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
Does anyone know why “D&D To” is being released by Universal instead of (“D&D” distributer) New Line?
Never thought there would be an audience for a 20-year-later sequel.
Guess I was wrong.
WB bailed on the project and Universal picked it up… pretty much because they never thought there’d be an audience for a 20-year-later sequel, I guess.
I am trying to talk my wife into D&D too, but since she saw the prequel, she ain’t biting.
Thanks for the info; I thought maybe New Line’s rights had lapsed in the intervening two decades.
Maybe my comedy tastes have changed since 1994.
I remember loathing “D&D” (I didn’t become a Farrelly Bros. fan until “Kingpin”), but “To” struck me as pretty benign, even kind of sweet.
It reminded me more of the Farrelly’s “Three Stooges” retread than the original “D&D.”
doug r: Did you tell your wife that no one involved with the original was involved with the prequel?
I just watched the original D&D for the first time a couple nights ago on Netflix Instant. Hit-and-miss, but some funny moments.
Smartest thing the brothers did with the sequel was not trying to top the original. They know comedy has become extreme, but they stay stubbornly sweet despite some of the gross-out humor. Thing is, their brand of gross-out humor is rather innocent. (Only THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY traffics in the Comedy of Pain.) There are some gags in DUMB AND DUMBER TO that are so dumb you find yourself laughing at yourself because you laughed at the gag.
Beyond The Lights was actually a pretty light sweet romance movie. Kind of a shame the studio threw it into the thresher this weekend. I’m a black man and saw it Friday night in a theater with lots of teenage girls. It strains at points to the point of breaking but I think the movie sticks the landing. Ebert would have at least written about this. As it is the major critics are still debating Interstellar.
Aaron to be fair to the ‘Brothers, they were kind of hamstrung by the PG-13 rating, they could NOT have gone as far as a 21 Jump Street or Ted-type movie. A lot of people forget that the original was PG-13 rated, though it was a rather HARD PG-13 rating….you had bare ass shots, hearts ripped out of chests, etc…..all in the name of comedy of course.
Which brings up an interesting observation: do comedies now HAVE to be R-rated to hit the stratosphere nowadays??? Think about it: as good as this opening looks, it’s not nearly on the level of Ted nor Neighbors, and neither of those films were based on pre-sold brands. I’m wondering if the moviegoing public now EXPECTS a minimal number of F-bombs, naked boobs, and explicit dick jokes nowadays to really enjoy their comedies…think about it, when is the last time a PG-13 rated comedy which was NOT strongly marketed to families made some real bank? Anchorman 2 just last year did ok but probably hit the same walls that this will. I am wondering if the ratings systems has something to do this with: I STILL cannot understand why a pure middle-of-the-road romantic comedy like “It’s Complicated” had to be rated R!
Wasn’t complicated rated R purely because of the pot use? Or maybe they simply let two fucks slip by
Loved “Beyond the Lights.” I’m a sucker for Love and Basketball though.
Anchorman 2 wasn’t nearly as funny or grounded as the first one. It seemed like these guys just fucking around and there was no story. Kind of sad actually since I loved the first one.
No, the MPAA specifically said IT’S COMPLICATED was R-rated because two people were smoking pot without repercussions. The fact that they were both well over 50 was of no consequence to them.
It’s like the 1930’s all over again. “Any onscreen depiction of marijuana usage must be be followed by immediate legal and/or societal punishment.”
Ain’t it funny how Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoking pot is more dangerous to society than Bond’s womanizing, or John McClane’s wise crack killing, or even Austin Powers’ groovy sex references to basically everything.
I was a fan of D&D, and haven’t seen the sequel yet, but it still amazes me that in the trailers shown on TV, for general audiences, they included a scene where Jim Carrey has his hand up an old woman’s snatch, and after removing it he blows dust of his hand while she cries “You can cross that one of your bucket list.” It’s very obvious where his hand was. That passed the sensors to be fit to be shown to my nine year old while she’s watching YTV, but two adults smoking pot, that’s too much for her to handle with parental supervision.
Excellent point Bulldog! I really had no idea it was just the marijuana use that got It’s Complicated that R-rating, I figured it was some nudity or a few uses of the F-word that I missed. I mean JEEZ it’s SUCH a benign movie….you have Streep snuggling up with her kids in that one scene to eat popcorn and watch The Graduate on VHS for christ sakes!
Not to mention it wasn’t much of a draw for people under 30, much less 17.
I just saw a green-band trailer for HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 in which Kevin Spacey says “shit.” I guess they really don’t even bother anymore.