April 16, 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
Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, to my mind, has less to do with movies than it has to do with the theme park arms race. Losing the rights to Harry Potter to Universal Studios was a huge blow to Disney, allegedly because JK Rowling was a little too controlling in her demands over the attractions. Universals Florida parks are encroaching on Disney’s share all the time. And so now a new ‘zero sum’ phase has begun. Long running attractions at Epcot are getting razed for more Frozen crap. Avatar land is getting built at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. They’re all courting Peter Jackson over Lord of the Rings and Hobbit rides. And Lucasfilm and Star Wars is the jewel in the crown. As for this trailer and this movie? Pfft, it’s far too early to tell either way, and it’s almost beside the point anyhow. With Star Wars, the tail has wagged the dog for a long time now, and with regards to Disney’s overall strategy for Lucasfilm, the new movies are just the meat that sells the entire sandwich.
wtf? (note to screen’writers’ re storytelling and 5th grade english composition: never begin any written work of any kind anywhere with the words “there’s been a (something something something)…” THERE’S BEEN? really? christ on a cracker this does not bode well. what’s happened to good sci-fi film writing? (‘live – rinse – repeat’ was well-written, so props). the honest trailers thing: these are the 5 effects shots we’ve mostly finished, the other 38 million will be mostly finished when the movie comes out in 2 years time.
Wished it was released in the theaters first instead of online. That John Williams score gets me every time but loses impact on a 15.7″ Toshiba laptop.
As far teasers go though, Jurassic got the goosebumps going a bit more than this, and I`m surprised the teaser did not give you a glimpse of Han, Leia, or Luke,and instead showcased the newbies. That might have got the goosebumps going a bit more.
That`s my penny.
bulldog is all about the goosebumps (the SW theme makes the bumps, not saying much for the rest of it)
i’m trying to figure out what’s bothering me, borderline creepy, about this first post-lucas abrams incarnation…
i think it may be — apart from how inexplicable and annoying it is that he’s somehow finagled his way – in all his thoroughly lightweight, unremarkable competence – to be put in charge of both mega ‘star’ franchises (which is like something from the theatre of the absurd and yet says a lot about the current state of gutless mainstream film-making) — that abrams doesn’t have much of a bold individual aesthetic (unless you count sparkles) or expansive technique and appears heavily dependant on derivative style, so this first look at what appears to ape the design/aesthetic of the original tril, while it might seem like a good idea on the surface really boils down to: tasking a (debatably) passable copycat with competent but fairly unexceptional cinematic vision to re-create and world build for a new SW generation, and by virtue of your directorial choice asking only for a watered-down (and more small tv-looking) copy of the SW universe rather than going a bold new direction, with some ingenious futuristic vision/design that retains the crucial elements of homage to the originals but lifts the new generation into a fresh stratosphere, thereby in some way justifying its existence rather than just rehashing, rehashing, rehashing. hashtag#rehashing
Buck Rogers lives!
Yeah, whatever.
Get back to me when you’re willing to show us a glimpse of Adam Driver (or Oscar Isaac).
Oscar Isaac is in the trailer. He’s in the cockpit of the X-Wing. Actually, it’s the only thing that got my attention in the trailer, because he fits in so perfectly with the depictions of the pilots in the original trilogy. Aka, not the glitzy shininess of the prequels.
It’s 2014, and of course the money shot in a teaser for a new Star Wars film set 30 years after Jedi is the Millenium Falcon.
Callbacks and fan service. This is all popcorn filmmaking is in Hollywood now.
I liked the look of the shots. Seems like Abrams was trying to recapture the look of the first couple movies in an updated way.
For me the problem with using the Millennium ship isn’t so much the fan service aspect as that it doesn’t make much sense. The roughly 20 year gap between episodes 3 and 4 gave us a complete revolution in ship design. Now we’re 30 years after episode 6 and they’re still using X-Wings? Same thing with the stormtrooper uniform. Maybe some events take place less than 30 years later?
Anyway, the second Star Trek movie (Star Trek 12) was dog shit, an offensive travesty of the best star trek movie, so my expectations are low.
Tbunny, you’re actually hitting on what is my gripe: it would appear there is little imagination being put into service for this film. It’s the Marvel movies shoved into a new template: safe, predictable, average. Creative risk brings the possibility of failure. Can’t have that.
@Amblinman, because the trailer to the sequel of the biggest film event in cinema history shouldn’t have any reference to what it’s sequelizing. No Han, Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2D2….just Tatooine and the Millenium Falcon. Not sure you can get much more bare bones than that. Wait! John Boyega and Billy Dee Williams are both black! Fan Service!
@tbunny, the implication is the war has continued for 30 years. If you look at the 100 years war in France, it actually was a low point for new military technology, because the focus was on production…and because they generally kept beating the crap out of one another. In the Civil War, technology emerged early (ironclad ships!), because by the end there just weren’t the resources for it.
You’re right, Et.
At least I think that’s Isaac.
I’ll have to burn that image from my brain when I watch “A Most Violent Year” later today, lol.
@etguild because the trailer to the sequel of the biggest film event in cinema history needs the Millenium Falcon in it or no one will know what it is! The giant STAR WARS at the end would leave people chasing stuff down a rabbit hole, fer sure.
“thoroughly lightweight, unremarkable competence”
Perfect.
You missed the point Ablinman. It’s not an original movie, yet has 3 seconds of reference to the original (the desert planet could be anything). I’ve never seen a sequel trailer/teaser that contains the same cast members and references the original less than this one. If you have, spill the beans.
As for GIANT STAR WARS, go back and show the same trailer, in 1999, minus 3 seconds of Millenium Falcon, and three words of text, and ta-da! It’s THE PHANTON MENACE.
ET, I think you’re missing the point (the new Godwin’s Law of internet debating, thanks for going first). Here’s the gripe: you have an ENTIRE UNIVERSE (Galaxies far, far away) and we’re *still* seeing movies with essentially the same characters, same technology, etc. I wasn’t expecting a re-invention of the Star Wars wheel but at least something more interesting than a new tire.
And your argument that this is a sequel underlines the point: this shouldn’t have a thing to do with anyone in the first two trilogies.
You all sound insane.
I think what leah is getting at is if you compare the false stagey “suburban family kitchen” scene in SUPER 8 with Spielberg’s pitch perfect “suburban family kitchen” scenes (the first ones American audiences really saw onscreen)in JAWS, CE3K, ET you see the limits of homage or duplication.
I’m past getting angry over SW but a better teaser would be Luke’s gloved hand picking up a light saber. THE END. CHEERS.
Call me crazy, but I thought the Empire was destroyed once and for all at the end of RETURN OF THE JEDI — Vader and the Emperor die, the second Death Star is destroyed, the Ewoks party (in the “special edition” they even add footage of celebrations all over the galaxy). So, 30 years later, why are there still Stormtroopers and who’s running shit?
christian: indeed.
choosing abrams to ‘restart’ the SW universe, a dealer in pleasant watered-down mimicry, is somehow disturbing in its sheer blatant call for a middling copy-machine vision when imagine the amazing possibilities for a whole fresh, exciting new space adventure for a new generation with strange worlds to explore, the endless possibilities other galactic realms offer, the opportunity for some real visual/aesthetic daring and innovation, and what do they ‘require’? abrams-lite copycat rehash (Same Shit, Different Day). what a crashing fucking bore, but sadly par for the course, play on through, four!
Aman, is still hating on the most successful franchise of the 21st century. Hilarious. If you really want something that’s outside the world of the Star Wars movies, then you need to play the Old Republic games. You get to enjoy Star Wars without anything having to do with the films.
The problem with this trailer, is there is too much damn texture to everything. JJ did it with Trek, and now he’s doing it with Star Wars. They also put out a damn trailer, that no one really needed to see. We want to see Han, Leia, and Luke. What we got, was Boyega, Ridley, Issacs, and Driver, and that’s weird promotion. it’s more mystery box bullshit, and I could have sworn Kennedy said that shit wouldn’t happen with this movie.
Never the less, it’s a shit trailer, and I hope they have another one up their sleeve for Xmas. One that features the original cast, but it’s not like that can save this film from what it may be. Read the spoilers, because there’s no way what they mention, if true, doesn’t sabotage another fucking trilogy.
That’s why you shouldn’t read spoilers, because they may not be true and you’ve wasted energy on something that isn’t there. Spoilers are for suckers.
Back in the old days, there were two camps:
“Fandom is a way of life.”
“Fandom is just a goddamn hobby.”
STAR WARS 7 is just a goddamn movie.
Cadavra has spoken.
Christian, what? Seriously, those spoilers, either way they work out, come across as so staggering. it’s hard to not wonder, if Hacksdan and Lens-Flare have it in them, to make such a monumental move.
Cad, yeah, it’s not Avengers: Age of Ultron.
“wtf? (note to screen’writers’ re storytelling and 5th grade english composition: never begin any written work of any kind anywhere with the words “there’s been a (something something something)…” THERE’S BEEN? really? christ on a cracker this does not bode well.”
wtf yourself? The voice DOES say “there has”, but even if the words were run together entirely into “there’s”, soTFW Leah? I was never looking for an Oxford grammar professor to handle voice-over diction for a Star Wars 7 teaser anyway.
“It’s 2014, and of course the money shot in a teaser for a new Star Wars film set 30 years after Jedi is the Millenium Falcon.”
What would you have made the money shot?
“Back in the old days, there were two camps:”
“Fandom is a way of life.”
“Fandom is just a goddamn hobby.”
Dammit. I had “Death” and “Summer”.
hallick i think you kind of missed my point (or it was clear as mud): the standard of screenwriting, as performed by supposed professionals whose wordsmithery as the tools of the trade and area of expertise should be used to optimal effect for description and evocation, is becoming abysmal. one of the first things you learn in grade school English composition is never to begin a proper descriptive sentence/story with ‘it was a…. “, a cardinal sin showing basic poor form.
‘it was a dark and stormy night.’ no!
‘the storm lashed the windows and rattled the house to its foundation all through the night.” (or what the fuck ever – a subject of the sentence described by dynamic verbs using imagery, basic storytelling)
“there’s been a[n]….” is just a past tense version of “it was a…”; it’s not about being a grammar pedant, it’s about good writing and using words powerfully and economically to describe and evoke. “there’s been an awakening, can you feel it” is crap 4th grade writing and makes me wary of the standard on offer, when whoever is in charge read that voiceover for a major teaser trailer and didn’t say, ‘did you just submit a voiceover that begins with “there’s been a…” like a grade school kid?’
i mean even ‘can you feel it, an awakening in the force?’ is decent structure and doesn’t sound like it was written by kid who doesn’t know better.
I guess Italo Calvino never got the memo when he wrote “If on a winter’s night a traveler.”
Fair enough Leah, but this is still a teaser that stitched together the available scraps it had at hand, so lambasting the screenwriters for one line that was arbitrarily chosen to open the teaser is immensely premature. I agree that the line would probably suck if it were the opening line of the film, but it works fine in this format for me.
er, italo calvino was translated to english from his native italian, which makes your point rather nonsensical re english composition (wait, shouldn’t you be off at war, thereby justifying being paid more by virtue of your genitals? JUST SURVIVE man).
ok hallick, but because it’s a teaser stitched together from effects shots that happen to be finished, does that excuse a stupidly-worded voiceover that sounds like someone’s homework? it was created at some point either for the teaser or taken directly from the movie itself. it’s symptomatic. like the old texan dudes lament in ‘no country’, “it’s not the one thing, it’s the dismal tide” (paraphrasing, i never seem to remember direct quotes of dialogue exactly right).
And now douchebag assholes are complaining about a black storm trooper.
They had no problem buying into beings like Yoda, Jabba the Hut, Chewbecca, the fucking Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks for chrissakes.
No problem with The Force, or Lightsabers, or the fact that Luke and Leia were supposed to be in hiding from their father and yet no one bothered to change Luke’s last name so his all seeing all powerful father who could feel a disturbance in the force from a zillion miles away couldn’t just google his own name and find his son. No that shit is believable.
But a black stormtrooper, that’s too fucking much. What’s next, a black emperor or god forbid, a black President of the Republic. Sheesh.
“And now douchebag assholes are complaining about a black storm trooper.”
Where?
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/star-wars-star-john-boyega-tells-haters-to-get-used-to-it-1201367291/
Maybe there are spoilers somewhere that explain why Boyega’s in a stormtrooper uniform, but you could have taken a few seconds out of “Star Wars” for a teaser back in the day and made people think Harrison Ford was a stormtrooper in that one too, right?
The Variety article states “some of the Internet’s chatter included criticism at the idea of a black Stormtrooper” but doesn’t provide any examples.
Is it really that hard to believe Tim? There were plenty of racist comments on YouTube, as this and other related stories note.
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/12/stars-wars-actor-john-boyega-crafts-perfect-response-to-black-stormtrooper-criticism.html
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/john-boyega-responds-to-criticisms-on-playing-a-black-stormtrooper-in-star-wars-episode-vii-20141201
It’s not hard to believe any YouTube comments section has its share of trolls. Relying on some anonymous trolling of a comments section to make a Racism Everywhere! case seems a bit desperate.
“Seriously, those spoilers, either way they work out”
So if the spoilers not true how does it work out? It doesn’t.
I don’t read spoilers. To this day. I like to be surprised by a story – you want a road map.
Actually, in my experience of YouTube comment sections, it seems a bit desperate to assume that 100% of its users aren’t racist…
There’s more blanket random racism in youtube comments than most anywhere on the web.
You are moving the goalposts Tim. I don’t believe anyone claimed there is Racism Everywhere! in this case. Unless a reference to “douchebag assholes” is equal to a claim of Racism Everywhere! You sound like Sean Hannity.
Christian, you are once again inferring, that your way is the best way. It has nothing to do with a road map. It’s just knowing. Knowing and doing, or in this case SEEING AND HEARING, are two different things all together. All that aside, that’s still a hokey fucking trailer, and I really hope they have another one for Xmas with the old cast. If not? Mystery Box Bullshit.
“I don’t believe anyone claimed there is Racism Everywhere! in this case”
Implied in the Variety article and others was that a significant percentage of reaction to the teaser was racist.
You know Sean Hannity better than I do. Noting that the media often pushes a bullshit narrative in an effort to increase racial division, that’s his thing?
This was a teaser, and as such, it could’ve been even shorter and had way more impact with a glimpse of the original cast. Let that sit for awhile and germinate until the Superbowl where you release the motherlode of a trailer.
Granted this is Star Wars, it certainly does not need the Superbowl. Bitch as much as the fanboys like, they will show up. The difference between this and Star Trek however was that Trek was never a stratospheric blockbuster before the recent incantations. Star Wars always was, so if the fanboys show up the first weekend, and they will, and then the rest of us sit it out, then it will be perceived as a failure.
it’s now a different atmosphere, where Star Wars is no longer the biggest game in town. And the prestigious box office record that Star Wars holds is that every episode save Attack of the Clones was the top domestic grosser in it’s year of release.
Can that be repeated in a year when Avengers, Jurassic World and Mocking Jay have attained the same or higher levels at the box office? Only time will tell.
DeGroot: The problem in this case was this was a high trending topic on Twitter. Which either makes media a proactive, sinister all-knowing force, unified and hellbent on the destruction of conservative opinion within mere seconds of a narrative emerging….or enough people brought it up to cause a kerfuffle.
i reject your reality and substitute my own
one of the most disheartening aspects of reading online comments (of which i do very little on a regular basis, way too depressing), even apart from the never-ending flow of overt sexism/misogyny and racism, are the ‘deniers’, who are almost as disturbing; the pooh-poohers and minimisers and rationalisers and naysayers and explainers and ‘notallblahblahblah’ers and excusers and apologists, who take the time out of their day to write in with some form of, ‘oh it’s not THAT bad’ in response to injustice/oppression based on the fact that they don’t see/experience it themselves in any significant way – or believe they perpetrate it – so therefore it couldn’t possibly be that serious or widespread. those in denial, who insist on viewing instances of injustice as some ‘outlier’ or aberration rather than the pattern of deeply socialised and systemic attitudes, values and behaviours that underpin society/culture in many-layered and pervasive ways. in a sense it’s the mentality of toddlers, who have yet to fully develop empathy and the ability to comprehend themselves as something other than the centre of the universe (but far more scary).
And then there are also the Nightcrawlers who sensationalize and aggrandize extreme pockets of human misery in order to provoke a reaction strong enough to hold their audience through as many commercial breaks as humanely possible.
i.e., “The Media”