April 26, 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” ā 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 ā 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 ā he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā I was with her at that moment ā 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 namedā” “Yeah, sure ā 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 Iām on the phone with you now, after all thatās 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 didnāt seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereās not a case of that. He wasnāt using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā if that were what the accusation involved ā 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. Iām not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, āYou know, itās not this, itās thatā? Because ā let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatās what it lacked. Thatās 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
I keep coming across the Wolf of Wall Street trailer and it just does not sit right with me. Not to second guess the great Scorsese but is it really a tale of pride before the fall if the guy gets to sell his story for a huge price and then be played by Leo in the movie? Now his business partner who didn’t get a dime for the book or movie deal and is played by Jonah Hill thats the cautionary tale, but what will likely be two hours of fratboy consumption porn followed by Leo sweating it out for twenty minutes of interrogation doesn’t seem to make the statement that I think they were trying to make.
My simple proposal would be to take some artistic liscence and add a lot of animal fucking. During one of the big office shindigs that make up a significant part of the trailer Leo bursts out of his office naked with a screaming duck on his cock. Have him being humped by some mule while making his trades, anything that will prevent this smug asshole from looking like some sort of Beautiful God while watching it with his friends. Get a voiceover at the end describing him as a degenerate who engaged in necropheliac beastiality who his partners kept associating with because he made them a ton of money. That would be a form of meta commupence, and that can be the statement on the current state of capitalism.
Interesting perspective, and I’m not sure how much of that to take seriously, but isn’t it a bit of a presumption to suppose that the moral purpose of the film is to say “Unchecked greed and debauchery destroys the soul”? Maybe it’s “Unchecked green and debauchery destroys the soul, but even then you get to come out of it with a movie deal”?
I mean basically you’re saying you think the theme of the film is flawed before we even know what the theme is. You’re probably pretty close, but it’s not the overarching statement that makes a Scorsese (or indeed any) film great but the wrinkles and complexities and exceptions in the expression of it.
You are right that this is all speculation about the arc of the movie and it could have a left turn in there for us, though I am not sure that his heavy catholic streak will let him make a movie where there is no dramatic price for the sins of the protagonist. And even if it goes exactly as I think it will the movie will make an interesting comparision to Goodfellas as an ‘and this is how the WASP’s pillage and steal’ companion piece.
But for some reason I just picture the schmuck this movie is about seeing himself as some Jesse James figure immortalized on the big screen in all his glorious excess and that the crash was simply a small price to pay for his glory, and that having the film instead make him a laughing stock would be a more fitting ending to the tale than the third act of the film.
Upheaval at Pixar. Apparently THE GOOD DINOSAUR was so bad off that not only did they remove the director, they pushed the movie back a year and a half. To make matters worse, they pushed FINDING DORY back another half year. So 2014 will be the first year since 2005 without a Pixar film š It also means a six year span with just one original movie from the studio.
Disney also moved MALEFICENT up to Memorial Day to fill the gap in what’s become suddenly a very weak summer slate.
The tired Pixar brand taking a year off? Boo hoo.
Miyazaki is taking FOREVER off. Let’s mourn that for a while longer because no one at Pixar will ever come near the majesty of his best work.
I don’t think that’s “upheaval,” I think that’s taking time to get it right. I admire them for not being beholden to a release date like so many movies are….hell, almost every tentpole pic is beholden to a date instead of quality. Pixar needs to get back on track too so I don’t see how this is anything but a positive.
@lazarus, are we allowed to mourn both? Besides, Miyazaki’s last great film was almost a decade ago. From what I’ve read, “The Wind Rises” is a lot closer to his son’s admirable but far from great “Up From Poppy Hill.”
Yeah Don, I’m glad they’re waiting too, but I think anytime you pull a director off a $200 million movie less than 9 months before release, and shuffle your summer schedule in a way that affects not only Disney but other studios it’s a big deal. “Finding Dory” is now scheduled to go head-to-head with “How to Train Your Dragon 3.” Who blinks in that one if “Dragon 2” is a hit, and since the film now essentially has the entire summer to itself (big contrast from this summer, no?), it’s sure to be massive.
Side note: I hope “The Congress” gets a limited run this year. Perfect (aka WEAK) year for something like that to win. If not, an Oscar capstone for Miyazaki would be great.
Well, they could just slap the Pixar label on PLANES 2. No one could tell the difference, not that there’s much of one any more.
You guys still watch GoBots and Teletubbies too?
Have never seen a single Pixar movie, never would, never will, would walk right the fuck out of the screening if I saw some CARTOON on a movie theater screen. UNREAL that you GROWN MEN watch ‘toons.
Haven’t seen Poppy Hill, but The Wind Rises is great. Not Spirited Away great, but better than his last couple films, certainly.
Off topic, but has anyone here seen In a World? Trying to decide whether I should bother seeing it…
Lex, I watch cartoons every now and then. Not a TON, but I’ve seen some. I also get laid!
Hcat, this is the difference between you and a great director…you’re trying to force the movie into being a preachy movie with an agenda. We gotta get this guy! Make him a laughing stock! But the way a guy like Scorsese may do it would be more interesting…see how this happens, why it happens.
Ouch, cadavra. Even if you didn’t like BRAVE, which I loved, I figured the masterful Pixar shorts, where they’ve never faltered, to be right up your alley.
Smith, you think Wind Rises is better than Howl’s Moving Castle? Im skeptical…
Lex, Twilight is more of a cartoon than anything non-Cars that Pixar’s released.
Lex, actually, taking a date to a Pixar movie is a sure way to get laid. Women love Pixar movies…it releases some kind of good tingly feelings stuff…and they always put out afterwards.
That’s why I went to see Cars 2 five times with five different women.
Etguild – Yes, I think The Wind Rises is easily the better film – more ambitious, complex, emotionally satisfying and personal – and as visually stunning as anything Miyazaki’s ever done. Howl’s is a good movie, but it’s always struck me as an impassioned muddle, and for all the parts of it that I like there are long passages that just make me want to hide under the couch (TM Lex).
Smith- I found “In a World” underwhelming overall.
Bell doesn’t do nearly enough w/ the insular H’wood voiceover community where the film is set, and she didn’t even bother writing dimensional male roles. (Maybe that’s her revenge for the way female roles are traditionally undernourished in Hollywood movies.)
It felt semi-realized at best.
Not an unpleasant sit, but it didn’t–pardon the pun–rock my world.
Thanks, movieman – that’s pretty much what I feared. Think I’ll skip it for now. Still need to catch The Grandmaster and Short Term 12 before they leave theaters, anyway.
ET: No, I loved BRAVE. In fact, to me it’s the first Pixar feature since RATATOUILLE that didn’t have Disney’s fingerprints all over it. (And I hasten to add that my remark was indeed directed at features; the shorts are in a class by themselves, and PAPERMAN is one of the finest short animations in eons of your Earth years.)
Lex, a true movie buff, which you claim to be, does not reject an entire art form sight unseen. Give SPIRITED AWAY a shot, since it’s pretty close to your wheelhouse. If you can honestly say you didn’t like it, then I for one will shut up on this topic henceforth. And if you don’t want to deal with subtitles, then try THE INCREDIBLES. It’s a lot more realistic than most live-action superhero movies.
“The Grandmaster” is a definite big screen must-see, Smith.
Can’t vouch for “Short Term 12” (it never opened anywhere near me), but crix I trust loved it. And Brie Larson–who steals “Don John” with a, uh, minimum of dialogue–totally rocks.
I think Bell may have benefited from the same sexism-masquerading-as-enlightened attitude (“Gee, an attractive young-ish woman can actually write/direct a movie!”) that resulted in Sarah Polley’s three films being so egregiously overrated, especially by male critics like A.O. Scott.
Whoops!
Make that, “Don Jon.”
I haven’t seen “Stories We Tell,” and didn’t care for “Take This Waltz,” but “Away From Her” egregiously overrated? For family of those with Alzheimer’s it was pretty much the first non-maudlin, realistic and powerful feature take on how the disease changes interaction….as much as I respect and commend “Amour,” it didn’t hit me as hard as “Away From Her.”
Saw Grandmaster earlier tonight. Definitely a must see big screen experience, though it does feel truncated, dumbed down, and often plain lifeless when Zhang Ziyi isn’t onscreen. The second half features some gloriously transcendent filmmaking, though, and Zhang is phenomenal.
Away from Her is all of the things Etguild says, but for me it falls into the category that Billy Wilder once described as “classy, but boring.” I quite liked Take This Waltz, though, and Stories We Tell is an interesting, if only half thought out, essay doc. I guess I’d agree that Polley has been somewhat overrated thus far in her directorial career, but I think she’s quite talented and has a lot of potential.
The 130-minute China edition has major emphasis on Zhang YiYi and “The Razor”: that version could have been called THREE GRANDMASTERS.
Oy, please. Another artsy-fartsy mess from Wong Kar-Wai. I knew it was gonna be trouble from the very outset, when he opens with a slo-mo shot of rain pounding the pavement. Because it’s not about the characters or the story or the history, it’s about the fucking rain, or any other thing he can train his camera on instead of what we’re supposed to be watching: the characters, though since all of them declaim instead of speaking, maybe it’s just as well. And casting the middle-aged and slight Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Ip Man makes about as much sense as Jon Stewart as Batman. This is no different than CROUCHING TIGER and HERO, which were sold as “art” to a US public ignorant of what a real martial arts film is like. I’ll stick with the Donnie Yen films, thank you, and the third IP MAN film (now with Anthony Wong) opens tomorrow; I trust it’ll clean the taste of this pretentious rubbish out of my mouth.
I meant “THREE GRANDMASTERS” as the fact the three characters in that edit have equal weight, Cadavra. Not comparing to another film. Makes something different of the material than the reduced cut.
Et- Of Polley’s three films, the only one that made any real impression on me at all was “Waltz,” and mostly because of Seth Rogen’s heartbreaking performance.
I adore Julie Christie and she was, of course, fine in “Away.” But the lead actor sounded like he was doing voiceover work for a catheter commercial, and the whole think positively reeked of “Canadian”-ness for me.
Although elegantly shot, “Stories” is pretty much self-indulgent navel-gazing.
Yeah, I think her first three films have been wildly overrated. (A.O. Scott clearly has a schoolboy crush on her: I wonder if his wife is jealous, lol.)
Hmm, fair enough I suppose. Maybe I’m just giving her points for tackling subject matter that no one else major has in a serious way, but I don’t recall Pinston(?) being bad at all.
Speaking of A.O. Scott going overboard, saw “What Maisie Knew” last night. Did I watch the same movie as the critics? Henry James must be spinning in his grave…overwrought, with a scenery demolishing performance by Julianne Moore, and behavior by her and Coogan that frequently crossed the line from “outrageous” to “fantastical.” I do give props to Alexander Skarsgard, who played against type beautifully here, and the casting of Maisie was spot on, avoiding the precocious child trend in favor of heartbreaking realism….but overall, yikes.
Did you just complain that a Canadian movie feels Canadian to you?
“Away from Her” is pretty damn Canadian.
Ray, I was addressing movieman and Smith. And frankly, an additional 22″ of Wong’s airless noodling doesn’t strike me as being an improvement.
Fair enough. The film’s actually severely restructured, but enough about that for now.
Yeah, Sam.
“Canadian” as an adjective/state of being versus mere country of origin.
A sort of overweening, suffocating political correctness infused with plenty of “eh”s, lol.
(Look up “Canadian Actor” in the dictionary and you’ll probably find a photo of Gordon Pinsent.)
I think we may have seen two different films, Et.
I adored “What Maisie Knew:” thought it was pretty much pitch-perfect throughout, and easily the best film to date by McGehee and Siegel whose ouevre I’ve always considered a tad overrated (“Deep End,” “Suture”) or flat-out terrible (“Bee Season,” that barely released Joseph Gordon Levitt clunker whose name I’m totally blanking on).
I don’t know movieman, the situations were so completely unrealistic that they ruined it for me. We’re expected to believe that Moore’s obsessively protective of Maisie for the sake of sticking it to Coogan’s character, and is insanely jealous every time another character pays Maisie any mind, but we’re also expected to believe she serially places Maisie in situations that should result in an immediate stripping of parental rights? That Maisie would never repeat any of these instances to daddy or her teacher? That Coogan would go to the trouble of marrying a woman to retain joint custody, but weeks later abandon Maisie for good in the care of a doorman. That Coogan, who plays a loaded Upper East Side art dealer, and Moore, who plays a touring rock artist, would not take a couple hours to arrange a decent nanny, but would instead BOTH get married for Maisie’s sake, and then immediately say “forget it, I’d rather neglect my child half a dozen times on screen rather than allow my new spouse to be near my daughter?” The final straw, which is patently absurd, but is glossed over by the strong supporting performances, is that Margot would appear out of nowhere to suddenly take Maisie to an up-for-sale beach house…and Moore and Coogan, who hate and are divorcing her respectively, are totally cool with this!
Ugh, it just enraged me, and I’ve now seen so many over-the-top Julianne Moore performances she makes me either cringe or burst out laughing more often than not.
Looks like Insidious 2 wont even make it to The Purge`s $64m. The record for worst total gross after a $40m opening weekend is Friday 13th (2009) which made about $65m total. Thus far Insidious 2 is about $1m behind that after 6 days. Wow.
It worked for me as a mood piece, Et.
I went w/ the occasional “WTF?” plot developments (which you did a great job of itemizing btw, lol) because I was so emotionally invested in Maisie’s plight. (“Emotional investment” of any kind has been conspicuously absent from McGehee and Siegel’s films to date. For that reason alone it’s a huge leap from their earlier work.)
And I’ve rarely seen tony Manhattan environs-and its denizens-depicted so flawlessly. The film does a spectacular job of establishing its milieu.
I thought Moore was perfectly fine (liked her in spring’s “English Teacher,” too), but her best 2013 screen work–so far anyway; haven’t seen “Carrie 2.0” yet–is in “Don Jon.” Like Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Family,” she reminds you how great she’s capable of being in the right vehicle/role.
“Maisie” truly belongs to the kid, Sarsgaard and the beautiful young actress who plays Margot, though.
Haha, yes, perhaps I went a bit overboard…it was one of those things where I liked the elements you mentioned so much (aside from Moore), that the situational scenarios truly made me upset.
So, Illumination Entertainment is the 2nd major animation studio in 2 days to announce major delays, pushing MINIONS back to summer 2014, and their next project back to 2016.
Fox has to be delighted…Dreamworks and Blue Sky pretty much have 2014 all to themselves, with the LEGO movie, BOXTROLLS movie, PLANES 2, and the Marvel adaptation BIG HERO 6 the only other major projects of note currently.
Isn’t it likely they are pushing it back to take advantage of the newly opened real estate? I would think the Pixar announcement give them all some needed breathing room. As this summer demonstrated there is just two much of this product in the market.
And just a quick poll, do people think that Brukheimer is going to land at another studio or just bounce between a few of them depending on which of his franchises they are going to sequalize? I’ve never been a huge fan of his but am curious about what he might do next after being released from the Disney PG-13 noose he’s been in for so long.
I don’t think that’s the case. Neither project was scheduled to open anywhere near the Pixar movies or Maleficent, and the new dates are nowhere near where those films were or landed either. Actually it puts MINIONS closer to a Pixar movie (just 3 weeks after Pete Doctor’s INSIDE OUT)
July 2015 is now perhaps the most overcrowded month in film history (Batman v. Superman, Terminator, Independence Day 2, Minions, Ant-Man, Tim Burton’s new film, Smurfs 3, if it happens).
Smart move for the Minions, away from Annie, Night at the Museum, Tomorrowland and the last Hobbit – all of which will compete for family $$.
The nanny in WHAT MAISIE KNEW is played by Joanna Vanderham, and she is wonderful. SkarsgĆ„rd and the little girl are great, too. I agree with some of the general criticisms of the film, but I got involved enough to brush most of them aside. The only other film I’ve seen by the directors is THE DEEP END, and I agree with movieman that it was a disappointment (especially as a remake of the far superior THE RECKLESS MOMENT).
“Yes, Iāll be interrupting my vacation and live-snarking the small screen awards starting Sunday at 5:00 PM PT. But ONLY because the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was hoping I wouldnāt.”
Gotta love Nikki. Isn’t this her 17th vacation this year?
Why does she even bother, since she obviously hates the show–in fact, all awards shows–so much? Does she really think we’re breathlessly waiting for her constant “They just lost Alabama” and other tired cliches?
“…taking a date to a Pixar movie is a sure way to get laid. Women love Pixar moviesā¦it releases some kind of good tingly feelings stuffā¦and they always put out afterwards.”
When my brother was in college, one of his suitemates not only had his own VCR but also a copy of THE LITTLE MERMAID, which cost around $90 back then, or over $161 in adjusted dollars. Did he lay out all this dough because he loved the movie so much? No, because girls loved it so much. He used it as bait to lure them into his lair and usually around “Kiss the Girl” he would force himself on them. He acquired such a bad reputation that few females set foot on the floor; my brother had to meet his dates in the lobby. One night, when he heard “Under the Sea” coming through the wall, my brother pounded his fist on the wall and shouted “He’s going to rape you!”
And don’t dismiss THE INCREDIBLES just because it’s animated; one print critic said it was the best spy movie he’d seen in well over a decade.
As for the folks saying they couldn’t believe how evil Walter White had become in this last episode–including George RR Martin, who said Walt was more evil than anyone in A GAME OF THRONES–I’m wondering if they totally missed the point. By kidnapping Holly and then verbally abusing his wife over a line he knew would be tapped, he gave Skyler a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. If he had just taken his money and vanished all attention would shift to her, and she would’ve done time as an accessory at the very least. But by portraying himself as a horribly abusive husband over the phone, with all those cops listening in, he shifted all attention to himself and portrayed Skyler as a helpless abused wife. I still don’t forgive her for banging her boss as her response to Walt’s end-life crisis, but this “horribly evil turn” was the one thing Walt could do to save his family.
Therefore not evil, but a crowning moment of genius.
I was also amused to see this episode of Breaking Bad is called “Ozymandias”, which most have interpreted as a warning about hubris. Actually, it’s about a ruler so powerful that he can make his enemies shit themselves in fear. Once he’s dead all bets are off, but no one effs with the guy while he still draws breath…which is how I used the poem in a novel I rather fortunately e-mailed to myself around the time of the first season of this show, which I didn’t even watch until two months ago.
For me, the poem took on more than the obvious dimension just shy of twenty years ago, when I was given my first and only teaching job. I had been offered a chance to interview about three weeks into the school year, which should’ve been the first warning flag, but I was so desperate to get a real job that I jumped at it and was quickly hired. I would be replacing a teacher who had just been hired that summer (2nd warning flag), who said he had to quit because his wife didn’t want to move from their existing home 90 miles away. On is final day, he asked me prepare to copies of “Ozymandias” so he could distribute it to the class, but since the only copy we had split it across the page I wrote it out by hand and copied that; we all read it aloud just before he said his goodbyes.
The mood in the classroom began to turn almost the moment all the other grownups left, and three weeks later when I was assaulted in the classroom one of the other teachers admitted the same thing had happened to the last guy and that’s probably why he really quit.
Oh, the kicker is that he had been hired to replace a long-timer who decided to retire when she took one look at the kids she would be teaching.
The meaning of “Ozymandias” broke free from its rigid bearings that year, and I interpreted it as my predecessor saying a big “eff you” to the kids, as in “you may think you’re hot shit now, but just you wait, you’ll get yours someday.”
Sam: I thought it was incredibly obvious what Walter’s intention was with that phone call and was rather flabbergasted to find that some people were misinterpreting it. Saw an interview with the episode’s writer in which she expressed the same surprise. I think some fans of the show are so busy concocting fan-fic in their heads about what’s going to happen that they miss what’s right in front of them.
Matt Zoller Seitz has an article on vulture.com about the scene, debating whether there’s also an element of truth in Walter’s words, so that the scene is working on two levels. I’d buy that, too. But either way, only someone with poor listening or comprehension skills could miss that the element of the scene is Walter cleverly laying out a potential defense for Skyler.
Thanks for the Seitz mention, Yancy; that let to a very interesting chain of articles. I guess I’m a “bad fan” because I’m still waiting to see Walt do anything truly awful–everything he has done with one exception has been perfectly justifiable.
(That whole “lilies of the valley” thing has me scratching my head since I fail to see how it could have been pulled off in the first place. Even if you accept all the pickpocketing and whatnot, how would Walt convince the kid to eat the berries? Did he stop by the house and say “Here, these are really great, try some!” It sounds like bullshit, so for me it’s sitting in the “pending” basket.)
What I can’t understand is how anyone who watched more than a few episodes could believe Skyler would respond to being called a bitch with “I’m sorry” and “You’re right.” She obviously understood what Walt was doing and played along; a clueless Skyler would’ve told him to go buy a Bunsen burner and shove it up his ass sideways.
What amazes me the most about the “evil” accusations thrown at Walt is that no one mentioned what he said to Jesse. Maybe everyone agreed that Jesse deserved it. He had finally become his favorite insult–a bitch–and Walt’s revelation was one last nail in a coffin that deserved to be shut.
(When Jane turned into a super-villain I announced that she must die, and soon. When that did happen–and we got to see Walt standing there, letting her choke to death without lifting a finger to help save the girl who had threatened him, remember?–I do believe I unleashed a Snidely Whiplash chortle.)
It was an idiotic judgment from a recapper (who I believe works for the NYT) that unexpectedly revealed what Jesse’s fate would be. The recapper said a few weeks back that the scene between Todd and Lydia was unnecessary, which was stupid because the scene not only showed that Todd has the hots for Lydia (but then who doesn’t), it also revealed that Todd is not a good cook, and only passable at best. If they couldn’t get Walt to work for them, then Jesse would be the obvious second choice…and guess what happened at the end of the show? Thanks to that “unnecessary” scene, the need for Jesse in that lab–not just a bitch but now the slave of the neo-Nazis–was completely justified.
Dibs on the title “I Was a Slave of the Neo-Nazis”. Sure, it’s retro, but “Slave of the Neo-Nazis” sounds like porn.
Anyone have an opinion on Ben Wheatley? (Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers). I really liked “Down Terrace,” kind of a twisted meta-British re-imagining of British gangster films, if that makes sense. Haven’t seen “Sightseers.”
I saw “Kill List” last night, and I still have no idea wtf I watched…but I know it disturbed me enough where it was the first film in ages that made me genuinely afraid to go to sleep. Yet I probably couldn’t recommend it to anyone. Haven’t seen “Sightseers.” Wheatley is definitely a fascinating new talent….
Liked “Down Terrace” a lot, but found “Kill List” mildly disappointing. (Can’t exactly remember why: it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it. Possibly the ending left a sour taste in my mouth.)
Heard mixed things about “Sightseers,” but it’s on my Netflix queue.
I think it’s being released in December.
As a kid growing up in the 90s, “The Giver” was my favorite book (well, contemporary book..I was a sucker for “Where the Red Fern Grows”). A movie adaptation has remained in perpetual development hell, and as I watched friends’ favorite childhood books become bastardized (Lovely Bones) or render decent but unspectacular results (Perks of Being a Wallflower), I was happy.
Then, Weinstein announced it was moving aggressively forward…with the dreaded Walden Media no less! I was angry. But the casting announcement today…Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Alexander Skarsgard. My only hesitation is the casting of Brenton Thwaits, who is the cutest actor in Hollywood right now, but is waaaay too old to play Jonas as the book stands, and the way he’s blasted onto high profile projects out of nowhere (Maleficent, Helen Hunt’s directorial debut) is disturbingly reminiscent of fellow Australians Sam Worthington and Liam Hemsworth. Any tinkering makes me nervous…..but the cast is so good, and Weinstein holds the book in very high regard. Torn.
Jeffrey Katzenberg is either a liar or an idiot.
You heard about his brainstorm to offer $75M for the creation of three more episodes of “Breaking Bad”?
Quoth he: “I was nuts for the show. I had no idea where this season was going.”
But his plans were dashed because he had no idea Walter White was going to die at the end of the series. Anyone who watched one episode of the series knew Walt was going to die. Why? Because he had no escape plan.
Truman Burbank was the perfect example of this. He pretended to be happy and he did what was expected of him but secretly he dreamed of escaping to Fiji. He had a map, he had a stash of supplies, he had a secret exit–you KNEW he was going to take off at some point.
Walter White had none of that. Never once did he express a desire to go anywhere else or do anything else. This was it for him, and he knew it would take him on a one-way path to the grave.
Yet Katzenberg completely missed this. He simply assumed Walt would ride off into the sunset because…protagonists never die? White guys always win? Walt had to be alive in case there was a sequel?
Or did Katzenberg know nothing of the show but the hype? He saw all the attention surrounding a show he was completely ignorant of and decided he had to cut himself a piece of the action. By releasing six-minute webisodes, for a buck a pop, because I guess that’s how people watch their TV these days.
Not at all hard to see this coming from the guy who didn’t know THE LION KING was a rip-off of Hamlet.