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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB: You’ll Neeee-verrrrr Blog Aaaaaa-LONE!

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48 Responses to “BYOB: You’ll Neeee-verrrrr Blog Aaaaaa-LONE!”

  1. movieman says:

    Yowza!
    “Oogieloves” did a whopping $47 per screen average on Wednesday in 2,000+ theaters.
    Is that some kind of record?
    Guess my fantasy of it emulating “Barney”‘s run 14 years ago was wildly off base, lol.

  2. Paul D/Stella says:

    Ebert gives 3.5 stars to The Possession. Anyone else see it yet?

  3. sanj says:

    an intereting way to look for music – which i found…

    when you don’t know the lyrics to a song but know the other parts .

    good example – but there’s like 4 other popular songs with the do do do …or la la la

    do do do do do do do do do song – which is kids by mgmt

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TKZYG-_cpo

    other popular do do do song is Suzanne Vega Tom’s Diner

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLP6QluMlrg&feature=related

    there’s so much media out there – do you ever forget full titles to media – songs / movies / tv shows ?

  4. sanj says:

    for those who like politics – 5 minute video by Michael Moore who has his own predictions for who might win the election and the reasons behind it .

    Michael Moore: Get Used To Phrase “President Romney”

  5. movieman says:

    I just read that Summit has decided–at the proverbial last minute–to open “Cold Light of Day” wide-ish next Friday after all. That is if 1,500 screens can be considered “wide” in a day and age when 3,000+ screens is the norm.
    Considering the dearth of advertising, and the fact that “Day” has flown completely under the radar until now, can it even hope to crack a $1.5-million opening weekend? Hasn’t it already opened–and flopped–overseas? Wouldn’t a direct-to-dvd release have been more merciful at this point?
    I know Summit has bigger fish to fry (a little something with the word “Twilight” in the title that’s coming up in November), but is this any way to run a business?
    And Summit appears to be bungling the release of their upcoming “Perks of a Wallflower,” too, by giving it a completely misguided, “It’s Kind of a Funny Story”-style platform/arthouse release.

  6. sanj says:

    Cold Light of Day hits BluRay in UK for Sept 10 2012 .

  7. LYT says:

    Thankfully, Michael Moore’s election predictions are usually wrong.

    How about that Clint and Invisible Obama?

  8. hcat says:

    Christ, I felt terrible watching Clint tonight. Just looked awkward and unrehearsed. Any star power he was bringin to the proceedings was just lost.

    Hope this doesn’t tarnish him in people’s eyes at all. I was looking forward to Curve and whatever he has planned next.

  9. LYT says:

    I think he killed his Oscar chances, regardless of how good his movie is.

  10. spassky says:

    Yeah Clint looked like a Ffffffffool

  11. dinovelvet says:

    I can see why they’re taking a shot with Cold light of day, nobody else has moved in on that weekend since Gangster Squad moved out, and that Bradley Cooper plagiarism movie isn’t exactly going to cram the multiplexes. Guess they figured with Bruce Willis and Future Superman they might be able to squeeze out a quick $20 million run?

  12. Paul D/Stella says:

    I think the trailer killed Trouble With the Curve’s Oscar chances. And why would speaking at the GOP convention harm his Oscar chances? The Academy loves him and he’s been a Republican for decades. Even if the speech was full-on crazy, if the movie and Clint are great, the Academy probably wouldn’t dismiss it/him. He wouldn’t be the first crazy person on that stage.

  13. Krillian says:

    “Why would speaking at the GOP convention harm his Oscar chances?”

    Because a section of voters are Mean Girls? Actually I don’t think it’s a big enough section, but once I saw the trailer I figured it was out.

    Glad the RNC is over. Now next week on my Twitter feed, hopefully my Hollywood peeps can turn their bile into rainbows and sunshine.

  14. sanj says:

    watched the Clint Eastwood empty chair speech –

    if he adds another 30 minutes – it can totally work as a 1 man play

    his whole point was mostly about jobs …so does Clint think that if Romney gets in – everybody eill magically get jobs ?

    i’m more impressed with local people in government – my local mayor said he’d outsource garbage collection to a private company and he did.

  15. Paul D/Stella says:

    And is your garbage collected more thoroughly now? Were the previous garbage collectors incompetent?

  16. sanj says:

    the garbage collection issue was mostly about saving money through outsourcing … possibly saving millions of dollars.

    the process moved quite fast – the first week had problems with collection but the private company had to pick up from over 100,000 homes plus they have to do it within a certain time.

    if a major city like NYC or LA had a garbage strike for 2 weeks and garbage was piling up on the streets – it the local mayors who have the power to do something about it – the president isn’t going to fly in and collect the garbage himself…

    local mayors have some power – it that we don’t see that in the national news all the time. more focus is put on the big issues that the president has power over ..

    DP should be president of the oscar academy …probably would be easy for DP .

  17. sanj says:

    Dan Rather reviews the newsroom – quick video –

    he gives it 6 stars out of 5 .

  18. Joshua/CaptainZahn says:

    Any thoughts on the teaser for The Girl? Will the details of Hitchcock’s sexual harrassment of Tippi Hedren hurt his legacy, or just encourage further discussion of his films?

    http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/watch-sienna-miller-as-tippi-hedren-and-toby-jones-as-alfred-hitchcock-in-two-teasers-for-hbos-the-girl

  19. sanj says:

    watched little birds dp/30 2012 …

    good stuff = director talked about his personal problems – talked about reviews that weren’t so great

    bad stuff – i liked the older sundance dp/30’s way better..Kay Panabaker didn’t talk all that much … i mean for 10 full minutes….she seemed pretty bored at the end. i don’t see her coming back for more dp/30’s ..

    the weird – all this talk about how Juno loves the director …maybe they should marry each other…
    there aren’t that many people who talk about each other in this way for an interview.

  20. samguy says:

    Last week – if anyone noticed I called “To Rome With Love” “When In Rome” – and I’m decades younger than Clint.

    But then a friend of mine is convinced that I’m actually Steven K, so let him worry about it.

  21. sanj says:

    its the 4th Resident Evi movie for Milla Jovovich –

    it sucks cause i figure DP thinks these movies are silly and not worthy of a dp/30 .

    let to those guys from hitfix / aint it cool news take care of the interviews

    is there nothing she can do to impress DP for a dp.30… DP isn’t going around chasing her for an interview ..

    Milla could have had a few oscar nominations by now and just wasn’t lucky ..and therefore not worthy of a dp/30. movie awards are super super important in getting noticed by DP .

    with some actors i wonder if its personal on their part or DP just will never interview them ever…like Rachel McAdams – Lindsay Lohan – Amber Heard …Bruce Willis .
    Huge Jackman – Adam Sandler – Quentin Tarantino – all these people have been at it for 10 + years – the list is huge.

    it took forever to get Dane Cook for dp30 and i thought that was one of the worst interviews ever.

    DP should do every interview in front of that huge hollywood sign.

    also DP – if you do 3 dp30 with the same person – how do you not become friends …

  22. samguy says:

    I just realized what made my reaction to Clint’s stint so relatively visceral (sic?) for me on Facebook today is the tarnish that is his wife’s reality show that tarnished his legend earlier this year. What is/was he thinking? In fact, until last night he seemed like one of the few sane voices coming from the right thanks to his socially liberal views (pro-marriage equality, pro-choice, etc.).

    Yet last night, he cast his lot and decided to add Performance Artist to his already lengthy list of talents but as Brokaw said, there was a few words too many. Sad.

  23. Spass says:

    “DP should do every interview in front of that huge hollywood sign.”
    -sanj

    While i often feel like sanj is an undercover insider (but, you know, i always think the crustpunks begging for money on the bypass in my town are just upenn sociology students) i think he has a point. I would love for you to do a q&a in front of an audience. While I don’t think that you should necessarily interview people in front of the Hollywood sign, I would like to see you interview them in front of perhaps popular landmarks that they can relate to ( for example, drive cast or nic at the 101 cafe– dont ask for bridget, i love her).l I know you have limited time and access, but honestly, i miss super friends and want you to engage “nobodies” as much as you engage “celebrities”. Of course you do that (for some reason im thinking the cedar footnot dp30 which i very much enjoyed) but i like your video ; i like your questions. This is the first brownout hotblog post i ever made, but frankly i dont care– i enjoy ghe dp30s very much (maybe not as much as sanj) but i would love for you to perhaps post some more casual interviews.

    And, of course, i hold you in high regard and only want to seee more of that holydp30. Only respect. Whoever doesnt or is incredulous towards their rrlevancy, take a peak at the spike and k-friedkin-c dp30s.

    Luv you boo,
    Jebedia

  24. Chucky says:

    I thought for a moment DP had become a supporter of Liverpool Football Club. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is sung before and after every Liverpool home match.

    @PaulD/Stella: NBC ran a commercial for “Trouble with the Curve” during the Panthers-Jets preseason NFL game last Sunday. Warner Bros. turned a potential hit into one more piece of routine product — and that was before Eastwood spoke to the Republican National Convention.

    @dinovelvet: “The Words” got moved up to next weekend when “Gangster Squad” was moved back.

  25. cadavra says:

    Yikes! I just now found out Tsui Hark’s FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE is currently playing a one-week run in FauxMax! Way to get the word out, guys!

  26. sanj says:

    undercover insider and performance artist is what i’ve been called and yet i’m a nobody ..LexG is more of a somebody than i am .

    i watch more dp/30’s than most people and actually give comments. its easy they are only 30 minutes – anybody can watch these things.

    i’ve probaby requested 25 dp/30’s this year – mostly new people who haven’t done any berfore ..and none have come true. so i have no power. it’s too bad cause there’s a bunch of tv series that go away fast – either they end or get cancelled – and who knows when the actors are going to be in something bigger that would even get DP attention.

    DP missed out some huge summer blockbuster movies … at least 5 directors and 50 + actors … DP went in for the small indie movies.

    i haven’t seen any dp/30’s in front of that huge hollywood sign ever …. its big . it’s there. how hard can it be to film there ..or more outside locations.

    DP should cut out the best parts of interviews and put those up . it might get more people to watch the entire thing.

    DP needs to give out coupons – get 1 DP/30 – get 1 free coupons…valid 3 months after your first dp/30.

  27. sanj says:

    one of those jewellery robbery movies – the silly masks and the music ….

    Comes a Bright Day (2012) Trailer – Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots

  28. sanj says:

    chicks do like chick flicks…

    Emma Roberts ‏@RobertsEmma

    Just watched The Lucky One. So good!! I’m such a sucker for Nicholas Sparks.

  29. SamLowry says:

    Red band trailer for The To Do List, which didn’t make much sense to me until I read the intro:

    “Starring Aubrey Plaza, THE TO DO LIST follows the story of Brandy Klark (Plaza), a Type-A, overachiever who comes up with a “to-do list” featuring all the risqué extra-curricular activities she missed out on in high school and wants to complete before college.”

    “Before college”? Ms. Plaza sure is hot in this, but she’s ten years older than the character she’s playing.

  30. sanj says:

    ep daily is going to air daily in the US … check local listings. 30 minute show – mostly about video games but
    they cover a lot of movies too…

    i’ve been watching for this show for years … it’s nice to see a g4 tv show jump to mainstream tv .

    Victor and Scott do around 4 movie reviews a week – not a lot but they review way more video games…

  31. Triple Option says:

    I used to love to watch the MDA Telethon as a kid. I’d even call and pledge money. Haven’t tuned in in YEARS. I wonder what kind of money they pull in now. I have no idea what it was in those days. It all seemed like such a huge event. Obviously it was but with advertising and in-store displays and celebs involved, it seemed like the focal point of the holiday w/e.

    I’m such not a fan of the red band trailers. The trailers already show too much of a movie, these only give away more of the best points. Then you drop $40 on the date, feel the movie/experience was grossly unsatisfactory because you had all best parts revealed to you and then it’s one more person who doesn’t feel going to the movies is worth it. I don’t know there’s any way to measure the cause of audience erosion, but I’d think overall industry health would be a greater buzz word beyond boxoffice slump.

  32. Joe Leydon says:

    Triple Option: The kinda sad thing is, for most folks below a certain age, Jerry Lewis was the MDA Teleton host — and that was it. And now he’s not even that. Sort of like Elizabeth Taylor. I think we’d all be bummed out if we knew just how many people are familiar with her only as the huckster in TV commercials for perfume.

  33. sanj says:

    early buzz for james bond skyfall – looking good. 3 hours long ???

    may contain some spoilers .

  34. sanj says:

    revolution nbc tv series – first episode is up on hulu

    lights go out on earth – 15 years later society has turned into a western with horses..

    you can watch it on tv in a few weeks…lots of promotion for this tv series

    here’s a review

  35. cadavra says:

    Celebrated my b-day today by catching the new Tsui Hark epic, FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE, in FauxMax 3-D. Even by Tsui’s already extreme standards, it’s utterly deranged, and while he overdoes the CGI–and piles on so many characters that you really do need a scorecard–but it’s still balls-out, mad-shrieking fun, the kind of action film that the majors still aspire to and usually fail utterly. And as always, the dames more than hold their own with the dudes.

    TSUI POWER. BOW.

  36. sanj says:

    cadavra – nice you like it – i checked out trailer at least – no idea who anybody really is ..actors / directors.
    you should put in a request for a dp/30 with DP .
    DP actually does interviews with international directors / actors…

    also – new tv season starts in 2 weeks – will there be a box office decline … primetime has lots of new shows … people won’t go out for movies on the weekend. which will wreck the box office charts.

  37. sanj says:

    spring breakers movie looks interesting but i doubt Selena Gomez – Vanessa Hudgens will do anything risky enough to offend their fan base….the other actors might do something.

    so a lot of reviews will say that – why were those 2 even in the movie.

    also Selena Gomez is too famous for a dp/30.

  38. sanj says:

    watched – DP/30: Hello I Must Be Going, actor Melanie Lynskey

    Melanie was funny at parts – she’s pretty shy at times –
    she talked about film critics – “I love Glenn Kenny even though he’s so grumpy ”

    by the end of the interview – DP kept going on how amazing she was at some film festival and she’g going to be Adam Sandler’s ex-wife in a movie …which DP just made up to make her laugh … DP just seems to be a huge fan … so she’ll be back.

    but i didn’t learn a whole lot about the movie itself …
    – it needed the rest of the cast – so 6.5/ 10 .

  39. sanj says:

    Chris Stuckmann is still doing lots of movie reviews … he’s happy he got accepted by rotten tomotoes so they could
    use his review score ..

    most of his movie reviews are under 10 minutes ..

    check a few – maybe you’ll like them…

  40. SamLowry says:

    So after crapping all over England during the opening ceremony of the Olympics because they’d rather show interviews, NBC decides to skip the 9/11 moment of silence to talk to Kris Jenner about her boobs.

    So when is somebody getting fired?

    They must’ve realized they screwed it big time because they put the moment into their West Coast broadcast. Plus: “The network’s local affiliate WNBC-4, moreover, cut the “Today” show to air its self-produced special coverage to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attack”.

    Wow. Maybe they should replace Robert Greenblatt with whoever it was at WNBC that said “screw you” to their owner.

  41. sanj says:

    watched guys with kids – nbc – 3 guys deal with their babies and wacky sitcom stuff ..

    – only reason i even watched cause Jimmy Fallon is part of it – producter / writer

    – laugh track every 30 seconds

    – average writing – average music – just average

    – this belongs as a cheap web series

    – nbs is failing to bring out the funny …. i want Bill Cosby to yell at nbc for screwing up .

    – won’t be surprised if nbc is last in ratings .

    – its interesting to see actors in the show who have twitter – will they actually read any of the bad reviews
    the show is getting …

  42. SamLowry says:

    Looks like Cynthia Mort’s planned film “Nina” is a tightly-wrapped package of cluelessness:

    “According to Ms. Mort, who is white, the film was not intended to be a biography in the strict sense, but instead ‘a love story about an artist’s journey unto herself,’ she said.”

    So it’s not really about Nina Simone–she could’ve cast an Asian to play “an artist” if she really wanted, let alone a light-skinned black woman. And yet…

    “Ms. Mort said that she was still in the process of confirming whether Ms. Saldana would play Simone. David Oyelowo will play Simone’s companion and love interest, a composite character based on Simone’s manager and caretaker, Clifton Henderson.”

    But, according to Simone’s daughter, “Clifton Henderson was gay. He was not attracted to women. So, the truth is … Nina Simone and Clifton Henderson NEVER had a relationship other than a business one.”

    That should be a fun movie!

    (Simone’s daughter also said, in reference to the casting of Zoe Saldana, “Appearance-wise this is not the best choice.”)

    Oh, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic, adds “this casting (with no shot taken at Saldana) manages to both erase the specific kind of racism Simone contended with and at the same time empower it. The fact is that if you were making records in Simone’s era (and even now) meeting conventional white beauty standards was a barrier. Casting Simone in high yaller not only erases that history but it effectively perpetuates it. And perhaps most importantly, it actually shrinks Simone’s story.

    “I suspect that what’s happening here is that they want a ‘name’ to play Simone. In that sense, what we’re seeing here is something more systemic.”

    In other words, if you can’t make a movie about Nina Simone with a dark-skinned actress, then the racists have won.

  43. SamLowry says:

    P.S. If you’re wondering just how hard it is to make a movie centered on a black woman, I present to you an entry from the TV Tropes topic Race Lift:

    “The movie Stuck was based on the horrific incident of Chante Mallard hitting a homeless man with her car, and leaving him to die trapped in her windshield. The movie casts white Mena Suvari as Chante, despite Chante being African-American. What’s worse is that they give her cornrows in order portray her better. You could say that this is a case of Political Correctness Gone Mad as to not portray a black woman in a negative light, but cornrows?!”

    Aaaand here’s what they look like on her, even though she’s trying to play a woman who looks like this. Notice any cornrows? I’m guessing there never were any, but boy on Suvari they sure do convince you that she could pass for an overweight middle-aged black woman.

    Or, as Cracked put it, “Money. Once again, it’s money. To get white people in the theater seats, the story has to revolve around white people…Stuck, a movie about an African-American woman who is convicted of murder, had to cast a white woman in the lead role to get financed because, as one casting director pointed out, ‘It’s about getting the movie done. Everyone is looking to make their money back.’ And as we already covered, black actresses don’t bring in money. Giving white actresses cornrows, on the other hand, apparently will.”

  44. cadavra says:

    You wanna make a movie about Nina Simone you get Loretta Devine, or at least Queen Latifah.

  45. Yancy Skancy says:

    cad: Really? Pics and footage of Simone don’t suggest to me that she was particularly “big-boned.” Maybe recently slimmed-down Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson? (The acting might be a problem for her though.)

  46. cadavra says:

    Well, Charlie Parker was never as heavy as Forest Whitaker, either. Yes, both are a bit larger than Simone at her heaviest, but they could reduce a bit if need be, and for a woman as dynamic as Nina, the chops take precedence over the look.

The Hot Blog

Quote Unquotesee all »

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