. While they were not doubt given more budgetary freedom and creative wiggle room from the studios by having Speilberg involved, they were already hot properties before these films. Speilberg as a producer is like doing a duet with Julio Inglesias, you have to be already famous to get asked to the table.
Do you think men in black 3 will beat 1 and 2 ?
Sam, I will tolerate a lot of things, but how in the hell do you bash the next 4 YEARS OF AWESOME? Freaking Joel fans. Go watch your Cinematic Titanic and blow it out your back end :P! Also, I do believe there is a Rifftrax for Twister.
MIB 3 will probably land just around the 200 million of the second film. And it will have less to do with the franchise than that being the Will Smith plus FX standard gross. Is this really that beloved of a franchise? The first one hit in a weak summer over a fourth of july weekend that it had to itself by default after Titanic and Starship Troopers could not finish in time and luckily had a rapidly rising movie star. The second one was a weaker version of the original, cruising on the good will from the first and a return to form from its comedic lead (call it the Ghostbusters II effect).
If Will Smith fans list their favorite movies of his I doubt either MIB would top the list.
The whole enterprise seems like an easy paycheck for Jones and Speilberg, a chance at greater visibility for Brolin, a frantic grasp at the imploded film career of Sonnenfeld, and a complete lack of ideas on what to do next for Smith (who wept when he realized he had no other Box Office left to conquer). Does this seem like something people are doing out of love for the material (which I believe is still being written on a day to day basis), or as a chance to once again play these charecters?
I’m with you hcat. 10 years after a sequel that’s hardly beloved, I can’t imagine too many people are totally psyched about Men in Black III.