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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB Almost Friday

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24 Responses to “BYOB Almost Friday”

  1. Doug R says:

    Wow. Hitman is at 9%. Still better than FF.

  2. EtGuild2 says:

    I caught up with “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” Delighted, and this is not my type of movie.

    Blythe Danner among an array of others (Hal Holbrook, Armand Assante, apparently every Law & Order guest star from Michael Moriarty to mid-Sam Waterston) got her start at my grandparents’ summer stock theater in Holyoke, MASS. I’d never had the pleasure of seeing Danner in a lead role. Loved how “Dreams” cut against the grain.

  3. Nick says:

    Watching captain america winter soldier im taken by how “tv” a majority of the film looks.

  4. PcChongor says:

    I think you mean how “Disney” it looks.

  5. YancySkancy says:

    Typo on the home page — “Walter” Goggins. [ed. thx!]

  6. Chris says:

    So this article posits that Star Wars might have a $300m opening weekend.

    https://www.yahoo.com/movies/new-star-wars-the-force-awakens-box-office-127708061227.html

    This is bullshit, right? The biggest Dec. opening ever is $84m (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, playing on over 4,000 screens).

  7. Bulldog68 says:

    Yes, it is bullshit. I have no doubt it will smash the December opening record and be the first one over $100m. I think that’s all but guaranteed, but this one will have legs, like many December releases and all previous Star Wars films, including the latest ones.

    In my opinion it won’t challenge the Opening Weekend record, but I think it will definitely challenge Jurassic World and Titanic final numbers.

    That being said, no one thought JW would break the record. $300m is extremely doubtful, but when Phantom Menace opened, it’s $64m was the biggest opening ever, then the other two opened second biggest only to Spiderman, the caveat being that they opened on Thursdays, so it has history of big openings.

  8. leahnz says:

    i thought i saw something somewhere about ‘the force wakes up’ hogging every single available imax screen for its opening salvo at the expense of other movies, if that’s true then an eye on record-breaking would seem likely (apparently the force doesn’t play well with others, bad force, you go sit in the corner)

  9. movieman says:

    While I was delighted to learn that Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds are receiving honorary Oscars, am I the only one who thought that Spike Lee’s award smacked of racial-pandering (perhaps in response to the accusations of a “Selma” snub last year?).
    Yeah, Spike has done some remarkable work (even if his last legitimately great film–the Katrina doc–was made for HBO), but isn’t it a tad premature for “Lifetime Achievement” honors? Especially when you consider that the Academy still refuses to give Doris Day a token of their appreciation. I’m starting to think Day must have really pissed somebody off once upon a time.

  10. John E. says:

    Spike’s 58 and he’s been a voice in cinema for about 30 years. Sure, he should have won for Do the Right Thing, but 30 years seems like a long-enough body of work to give a “Lifetime Achievement” award.

  11. Kevin says:

    TURBO KID, which comes out today in the US in select theaters and on VOD, is bloody awesome.

    If you like the 80s, MAD MAX, Michael Ironside, gore and BMX, it’s a must-see!

  12. palmtree says:

    movieman, why the negative spin? You could also say the Academy is trying to make a statement by honoring an influential black filmmaker at a time when race and diversity are in the national spotlight.

    I actually thought Passing Strange was a really well-done concert film that allowed me a chance to see what is now one of my favorite contemporary musicals.

  13. storymark says:

    leahnz – Yes, The Force Awakens is going to be on every IMAX screen for 1 month – but there weren’t any other IMAX releases scheduled in that window, so I don’t think its taking screens from anything. The first Hobbit also had the same deal.

  14. Mostly Lurking says:

    Um, isn’t it likely that the Star Wars IMAX exclusivity is the reason that there are no other IMAX releases scheduled in that window?

  15. storymark says:

    Im sure it factors in. But this deal was just set, and nothing was cancelled. Would every single studio agree not to release something in that format months ahead of time, at Disney’s behest? Because its not like the month suddenly got cleared out – there had been no bookings at all.

    I assume they have been avoiding December releases in general because of TFA, but it seems silly to think that the “reason” there have been no bookings all year is because of an exclusive deal just set.

  16. Ray Pride says:

    Any litigators on whether this violates antitrust nonetheless?

  17. All this hyping of Star Wars: The Force Awakens’s box office is just hysterical. That’s why Bob Iger is even downplaying some expectations.

  18. movieman says:

    Palm- Because it’s just so transparent/blatant an attempt by the Academy to help defuse the “controversy” that plagued them last awards season re: the perceived “‘Selma’ snub.” It’s also so damn easy to knee-jerkly bestow an award to placate p.c. sensibilities. How about finding consistently worthy (big screen) roles for all the great African American talent (Viola Davis–for starters–I’m looking at you) at their fingertips?
    I’ve been a Spike advocate since “She’s Gotta Have It” (“Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” “Jungle Fever” and “When the Levees Broke” are my personal favorites), but his body of work has been notoriously and frustratingly uneven (“Girl 6”? “Get on the Bus”? “She Hate Me”?). I’m not sure whether he deserves a “Lifetime Achievement” award at this stage of his career.
    What about David Lynch? David Cronenberg? Brian DePalma? Etc., etc.
    Has George Lucas ever won one of these things? For better or worse, I can’t think of many other filmmakers who have been as influential over the past four decades.
    And the continued refusal to award DD an honorary Oscar simply confounds me. By rights, she should have gotten one during the first Reagan administration. Debbie is keen and all that, but Day is truly the more worthy/deserving H’wood icon.

  19. leahnz says:

    what ever the case with imax (sounds dodgy), i just hope they stick with the same theme for the next five sequels
    SW VIII: the force has a double espresso
    IX: the force clears massive paperwork backlog, pays bills
    X: the force needs a nap
    XII the force throws a huge tanty
    XIII: the force rage-quits.
    a character arc to write home about

  20. Mostly Lurking says:

    “I’m sure it factors in. But this deal was just set, and nothing was cancelled.”

    Makes sense. Had I realized the deal was just set, I never would have questioned the logic of your post. Back to lurking…

  21. chris says:

    The Day thing is simple, movieman. They want to give her one but she doesn’t want to show up to accept it. So they aren’t giving it to her.

  22. palmtree says:

    I don’t think the Selma snub is really the issue. It’s the continuing lack of good roles for women and people of color and the perception that the Academy is not inclusive. I have no problem with the Academy choosing to be more inclusive. Saying that this takes away a spot from another filmmaker seems unnecessarily zero-sum to me.

  23. movieman says:

    I don’t get that reasoning, Chris (altho I’ve heard it before).
    They had to know that Godard was going to be a no-show when he was awarded a Lifetime thing-y a few years back.
    And it’s not like the honorary awards are even part of the “Big TV Night” ceremony anymore.

  24. cadavra says:

    Well, I think they suspected Godard wouldn’t show, but he’s weird enough that he might have come anyway, if for no other reason than to tell everyone what douchebags they are, which certainly would have been a viral sensation. (Don’t forget he could have declined the award, but he didn’t.) You may recall that Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant both turned down the AFI Life Achievement Award, so this is far from unprecedented.

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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?”

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