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
Apparently, Relativity only spent $1M to acquire TWIB2 so unless they spent a ton on marketing, it easily should be profitable for them.
The first weekend in January is becoming the best weekend of the year to open a horror film, even moreso than any single weekend during October.
Last year Texas Chainsaw 3D opened at #1 with 21.7M. The year before The Devil Inside made a whopping 33.7M.
Next year because of New Year’s Day landing on Friday, nothing is scheduled for the first weekend but there are two horror films scheduled for the following weekend. One of the two should move to the first weekend as New Year’s Day is a strong moviegoing day because most people have it off.
Just out of curiosity, shouldn’t Exodus have been a big Jewish hit as well?
Does anyone else think “Fury” is a “serious BP contender?”
Are you commenting on the wrong entry, Chris?
No, I was referring to the last sentence in your first paragraph. It just seems very unlikely to me.
Into the Woods is a huge Disney hit, why is it in so few theaters compared to the others?
Pete: To paraphrase Letterman, we (meaning Jews) have THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and we don’t need to see any other version. I did see EXODUS, and the best I can say for it is that it was competently made. But like Scott’s ROBIN HOOD, it appears that he watched the original classic and then decided to do the exact opposite of everything that made the earlier film so enduring, right down to desaturating the color to the point where it was almost B&W. Hell, he didn’t even let Moses say “Let my people go,” which is tantamount to staging JULIUS CAESAR and cutting “Et Tu, Brute?”