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
Jesus, the disaster zone extends to indies also. “Faults” and “Heineken” are available on VOD, but “Buzzard” and “Merchants of Doubt” aren’t, with awful results all around.
2015 is starting to look like one big disaster zone (of course I say this when American Sniper and 50 shades are huge). But remember when it was being hyped up as the biggest box office year ever? Yet we’re seeing a ton of high profile duds :
Blackhat
Mortdecai
Strange Magic (“from the mind of George Lucas” š )
Jupiter Ascending
Seventh Son
Hot tub time machine 2 (er, ok not exactly a big deal, but still…)
and now Unfinished business.
I didn’t find Chappie to be all that bad. It was entertaining and better than Elysium. I think people have been overly harsh on the criticism. I’m sure he will do just fine with the Alien franchise. It couldn’t be any worse than some of the others.
“High profile” is an interesting tag, dino.
Blackhat and Strange Music were dumps.
Jupiter Ascending was marketed… but dumped into the dead zone.
Mortdecai was a car wreck from a mile away.
There is nothing in this group of flops that I actually find surprising in the least. Chappie either.
Meanwhile, Spongebob and Kingsman have both outperformed expectations. Fofty Shades is over $500m worldwide.
Well I mean “high profile” in that they all had a major name, either actor or director attached. I mean nobody sane would expect a Kellan Lutz Hercules movie or I, Frankenstein to be hits, but most of these projects were something, at some point.
“2015 is starting to look like one big disaster zone (of course I say this when American Sniper and 50 shades are huge).But remember when it was being hyped up as the biggest box office year ever?”
So according to Mojo, it’s the biggest box office thus far through March 8th, since 2010. Not enough for ya?