April 27, 2024
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
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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
$585-per screen for “Old Boy”?
Damn.
Hell, I would’ve seen it yesterday if it had opened anywhere near me.
That Klady chart in the other link is all screwed up.
Try the chart now, KMS. I think I figured out my formatting mistake.
Looks good.
Man, those Oldboy numbers are…something. Hell, I thought it was a blast. Sharlto Copley gave an astonishing, insane performance as the villain, somewhere between Charles Gray’s camp Diamonds are forever Blofeld and Truman Capote. His work in this and Elysium make for an absolute riotous double bill.
Anyone got a post mortem on what happened here? Why was it put out to die in 500 theatres with no promotion? Obviously the nature of the story and the ending are the kind of thing that are pretty much begging for a D Cinemascore, but couldn’t this have at least matched Homefront numbers if they’d put in the effort?
Figured Black Nativity might break out (relatively speaking) after seeing what Best Man Holiday did, but then again, I saw a ton of advertising for BMH and virtually none for Black Nativity.
The trajectory for CATCHING FIRE is kind of uncharted territory. You have to figure $450 million is reasonable at this point. Is $500 million possible?
Side note, the top grossing franchise through two movies is SPIDER-MAN at $778 million. HG is going to demolish that.
I wonder how long it will take Lionsgate to remake Hunger Games once Jennifer Lawrence is done. This seems like an easy premise to play around with and revamp — throw a bunch of kids into a new environment and have them all go at each others’ throats. It could be the filmic version of Survivor, which somehow still remains popular and profitable.
There’s too much money to be made on this franchise to toss it aside for long once the current run is done.
Femme Fatale Royale.
I interviewed Oscar Isaac for ILD and it was a great 20 minutes of acting technique, directors like Coens and Refn but when I asked the cat question I could so tell he did not want to talk about the cats ….
“HOURS” starring Paul Walker opens in 15 cities on December 13 from Lions Gate / Pantelion….
Hours has Walker in a hospital at the onset of hurricane Katrina … his wife dies during childbirth, he freaks out, the baby has to be kept alive on a ventilator …. the power goes out, the hospital floods and everybody splits … Walker has to keep the baby alive after the power goes out by manually turning a crank on the ventilator every hour on the hour, as the hours tick by he raids the fast food machines, then the medicine cabinet for amphetamines, 48 hours have gone by … then people with guns storm the hospital
sad about Paul Walker, he always seemed to be doing this and that charity thing for kids, seemed like a sweet guy (and he was a dad) — and when he found his little groove in flicks like ‘running scared’ and ‘roadkill’ he was pretty solid (i’ll be sure to check out HOURS when i get a chance, i’ve heard good things). probably the most interesting thing i saw paul do was the series ‘expedition great white’ on the Discovery channel, he was just one of the crew on this big boat that roamed around (i think it was mostly down in baja cali) looking for great whites and they’d get some pretty fucking huge white sharks onto this raisable platform for purposes of study and tracking and Paul was right in there with crew on this platform with these huge sharks doing their thing, it was pretty cool. condolences to his family, RIP paul
Leah: I think you’ll appreciate Hours. But I’ll warn you: It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
http://www.movingpictureblog.com/2013/12/chalk-it-up-as-atragic-irony-of.html
Aw joe, thanks for posting that, what a great interview with someone who by all accounts was just a lovely human being – and how bittersweet that his last film role sounds like perhaps his best performance, just as he was probably really growing into himself, paul walker going out on a high note. (and points for mentioning ‘joy ride’ in your piece, which i referenced in my comment above as ‘roadkill’ – different title for downunder i guess – which is one of my all-time fave B-movie pleasures: Walker and the Zahn being terrific little shits with leelee and the [unseen] ted levine as the voice of the aggrieved sadistic trucker in fine form, i watched it last night and it rocks as ushe)
Not his last film role…the Luc Besson-penned “Brick Mansions” is wrapped and due next year, and we can assume we’ll see quite a bit of him in “Fast 7” whether he’d wrapped or not.
I’m personally appalled at some of the reactions to his death, and I am ashamed of my generation. Was out last night and can’t tell you how many “He was too fast and furious for life” jokes and glib first reactions I heard. The guy was no worse an actor than Statham, Diesel or most action leads, and he was well known on the charity circuit. And the “Fast” movies, “Running Scared” and “Varsity Blues” are quintessential guilty pleasure flicks. Makes me sad.
I think there are always extremes on both sides when an actor passes. Those with the “oh my god, how am I going to live now” reaction, and those cynics who muse “fuck that guy, he didn’t pay my bills, so what if he’s dead.”
You have to be even a bit mournful at someone who leaves behind a 15 year old daughter without a father. Not that a bad actor, or even someone who was an asshole on the set deserves death, but from what I’ve seen and read in the past, he was neither, and a decent guy who was trying to make a good go at this acting thing. Got a lotta flak for the F&F roles, and people calling him wooden and not worth the screen time and all that.
I never thought he was the greatest actor but I was never in the category of not wanting to see his films. F&F is indeed a true guilty pleasure and he’s a big part of why that is. It will be interesting what they do with F&F7 now, ironically having just posted set pictures online earlier this week of the characters attending a funeral.
Sad to see actors go, any actor when you love film, and sadder still to see a dad go with a teen wandering what tomorrow will be like, and the next day, and the next day…
BRICK MANSIONS is “Luc Besson-penned” because it’s a remake of the great DISTRICT B13. Wonder if Walker does any parkour in it.
A critic friend recommended McTiernan’s TIMELINE to me, so I may watch that in tribute to Walker (it’s on Netflix Instant).
Leah: Speaking of Leelee Sobieksi — what happened to that promising career? Did she lose her career momentum by going back to school for a while?
yancy — please post your reaction to ‘timeline’… i remember it being a not very good adaptation of a pretty fair novel but liking it more than most at the junket… i’m curious about your take…
the last time i spoke with walker (just before he shot ‘hours’) he claimed ‘the lazarus project’ was one of his top faves….
Well said bulldog.
TIMELINE is hideous, ruins an excellent Crichton novel per usual.
Never thought Tyrese Gibson would bring me to tears:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/paul-walker-dead-40-tyrese-gibson-breaks-memorial-site-article-1.1534641
Joe, leelee is kind of still around (i think the last thing i saw her in was ‘public enemies’ and something on episodic tv more recently) but her ‘leelee as leading lady’ career seems to have fizzled — i just looked her up and she popped out a kid a few years ago so maybe she’s doing the domestic hunker-down for a bit, she’s 30 now so hopefully she’ll get a second wind, i like her. (thank goodness being in labute’s redonkulous ‘wicker man’ fuckarow didn’t end her, it’s kind of the moment in Cage’s career where he began his descent into batshit self-parody so that’s bad enough haha)
For awhile I thought Leelee and Julia Stiles were the same person.
Paul Walker Bought $9,000 Engagement Ring for Military Couple Who Couldn’t Afford It
Sobieski’s profile when she broke through was always at a level a lot higher than her career ever matched before she slipped off the radar; and she’d slipped off the radar YEARS before having a baby. She’s a victim of that thing where being a precocious teenager gets you all kinds of huzzahs and interest from filmmakers, but once you’re an adult and your physical maturity starts reaching equilibrum with your emotional maturity (a la Winona Ryder and other) you’re not really considered “precocious” anymore, and your career trajectory can fizzle out in a hurry. Being a teen star is just as treacherous in this way as being an adorable child star who hit gawky adolescence (Haley Joel Osment, etc). A lucky few like Reece Witherspoon find parts that keep them in the spotlight after crossing this threshhold.
i always liked her in Eyes Wide Shut