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
So JURASSIC WORLD passed 600 M $, first film to do so since THE AVENGERS, I think.
And INSIDE OUT will hit 300 M $ this weekend.
Meanwhile, I saw both ANT-MAN and TRAINWRECK, and I actually think the Marvel film is the funniest of the two, though I laughed a lot during the Amy Schumer flick.
Ant Man looking at 55M, which would be tied for lowest opening weekend of MCU with The Incredible Hulk from all the way back in ’08.
The chart has a big mistake…. TERMINATOR: GENISYS actually grossed $1.73 million on Friday, not $1.5 million.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/
“Trainwreck” blew me away, and I went in as a non (Amy Schumer) fan.
It just may be my favorite movie so far this year.
Come for the laughs, stay for the tears.
I was reminded of previous midsummer “miracle” movies like “There’s Something About Mary” or “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
While I found “Ant-Man” relatively breezy for Marvel Corp. product–and appreciated the fact that no major U.S. city was destroyed in the climax–
it never really clicked for me. Gave it a “B MINUS”–2 1/2 star rating.
Rudd seemed vaguely uncomfortable: like he wanted to be in another movie instead. Maybe a Judd Apatow movie. Maybe “Trainwreck,” lol.
Michael Pena seemed to be channelling Bill Dana’s Jose Jimenez. It was near cringe-worthy retro at times, but still the funniest thing in the movie.
Don’t know why Disney didn’t try to put a little more distance between Inside Out and Minions. They should have switched release dates with Tomorrowland. Inside Out would have had the animation audience all to itself for seven weekends instead of just three. No doubt Minions is cutting into Inside Out’s box office. Who knows how much more Monsters University would have grossed had Despicable Me 2 not opened just two weeks later.
Jack… Len’s estimates, particularly on Friday, are often different than others.
Ant-Man is one of the better Marvel movies IMHO, until it devolves into some of that MCU nonsense. But the writers and directors smartly keep that to a minimum. (And is this the first post-credit sting in a different aspect ratio? I imagine it was shot by Russos on Civil War set)
That said, one of the more enjoyable ones — borderline coherent for Marvel. So of course this is the first underperformer for them in… Maybe ever?
If it hits 60 and has legs than all will be forgiven but I didn’t feel this one, anecdotally, connecting with the crowd I saw it with.
Hopefully I’m wrong, I’d rather see them continue to go in this direction and maybe have the courage to do a fully stand alone film.
Does the 1.85 trailer at the end of FIRST AVENGER count?
I wonder if Ant-Man’s opening suffered from the general blahness of Avengers 2 such a brief time ago.
Thanks for the reliable box office analyses weekly Dave. Especially appreciate the highlighting of the indie films and their performances.
Jerry, people go to these movies for the “MCU NONSENSE.” I remember having a conversation in the 80s that went like this, while reading a West Coast Avengers comic.
Me: “Could you imagine a movie with Hawkeye in it?”
Comic Book Owner: “It will never happen in a million years.”
Me: “An Avengers movie?”
Comic Book Owner: “Who would want to see an Avengers movie, and that isn’t going to happen either.”
That it happened, continues to happens, and people deride it. The present would freak out the past!
Ultron made a shit ton of movie, so there is no BLAH going on. Ant-Man is just a weird concept for some people to grasp. This leads me to wonder, how the fuck they get people to give a shit about fucking Doctor Strange, when Doctor Strange is the most important character in Phase 3… outside of Stark.
Nevertheless, Ant-Man will make money, because overseas loves that “MCU NONSENSE!”
Ant-Man is/was a tough sell from the beginning. I think 60 million is a miracle. Production costs couldn’t have been that high.. it has to end up profitable, right??
my boy and i having a running joke, after seeing ‘end of watch’ together (and boo hiss on ayer for – SPOILERs! – having the most ‘fucks’ ever apparently but not having the guts to have the white boy eat shit and die and the less famous brown boy emerge as the survivor, pfft brownie points lost for being way too cliché, on a few levels): that Michael Pena should be in every movie, like even just a cameo, so i’ll probably watch ant-man at some point just for MP – though the jimenez comparison makes it sound like he’s been put in a box again, free Pena from that box he’s way too terrific
“but not having the guts to have the white boy eat shit and die and the less famous brown boy”
It was definitely a white/brown tihng. Totally wasn’t cause Pena’s character was, like, the family guy and thus, like, more poignant. Or something. So you get points for sniffing out a cliche in that ending but you didn’t stick the landing.
@Greg I don’t see how Ant-Man was a tough sell. Guardians proved people will embrace an off beat corner of the comic universe. The film has Paul Rudd, has been getting good reviews. I think this may be the first real sign of fatigue with Marvel/super hero movies. I guess we’ll see next summer.
er, except janet (i think that was Kendrick’s character) was preggers, so mike was a family man with a wee kid and brian was a family man about to have a wee kid — not convinced there’s a huge diff in the potential poignancy factor and subverting a tired white movie star cliché (maybe you could re-mount your apparatus and practice your hand grip some more)
For the record, I thought that having them both die would have been more fitting with the title.
The entire movie spends virtually every minute of Pena’s screen time emphasizing his family man-ness. And following your cliche theory, it usually is the big white movie star who buys it at the end of the movie so he can play Jesus and sacrifice himself for our sins.
and yes, I *love* masturbating! Thanks for the interest! 🙂
“For the record, I thought that having them both die would have been more fitting with the title.”
me too, i actually thought it was going to be unique and gutsy and have them both kark it at the end (as would have been realistic anyway) but no
ETA “it usually is the big white movie star who buys it at the end of the movie so he can play Jesus and sacrifice himself for our sins”
are you smoking crack (hey, might make masturbation more interesting)
No, no crack. I just watch movies. Unless you’re mixing and matching your dopey movie cliches. Is this the one where black people die first in sci fi/horror? Cause this isn’t that.
Again, the cliche isn’t in the white guy living. I get that it’s your programming that requires that narrative. The family guy biting it is the cliche. The real racial divide question on the deep end of the pool is whether Michael Pena would be allowed to have the white movie star role in the first place. It would make way more sense for a street cop thriller to star a black/brown person vs a white guy in 2015, let alone one that purports to be “realistic and gritty.”
hello, please don’t tell me what my ‘programming’ is, pup. yeah like i don’t watch movies and you do (and i’m ‘programmed’ and you’re not? hahahaha please, your programming is so deep and systemically entrenched that you don’t even think it EXISTS, that’s the most hilarious thing – that the most systemically and culturally programmed group think their opinions are ‘neutral’ and clearly considered while others not of your group – who know more than you do – aren’t)
yes pena in the brian role would be more logical. but ayer’s writing for ‘end of watch’ (a movie i rather like, warts and all) is rife with simplistic racial clichés – even cringeworthy at times – RIGHT TO THE END. saying the white male movie star surviving [insert conflict here] at the end isn’t a cliché, indeed a STAPLE, of cinema is downright laughable. i have nothing more to say on the matter
Yeah, didn’t say most of what you’re talking about. These words you’re using, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
Here:
“and i’m ‘programmed’ and you’re not?”
No, never suggested as much. I’m quite aware of my biases and tendencies.
” that the most systemically and culturally programmed group”
No idea what group I’m supposed to belong to, White Guys Who Like White Guy Cops That Survive Cop Movies, perhaps? I’m guessing you have any number of internet-based conflicts going on at any given time, are you confusing our conversation with some other you’re having with someone else on another forum?
Finally:
“saying the white male movie star surviving [insert conflict here] at the end isn’t a cliché, indeed a STAPLE, of cinema is downright laughable.”
No, I didn’t say that. I said in this case the cliche was layered on the family man character having to die. But again, your programming is myopic in it’s direction’s spray (Incidentally, the cliche you’re really describing is simply a cliche of most protagonists: they tend to SURVIVE whatever conflict thrown at them. Y’know, the hero coming out on top and all that. It’s, like, a staple of most films. As I said the deep end of the pool thinking would ask why those protagonists must almost always be white. That’s the larger more depressing conversation.)
But hey, thanks for giving me the last word. Very reasonable and thoughtful of you. Good talk!
Oof, all this “programming” talk is starting to sound like the comments section of an InfoWars article.
You were programmed to say that.
JS — reread my comment please.
I was talking about MY opinion (which is 100 percent valid) that the marvel nonsense ruined the film.
Clearly there are plenty of people who like it (or tolerate it) given how much money those movies make.
My point was, and is, that Marvel finally ALMOST made a good movie.
In my one hundred percent valid opinion.
Ant man was almost an actual movie with character, theme and story.
Almost.
But yes, many people like the nonsense.
To each their own.
For the record, I thought that having them both die would have been more fitting with the title.
Agree 100%. The ending left a really foul taste in my mouth.
Maybe that’s why–despite really liking “End of Watch:” the chemistry between Pena and Gyllenhaal was fantastic–my favorite Ayer movie is (don’t laugh) “Sabotage.”
The “Suicide Squad” trailer looks pretty freaking amazing, though. And everyone on here knows that I’m not a comic book guy, lol.
I think this may be the first real sign of fatigue with Marvel/super hero movies. I guess we’ll see next summer.
Amblin- If a Marvel fatigue is indeed responsible for “Ant-Man” (slightly) underperforming (about frigging time if you ask me), what does that mean for “Fantastic Four” opening in just three short weeks?
It’s too soon to tell personally. Wasn’t ASM2 considered a “sign of fatigue” last year?
Anyone get to see “Court?” Devastatingly good.
can i laugh just a tiny bit at your choice of ‘sabotage’ movieman? (i just watched ‘sophie’s choice’ though so any choice besides sophie’s seems a trifle. still one of the all-time benchmarks in film acting from streep, jesus herbert christ just next-level surreal in its intense pain and beauty, it haunts me)
F4’s performance, IMO, has no bearing on marvel fatigue.
The only thing it will indicate is the success or failure of FOX’s attempt to reboot.
To me, it looks like the real trainwreck
We’ll get a sense I think of whether marvel fatigue is real with Civil War next year. And I think marvel knows that — hence the cramming in of Spider-Man.
They are smart over there in manhattan beach. They’ll figure out how to keep the train running for a while. And given the heights they’ve reached it’s probably a long ride down.
Maybe.
I suppose we’ll see soon enough.
I just wish the movies were better.
Booting whedon feels like the right movie. Russos did much better.
Derrickson is a good choice too. It all depends on how much free reign they’re given.
Pakula was the man, Leah!
Pena had a nice turn in Observe and Report.
“It’s too soon to tell personally. Wasn’t ASM2 considered a “sign of fatigue” last year? ”
I just thought it was specifically a sign of Spiderman fatigue.
pena’s the shit in ‘observe and report’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwN3GTDIvdw
“Amblin- If a Marvel fatigue is indeed responsible for “Ant-Man” (slightly) underperforming (about frigging time if you ask me), what does that mean for “Fantastic Four” opening in just three short weeks?”
Nothing, honestly. That movie has been getting shitty buzz and press so if it tanks it wouldn’t be a good test case for any kind of audience fatigue.
(If I’ve said it already, I want to re-iterate that FF is actually one of the few comic properties I was looking forward to because TRank was doing it. I loved Chronicle. There’s a shot it would be so much more interesting than any of the Marvel dreck.)