May 6, 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
Stop posting pix from the London riots!
Any thoughts on the Sondheim vs Diane Paulus and co. situation, Poland?
http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/08/11/sondheims-porgy-and-bess-slam-producers-respond/
Sondheim’s letter is a great read ( http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/stephen-sondheim-takes-issue-with-plan-for-revamped-porgy-and-bess/ ). Very clear-headed and sensible; if it’s sarcastic or passive-aggressive as the very few Paulus supporters suggest, then I guess I’m too burned out to see it.
Edit: I read the NYTimes article and the comments this morning and just finished the comments from the EW piece: the Sondheim letter makes a big difference. The NYT posters were understandably hostile to the project since Sondheim clearly noted that this new version would be a complete rewrite, whereas the uninformed ET posters thought there was nothing wrong with “tweaks” or “tinkering”.
Performing Richard III in Nazi garb is nothing compared to giving every character in Porgy & Bess a backstory to thoroughly explain who they are and how they got to that point.
Yeah, SS’s letter is a model for that sort of thing. He makes it clear he’s decrying the stated intentions and not the result, which of course he hasn’t yet seen.
““The entire creative team and cast have the most enormous love and respect for Porgy and Bess…”
…in the same way that George Lucas has love and respect for the original Star Wars films.
Hell, Ted Turner adding color to old B&W films at least left the original film intact–play with the color controls on your TV and you’d never see the difference. The proposed changes to P&B, however, are huge, the equivalent of supplanting “Gone With The Wind” with “The Wind Done Gone” but saying it’s the same story, really.
I am, not surprisingly, with Sondheim.
Thing is, I don’t think he would be so offended by a significant reinterpretation of the work. Porgy & Bess in 2011 would be in the spirit of theater, much as reinterpretations of Shakespeare happily happen all the time.
What is so irritating is that the people behind this show seem to be claiming to be fixing a broken (classic) show, not reinterpreting it. “If Gershwin were alive” is one of the more horrifying and arrogant laugh lines ever (not unlike Branagh taking a writing credit on his edit of the Hamlet script).
Doesn’t it kind of prove Sondheim’s point about their “attitude toward the material and their audience” that the director/producer would send their official rebuttal to EW, rather than the NYT?
Funny story that also ties into Poland’s point about the attitudes of audiences and critics (for the record, this is a story about a very strange music teacher, not how fucked up the Germans are):
In a previous life, I was a pretty good singer, starred in some high school productions, etc. Then I spent a year at a school in Germany, where the music teachers COULD NOT BELIEVE how many opportunities American teenagers get to perform, so they were always proposing that I sing for various things they were interested in. One of these music teachers — who really fit the stereotype of the bespectacled, eccentric, reclusive music nerd — invited me over to her house (!) to discuss singing a solo at their version of a graduation ceremony at the end of the year. At the time, she was head over heels for PORGY AND BESS and wanted me to sing something from it.
In my head, I’m thinking “I can’t sing something from PORGY AND BESS, it’s a musical about BLACK PEOPLE!” But at the same time, I had heard some white dudes (um, Barry Manilow?) sing renditions of “Summertime” that I liked a lot. So I suggested that I could sing that (and, I kinda really wanted to. Bit of a Kurt that way).
She gives me a look of total incomprehension and says, “But Summertime is a song for a GIRL.”
Never did sing at graduation.
I think one of the theaters in Chicago is doing of version of Eugene O’Neill’s DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS with a black cast. That’s the kind of revisionism that Sondheim would probably be okay with, as long as it’s not,
[SPOILER ALERT]
“Hey, what if we make up a backstory where the son already had a relationship in the past with Pop’s new wife so it’s not so incestuous?”
And, while we’re on the theater tip:
Lauren Ambrose IS Funny Girl!!!
http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/08/03/lauren-ambrose-lea-michele-broadway-funny-girl/
THANK GOD. Lea Michele has SO worn out her welcome, and I can’t stand watching GLEE any more because everyone is so obviously Auto-Tuned. Oh, and if you’re in a high school choir, you NEVER rehearse ANYTHING. Remember, kids, talent trumps hard work!
hey DP – what is the most expensive movie ticket have you bought ? it’s just crazy that it would cost 100 bucks per ticket on average for Telluride ..
if that place is so important why haven’t bollywood films
invaded that place and try to find some oscar buzz ..
like to see a DP/30 – cost of film festivals worldwide ..
i don’t see anybody else doing it and it seems simple with a few film critics who go every year …
Thanks to AutoTune, I can no longer tell the difference between Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and Britney Spears!
I refuse to listen to anyone autotuned.
What kills me about AutoTune is when they use it just as a production effect on the voices of singers who can actually sing. I guess there are people who find it to be an enjoyable sound. Nuts.
Manilow song in the Downey kalafinakis movie, and tonight a Kenny Rogers song in Final Destination 5 tv spot. WTF is going on? Is this supposed to be HIP? Like is this META for meta sake? what 17 year old gets it? Is there anything to even get? marketing execs are so fucking idiotic.
Or, maybe they are the rare marketing people who don’t think pop culture is only 5 years old, forever.
i’m giving up on wilfred on fx … i just don’t find it funny. sorry lord of the rings dude and dog guy who talks all british like … sanj no likey.
but there is a few episodes of futurama that i really liked ..
whats missing from entourage is big stars doing crazy things …
arisp: Don’t fret — there are non-idiotic marketing execs who don’t use old songs in trailers. “Raise Your Glass” to them.
The Kenny Rogers song for Final Destination 5 had me laughing out loud. To each his own.
Unless I miscounted, 13 wide releases over the next 4 weekends (including this one). Smells like a bloodbath to me. Somebody is gonna get murdered.
Also, why do they keep pushing SHARK NIGHT 3D as also in 2D when this is the one movie you see ONLY BECAUSE IT’S IN 3D?? Who would see this in 2D aside from blind people and the unemployable? Cracks me up.
wilfred is a weird show. i never laugh but i’m morbidly curious how this all happened. when the show started i thought it was going to be dark. the lead character was suicidal, now he’s seeing this dog as a guy. but the jokes are so typical. it’s like watching a one camera cable sitcom that was written in the 1980’s. Throw in a live studio audience and this thing could have been airing on the TGIF block between Family Matters and Step by Step.
All this talk of marketing made me think of Bill Hicks.
“By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising…kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I’m doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan’s little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now.”
I followed the front-page link over to http://thehairpin.com/2011/08/scandals-of-classic-hollywood-rock-hudson-hollywoods-most-eligible-bachelor/ and was delighted to discover it’s like an all-female version of The Hot Blog. The comments are as good as the article; still trying to figure out who would be AlexandriaG–there are so many contenders!
Also surprised to see how many girls were told “Bedtime for Bonzo” by Daddy, who was trying to get them to sleep, and they’re just now discovering that Dad wasn’t as original as they thought.
some people might give wilfred a free pass cause the lord of the rings guy is in it …
DP – do you find wilfred funny ? are you doing a dp/30
with the cast ? which is like 3 people and it would take
like 2 hours to watch all the episodes . so it’s easy ..
On the other hand, LOUIE is out of control awesome this season! The Lex G inspired episode last night was unlike anything ever seen on TV….in a good way.
the louie episode ..
http://i.imgur.com/1dLde.jpg
louie is interesting …its his version of things … he doesn’t seem to copy anybody else and each episode has nothing to do with other episodes ..
louie dp/30 would be good ..
“not unlike Branagh taking a writing credit on his edit of the Hamlet script”
Actually, he didn’t want it; he thought it should simply be, “Written by William Shakespeare.” But the WGA insisted on a screenplay credit, so he reluctantly took it (and was subsequently even more embarrassed when he won an Oscar nomination for it).
watched superheros documentary hbo …. about a bunch of real superheros .
this should have been 30 minute doc on youtube but not
really worthy of hbo .
why didn’t hbo sponsor the The Greatest Movie Ever Sold instead of pom wonderful …
hey DP – where are the actor updates for the sundance dp/30’s 2011 … homework – devil’s double – like crazy
– little birds – don’t these smaller movies need
more promotion ? if other movie critics don’t care
you have the exclusive interviews ..
check out your dp/30 Jennifer Lawerence pictures on fan site..
http://j-lawrence.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=108
2 minute video about faces –
very cool…
http://vimeo.com/13856519
those old tv shows friends and seinfeld … super popular and award winning but no dp/30’s ..
what’s the deal DP ? 10 main actors – can’t get any of them ?
plus still waiting for dp/30 inside a mcdonalds / ikea and blockbuster ..
time for new BYOB …