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
Awesome! I’m so jealous!
Heard Leahnz is having a few wines tonight. Look out DP. Better lock your door.
“Bomb shelters”? Where are you getting this stuff? No one here is talking about bank runs or bomb shelters.
He was talking about the mania to “buy gold!” being today’s panicky equivalent of building bomb shelters back in the day. That’s where he’s getting that stuff.
JBD – I was dwelling on the irony that Dave finally gets to NZ and Leah’s been on a HotBlog walkabout for a number of weeks. What a coinkydink.
Which is the worst bomb to drop – taking on the debt now or letting it continue to build until the interest alone is more than our GDP?
I’ll take “False Dichotomies” for $100, thanks!
There’s absolutely nothing to stop the CBO from adopting a plan to reduce debt over 10, 50, or even 100 years. The idea that “zomg if we don’t eliminate the debt NOW it’ll never get done” is pure twaddle.
Dave,
Have a great time in NZ. I loved the 4 months I spent in Aukland working on a movie. Too bad you’re not getting to see more of the country.
Dave – we want a pic of you and Leah!
bloody hell, ftr martin s before you have an embolism:
i have NOTHING to do with the ‘tintin’ production
i don’t post using my real name for a reason, and anyone who thinks i’d reveal my identity to david poland on a tintin junket or whatever it’s called must be smoking crack, he could walk right past me and not know it (he didn’t). do you think it’s 3 people working in a wool shed here? two completely separate major productions (and a third just in the can) here, there’s a fair few people about in the empire
Shit, Leah, it’s just that we all fantasize about revealing our true identities and having hot sex.
Er, I mean, a DATE.
Srsly, I’m not going to reveal my name either, but it’s fun to think that one of us could fly to NZ and look you up.
Although it would be UNFAIR if Poland got to meet you first. I think we’re more compatible 🙂
Really, Poland comes strolling into any our workplaces, you wouldn’t run up and extend the glad hand? It’d be the highlight of my day. If not month.
just saw Change Up … takes bromance to a whole new level … it’s not that they’ve changed bodies, it’s that they get to jack off each other dicks ….
“they get to jack off each other dicks”
And once again, Billy Wilder is spinning in his grave.