April 24, 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
Nice to see The Descendants grab some more theaters from the Oscar noms – enabled me to see it a second time, and it’s still far and away my favorite film of 2011. Shame it didn’t nab more acting nods, as Shailene, Greer and Forster are all more than deserving as far as I’m concerned. Holds up beautifully the second time. Still calling it Payne’s best film.
When oh when are the Weinsteins going to pull the trigger and put The Artists in more theaters? I was certain they were waiting on this weekend to launch it on the Oscar nominations.
THE ARTIST is a lovely, affectionate film. The lead performance is fantastic, and the whole thing is just very pleasurable and basically a delight. I think it achieves what it sets out to do perfectly. (Also, how awesome is it that a black and white silent film is playing in multiplexes all around the country!?!)
Finally saw THE ARTIST the other night, and while I’m as thrilled as JKill that a B&W silent is getting such recognition and a fairly wide release, I was disappointed overall. I never quite got the character motivations, and thought the delightful stuff was mostly confined to a few sequences and bits (the dog was gold); it’s basically a drama with comic moments. Since the story straddles the end of the silent era and the early years of sound, I even thought the choice of technique was a bit of a muddle (I’d say the editing, art direction and cinematography nods are due to the bandwagon effect, and the script didn’t impress me). Can’t fault Dujardin and Bejo.
Would love to see someone take a chance on a full-out Chaplin, Keaton or Lloyd type comedy — if people are digging THE ARTIST, imagine what a truly hilarious silent comedy might do. I guess Bill Irwin has aged out of starring in such a thing, but I’m sure there’s someone out there who could nail it. Didn’t someone in a fairly recent Broadway play inspire comparisons to the great silent comedians?
The Grey is a masterpiece.
Wow — look at Haywire plummet…shame…great genre fun.
Nick I may just hit those two up for a doubleheader tomorrow. Psyched for both.
So we’re straight back in to the 3-4 new movies a week glut, now plus all the Oscar hopefuls going into wide release. Guess we’ll be seeing a whole lot of $25-$30 mil earners in and out of theaters within 2 weeks.
Yancy, I agree with you in the sense that while I love the movie, some of its nods don’t seem to make sense to me either, particularly editing and original screenplay. I was more impressed with 50/50, YOUNG ADULT, THE GUARD, THE FUTURE, MELANCHOLIA, TREE OF LIFE, CRAZY STUPID LOVE and BEGINNERS in the latter regard. I think the acting and the direction is where it shines.
I’m hearing great things about THE GREY. Should be seeing that one tomorrow. HAYWIRE rocks.
I’ve already seen two movies this year as bad as anything on my 2011 10-worst list–and neither one stars Katherine Heigl or has the word “devil” in the title.
Gotta say “One for the Money” wasn’t nearly as painful as I feared going in. (The relatively breezy 91-minute run time helped.)
Saw it in a packed house this afternoon (lots of seniors, even a smattering of wheelchairs), and the audience really seemed to dig it.
Don’t get me wrong. The film is negligible at best (indifferent direction/writing/lensing), but the premise–female bounty hunter has to take in the former flame who jilted her in high school–is serviceable enough, and the cast (especially “Rescue Me” alum Daniel Sunjato who impresses as a younger version of Dwayne Johnson, and Gavin-Keith Umeh–formerly of FX’s “Lights Out”–who could have a nice career as a heavy) do their job in pro fashion. (And Debbie Reynolds could give Betty White some competition for randy old granny roles if she really wants to get back into show business.)
Has everyone–myself included who pegged this as a non-starter a few weeks back–incorrectly discounted Heigl’s b.o. appeal once again?
Who knows? She just might have a nascent franchise in the Stephanie Plum character after all.
Heigl is DELIGHTFUL.
THE GREY is very good. Stay after the credits.
It’s baffling to me that OFTM wasn’t screened for critics – it seemed like a perfectly decent and occasionally mildly charming film. I can only assume the 4% RT meter at the moment is the result of critics who resent having to actually pay for a ticket now and then. It’s better than Man On A Ledge, at any rate.
Can anyone tell me if there are any lingering or lecherous shots of either Heigl’s ass, midriff, legs or bare feet? Or is it JEANS O’CLOCK for the entire movie?
I am trying to prioritize Hotness (Heigl) vs Mullet (Worthington) for my next movie outing.
Also how off-putting is that Jason O’Meara slob? From what I’ve seen of him on TV, he’s best handled in small doses; Not sure how that guy has a MOVIE LEAD and not the two guys he’s the bargain-basement cross between: Jeffrey Donovan and James Badge Dale.
One for the Money looks like DOG SHIT. Seriously. DOG SHIT. What discerning moviegoer would actually pay their own money to see that?
HEIGL.
Yes, Matthew, “OFTM” is definitely better than the dire, fatally dim “Man on a Ledge.”
****I’ve already seen two movies this year as bad as anything on my 2011 10-worst list–and neither one stars Katherine Heigl or has the word “devil” in the title.****
Lex- Heigl does some peek-a-boo nudity (similar to Diane Keaton’s bit in “Something’s Gotta Give”). But no fetishistic play is accorded any specific body parts. And O’Meara is relatively easy to take and certainly inoffensive–if lacking in any “why did he get this part over X,Y or Z?” charisma.
Actionman- I guess some moviegoers–pace Sally Field–really, really like Heigl. And they’re not all named “Lex G”, lol.
“The Grey” was pretty darn good. Judging from some of the reviews I read it seems (some) Critics were hoping to just see the “action” version of the film (Liam Neeson fighting wolves with broken bottles taped to his hands). It has that and more, much more. Moodily shot, the wolves are practically apparitions which adds to its almost supernatural sensibility. Each and every character spends the film anticipating death’s arrival (& it is a comin’ in one form or another). How each one manages that fear is the film.
Anyone want to guess what THE PHANTOM MENACE will do in 2 weeks? I actually think Lucas is an evil genius for releasing them in chronological order. They’re his movies and he’ll release ’em as he sees fit. Good for him.
I’m actually a fan of TPM. Jar Jar never bothered me. Jake Lloyd did. Fanboys can piss and moan all they want, but I suspect TPM will do very well.
I do expect TITANIC to do even better. All the girls who went repeatedly 15 years ago are all growns up. They may walk in wanting to laugh and mock, but the movie works. They’ll come out laughing at the fact they fell for it all over again.
I can’t wait.
I sorta noticed that about the TITANIC re-release trailer, which I’ve seen 900 times now: When it comes on, the dumb-ass audience is baffled, tittering and EVERY TIME some thuggish dude goes “What the FUCK????” (Kinda sad that the concept of theatrical rerelease is so 100% foreign to The Kids Today)…
But somehow I just KNOW that’s gonna be huge, for the above stated nostalgia reasons, and because as much as EVERYBODY likes to retroactively front like Titanic is some big mainstream piece of shit they hated all along, people loved that movie.
On a semi-related note, what is the difference between the LION KING 3D numbers and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? Seemed like the former cleaned up, but B&B is just doing kind of okay, unspectacular. I know fuck-all about cartoons, but seems odd one would make a ton and the next wouldn’t make much noise. Does that put something of a damper on that idea of rereleasing all their old classics in 3D?
I know nothing, haven’t seen any tracking, etc. but I just assume Titanic in 3D will make $100 million or something. Maybe that’s too high. I always bet big on Cameron.
Can’t wait to see Billy Zane’s locks-of-love rug in all its splendiferous 3D glory. That’s worth $30 million dollars in ticket sales alone.
Well with all the good words coming from this crowd-I might have to see “The Grey”. Still undecided about “Haywire”–the acting lineup looks good. And I know I will see “Titanic”. Sometimes you have to relieve a sentimental moment. There will be no plans to see SWTPM–I hated it so much that I didn’t come back for Clone Wars.
Yeah I hate Titanic with the fiery passion of a god. There’s no real way that I want to see that film ever again. TPM I will see for no other reason then being a SW fan. That being stated, fuck both of those movies making anywhere near 50m. Seriously, re-releases have their place in movie history and it’s cool to see an older film on the big screen again, but it’s bad for business for either one of these films to win the weekend or to out draw a new film in the market. Again, this is about any re-release, and Lion King doing it last year bothered me as well.
That aside, it seems like the Academy are going to go with a film that’s made about four dollars. Now, I know the Hurt Locker happened, but that had more to do with Cameron then anything else. Still, and I hate to state this, but picking Hurt Locker over Avatar or The Artist over the Descendants or Hugo is just shortsighted thinking. The Academy’s refusal to be populous is vexing, but The Aritst really does scream the STRAW that breaks the camel’s back.
I predicted a couple of weeks ago that OFTM would be lucky to do $40 million, and a $14 mill opening pretty much confirms that unless the WOM is spectacular, which I suspect won’t be (any CinemaScore yet?). The premise is just BOUNTY HUNTER with a gender switch (though of course the novel preceded both), and the old-people-talking-dirty gag peaked with Betty White in LAKE PLACID. I have a hunch Heigl smelled it coming, because she’s now talking about going back to GREY’S ANATOMY, which she certainly wouldn’t be doing if her movie career were still worth a tinker’s damn.
Mariamu…
Whatever your thoughts on the prequels, you’re only cheating yourself if you’re a Star Wars fan who isn’t watching The Clone Wars cartoon series. It’s really quite terrific, combining some pretty huge scale action with smaller-scale and occasionally introspective drama that the big blustery movies didn’t always have time for. Do yourself a favor and rent the first season. It really is in some ways the best of Star Wars all rolled up into one package.
I still like Heigl on screen, even if some of her off-screen behavior has been off-putting. Even something like KILLERS, which got horrible reviews, strikes me as being tolerable. By far the worst thing about it is the way it forces Heigl into that rom-com flibbertigibbet straight-jacket again. THE UGLY TRUTH was worse, but I still thought she gave a good performance, which is something of a miracle given the almost completely unlikable character she plays. She showed real star power in 27 DRESSES (probably her best vehicle so far), deftly mitigating the script’s rather muddled conception of her character.
I’m not particularly interested in ONE FOR THE MONEY, but the gf wants to see it, so that’s that. We somehow missed LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (fine by me), but she’s got it in the Netflix queue.
i kinda liked ‘life as we know it’, it’s sweet, and those two crazy kids are gonna make it!
by far the most bizarre thing about the SW prequels is that tem morrison and the wee boy what i can’t remember his name playing ‘the fetts’ have kiwi accents — not that i’m complaining, hearing it in mainstream movies is pretty rare (hopkins murdered it hilariously) esp instead of an austraaaaain is a refreshing change, but wtf? i’d love to pick lucas’ brain to hear the rationale on that one. i can kind of understand all the BBC accents as a universal tongue of sorts but what’s the backstory of the enzed brogues… they should do an entire new series of prequels just explaining that.
I’ll go out on a limb and say Temuera Morrison has a New Zealand accent in the movie because he’s from New Zealand.
no, really? who knew
I suspect the big difference between the box office of Lion King and BATB rereleases reflects the difference in their original box office. Beauty made some money, but Lion King was the biggest cartoon of all time.
Also there are some cartoons that are better fits for 3D. I would rather put on 3D specs to see Aladdin, Mulan, or Little Mermaid over Beauty & the Beast.
“I suspect the big difference between the box office of Lion King and BATB rereleases reflects the difference in their original box office. Beauty made some money, but Lion King was the biggest cartoon of all time.”
Bingo. Rerelease “Finding Nemo” in about 2 years and watch it take in at least $100m.
I have no recollection of there being some dropoff from one to the next– wasn’t Beauty and the Beast nominated for BEST PICTURE of something? Again, I don’t watch cartoons, but I would’ve guessed they were about equal in popularity, like STAR WARS VS EMPIRE, LOTR 1 vs LOTR 2, whatever; Like LION KING made 210 domestic and B&B made 205 domestic. So this 3D RERELEASE of Beauty should have matched LK TO THE PENNY.
IT IS SPOKEN
Lex: I think LION KING grossed about twice as much as B&B in their original domestic theatrical runs.
Yes, B&B got a Best Picture nod, the first for an animated film.
This is the longest of long shots but maybe IO knows:
If anyone on this MOTHERFUCKING PLANET can explain to me why 2006’s DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE was HBO’s hot premiere movie tonight in 2012, I would be greatly appreciative. WHAT THE HELL??? They’ve been pimping it for like a month, too, and they’re rerunning it all night– this old-ass shit from SIX YEARS AGO, where all the HOT leading ladies are all grandmas in real life now. OH LOOK IT’S JAIME PRESSLY IN 2006! WHAT?
Actually, the HBO premiere last night was Namath. They’ve been running that DOA movie on Cinemax and HBO since last November. It’s just one of those movies they are running from 5 years ago. Yes, it’s technically a 06 movie, but it didn’t come out until 07.
IO you will AGREE WITH ME and not nitpick, you will tell me WHY A FIVE YEAR OLD MOVIE got PREVIEWS AND HYPE on HBO in 2012.
now. NOW.
Seriously stop with the IO shit for no other reason than my god, that fucking nickname sucked ass. Let it go and stop reminding me of that shitty fucking nickname. I implore you.
That aside, HBO is weird, and they hype movies on HBO2 all the time. Again, last night the Saturday Night Premiere was the HBO SPORTS special on Joe Willie Namath.
JAIME PRESSLY was the only premiere in my pants I mean house.
@ThriceDamned
It won’t even be two years for Finding Nemo to get the 3D treatment, Disney’s releasing it this fall.
D.O.A. defines guilty pleasure.
http://www.movingpictureblog.com/2007/06/lol-at-doa.html
I saw DOA in a nearly empty theater (there was one older gentlemen by himself) with a few friends with when it came out. If I’m remembering correctly it was a Paul W.S. Anderson production, and it’s kinda like a lighter MORTAL KOMBAT but with an all-hot female cast.
Speaking of video game films, is there a single person out there who saw the TEKKEN movie that was apparently released straight to DVD? What is this thing? I saw it stocked in Blockbuster over the holidays, and was shocked that it even came out.
SPOILERS
The Grey is pretty good. I’m still chewing on it. Lots of stuff to like and admire. It’s a stunning movie to look at. Really impressive set pieces, particularly when Neeson first wakes up after the crash and walks over to the crash site. The attacks are well-staged and powerful. Typically kick ass work from the guys an KNB. The cast is good and performances strong. Some of the deaths are incredibly potent. Liked Mychael Danna’s music a lot. Couple of nitpicks. I didn’t find it to be as philosophical as some critics claim it is, and some of the dialogue is a tad unintentionally funny. I could have done without Dermot seeing his little girl and didn’t need to see Neeson’s wife 10 times. Laying it on a little heavy and not necessary. But it’s really stuck with me, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again in theaters.
So a piece of shit film like the Descendants gets an oscar push with more screens, but they can’t manage to do so for a great film and an instant classic like Hugo? 🙁
Yeah, Paul D, I found some of the philosophical/maudlin stuff to be a bit on-the-nose pretentious sentimental-Irish BS… but only a little. I did appreciate that it was a quite a bit more meditative than it looked from trailers, and that the other guys with Neeson were given stuff to do, even if a lot of it was talk about their wives or daughters or whatever. Good movie, though. Surely Carnahan’s best.
I agree that One for the Money wasn’t so awful that it makes sense to keep it from critics, and I feel like a lot of the bad RT score can be attributed to critics very rarely allowing themselves to enjoy something that wasn’t screened… that said, it really isn’t very good and has a supremely, weirdly lumpy first thirty minutes. Debbie Reynolds is doing some awful mugging, that Jason O’Mara dude is CHARMLESS, and it just isn’t funny or exciting enough to work the way it should. I will say. It’s the most I’ve liked Heigl in a movie in ages, though. Usually I find her wound-tight blond-type-A routine a bit off-putting (at least in New Year’s Eve and 27 Dresses; missed Ugly Truth and Life As We Know It). But she seemed to actually be having fun in this one. Love her in dark wavy hair, too. I see how this movie could’ve worked, but the Elmore Leonard Lite vibe isn’t really carried off with any aplomb or style or anything that would’ve made the movie actually good. But I doubt it’ll make my worst-of-year list.
Descendants > Hugo
Love them both though.
Yes, the score for THE GREY is outstanding, but it’s composed by Marc Streitenfeld.
Have to say Hugo and The Descendants claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on my 2011 Ten Best list.
Locke: HUGO came out fairly wide in November and is presumed to be played out (though in fact it’s not), plus 3-D screens are at a premium. DESCENDANTS, on the other hand, opened in limited release in December and is now widening for the first time.
Oh thanks Nick. You’re right. Danna did Moneyball, which I saw the night before. Loved both scores and got the composers mixed up.
I agree jesse. It’s a minor quibble. Didn’t bother me too much or prevent me from liking the movie a whole lot overall. The way it handles death is pretty interesting.
Regarding the poem often quoted in THE GREY, I find it interesting that the poster tagline reads “Live OR die on this day” and in the film it’s “Live AND die on this day.” Oh, the difference a conjunction can make in marketing.
Just came back from seeing Hugo in 3D — again. Respectable crowd for a Sunday evening show. Nice to hear a smattering of applause at the end.
As to the difference between the Lion King and Beatuy & The Beast – I have to think it has at least a little to do with home video availability. Lion King wasn’t released on Blu until weeks after the theatrical re-release. B&tB was released 3D Blu, the SAME WEEK as the theatrical run.