April 26, 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
I may skip Suicide Squad and wait until VOD. I never thought I’d say that. Save my $$ for Sausage Party next week. Never thought I’d say that either.
Plus, I think I’m going to hate Leto’s Joker. Never liked the look or how he appeared in the trailers.
Everyone should skip SS this weekend. Enough already.
I may agree with Dave or I may not. Still going to see Suicide Squad. I’ll make up my mind for myself. I don’t let critics decide what I see.
I think I’ll skip Sausage Party until hell freezes over.
Leto is absolutely terrible. The only saving grace is that he’s hardly in it. Just an awful performance in every possible way.
@Stella I think Leto showed some promise but the Joker as written is a total dog. A pimp who owns a nightclub that is self-aware that he’s THE JOKER (his texting profile pic is his own face icon). Probably a little too much Ledger there too.
The movie is just awful. The RT score actually doesn’t do justice to how putrid the movie is. You could watch it out of sequence and it wouldn’t make a single difference to how it plays. The movie was obviously cut to shit but it’s not like what was filmed is any good anyway. Ayer has no feel for this material. Robbie is the only character that’s interesting and gets a beat or two to be cool and watchable.
FF was a better movie. Yeah, I went there. DC should walk away from DCCU, get back into the Batman business and try to build from there.
I agree that FF is a better movie. It’s not good but it’s easier to watch. I just don’t like how Leto played the part. Maybe Ledger is still too fresh in my mind, but Leto is just grating. Not funny, not frightening, not interesting, just irritating. I feel the same about Robbie. She’s a good actress, but I hate the character. Her one-liners are horrible. They’re out of a bad CBS sitcom. The timing isn’t good either. They all land with a thud. And yeah you can tell from the opening minutes that it was cut to shit. The way scenes abruptly and awkwardly end. The way the plot is always being re-explained. But hey the marketing sure did its job.
I watched The Lobster last night. I liked it. A lot. I don’t quite know what to make of it but I liked it. It moved me. The performances were great. John C Reilly automatically improves any movie he appears in (like Harry Dean Stanton). Farrell was fantastic. Rachel Weisz. I’m in love with her anyway but she’s a sensational actress as well.
That last shot was a doozy, too. Simple but loaded.
It’ll probably be in my top 10 but I need to watch it again.
It was hard not to think of Ledger when the lights went down in the theater and you see Leto for the first time. I saw some of those early stills of him and thought, OK, this looks like it could be pretty badass! There really wasn’t much to his character, like plot wise or any memorable scenes by design. I liked his throwback laugh, coulda been rather chilling, but there was never any real time to use it.
The negativity surrounding Rio has been the biggest story leading up to the Olympics. The Zika virus is one thing but when I heard about people trying to disrupt the torch relay to draw attention to the fact that many workers hadn’t been paid and there was raw sewage in the river, it made me wonder what’s to come of Rio after the circus has packed up and left town. Greece is barely out of the ICU from what happened to it. I heard many of the new buildings and facilities built for the Beijing games haven’t been used. But I guess the Chinese can repo Delaware if things go really bad. I was kinda thinking, holding the Olympics in a developing nation might be the way to go. Use some funds to make improvements to the infrastructure and make it more of a tourist trap and econ center once the games move on. It’s too bad there’s no oversight, as we saw in Sochi. All that money funneled in only wound up in people’s pockets. People write about the poor conditions and they come across as spoiled Westerners, which maybe they were, but putting two toilets in a closet to meet the numerical count required exposed the corruption.
All that said to mention that I’m watching longer than I anticipated. I’d be more keen on NBCU’s coverage if I had any idea where half their channels were located on the dial. Is it safe to assume anything on NBC is going to be tape delayed with a ton of packages crammed in? All I ask is to see the 100m sprint in real time as it happens.
Having just seen two more of his recent releases, I’d like to take a minute to appreciate Ethan Hawke’s incredible run in the last 2 years:
Boyhood, Born to Be Blue, Maggie’s Plan, The Phenom, Predestination, Ten Thousand Saints, Seymour: An Introduction (directed), Good Kill, In a Valley of Violence (and two worthy misfires in Cymbeline and Regression).
The man is putting in serious work, and it’s largely going unnoticed. Hawke will forever be tied to Linklater (5 of his 7 best movies are arguably Linklater), but he has really adapted to the role of America’s intellectual dad, even if no one sees his movies. I’m still bitter PREDESTINATION didn’t get more attention. PHENOM was totally dismissed for some reason by audiences, and now he’s barely shown in MAGNIFICENT SEVEN trailers.
Oh well! Keep doing you, Ethan Hawke. One of the most interesting, down to earth men in film, with an unquenchable curiosity. I’m so glad filmmakers appreciate him and he has a steady diet of good movies.
I totally agree Ethan. Great post. I remember seeing him in Toronto at a screening of Tape in 2001 (great flick). He worked the crowd like nobody’s business. Charming and funny. Plus, more importantly, as you say he’s a wonderful actor making really interesting choices.
TAPE is underrated, probably because it may not hold up given at it was at the forefront of a new technique (as so many of the Linklater/Hawke films are). Producing a top 10 Ethan Hawke movies list is damn difficult at this point. I’d put in 5 Linklaters (Before trilogy, Boyhood, Waking Life), BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, his breakout in DEAD POETS, and TRAINING DAY, with his two innovative sci-fiers (Predestination and Gattaca) and Tape hovering on the border.
So much to choose from, though, and I’m really glad he didn’t fall into the horror genre like Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga…was worried for a second with PURGE and SINISTER, especially given his effectiveness in the latter. Should have known better.
Ehtan Hawke top 10. I’m in. In no particular order, Gattaca, Sinister, Boyhood, Before Trilogy, Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, Tape, Dead Poets Society, and Training Day. I need to see Predestination and Good Kill, among others. I like Lord of War a lot but he’s barely in it. I also love his B movies like Brooklyn’s Finest and Assault on Precinct 13. In a Valley of Violence looks fun. What a great filmography. Special mention: Mystery Date, which is awesome. Saw that one as part of a double feature with Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.
Haha yessss, “Mystery Date.”
I’d squeeze A Midnight Clear into the top ten somewhere too. Underrated little gem.
TROY DYER (wash your freakin hair, smugly tortured grunge poser) this blog is so sausage
I remember liking Reality Bites in 1994 but not liking it as much when I saw it 10 years later. That’s the last time I saw it.
Nobody mentioned “Explorers.”
I love that movie.
Of course, back then Joe Dante could do no wrong for me.
(Glad somebody referenced “Mystery Date,” though. I’d almost forgotten how much I dug it in the summer of 1991.)
It wasn’t a great movie, but I liked his performance in Snow Falling on Cedars.
TY to Stella’s Boy for mentioning Sinister. The sequel is shit but Hawke is fantastic in the first film. He’s completely believable and grounds the craziness. Plus, I found it quite scary, as horror junkie.
I also love Explorers. Big Joe Dante fan. Gremlins is one of my top 5 favorite movies ever. Seriously. But back to Hawke, he was so charming and natural in that role. I can’t think of one bad Ethan Hawke performance. Shout-out to Poland, too, for his excellent DP/30 with Hawke a few years ago.
The only paycheck phone-in he’s done that I can recall is GETAWAY, one of the numerous attempts to launch Selena Gomez as a movie star…totally understandable.
Big ups to Gremlins love. One of my faves too.
a wise woman once said, when people show you who they are, believe them
@ Sideshow Bill
Not sure if you watch any of The CW’s DC shows, but Joe Dante directed an episode of Legends of Tomorrow. It was a throwback to 1950s horror films and was probably the best episode of the season. “Night of the Hawk” if you’re curious.
i hope the debate commission replies to DT: we do not negotiate with terrorists
The debate thing tells me Trump knows he’s going to lose. Aside from Julian Assange starting rumors that Hillary orchestrated the Darfur genocide between her tenures as Queen of Isis and Serial Killer to make Clooney and Angelina look good, it’s the last opportunity to shake up the race. Seems like he’s more concerned with looking bad next to a woman than winning. The only reason he didn’t falter in the primaries was there were so many goons on stage, his method of insult-and-run was able to work because he had cover.
He just told CNBC that if he loses he’s going on a very long, nice vacation so even if he loses he wins.
Since we’re onto politics (?), I’ve got a hunch that even if Hillary single-handedly cures cancer and achieves world (i.e., Middle East) peace, she’ll still just be a one-term POTUS.
The hatred from the right is so freaking intense and frankly irrational, there’s no way she could defeat a “safe” Republican ticket (Ryan/Rubio?) in 2020 no matter what her accomplishments.
Of course, I’d love to be proven wrong.
I don’t know if there is a rational ticket to be had, or one that can make it through their primary. The white hot hate is not what she has to worry about but the queasy feeling a large number of the population has about her. The only trump voters I know just can’t bring themselves to vote for a Clinton again (but I am working on them). Hilary’s camp has brought up a great point though, her approval ratings are usually strong when she holds the job so the best arguement for another four will be the first four. Though I do want to get whatever certification neccesary to become an indipendent investigator, that niche industry is about to explode for the next few years.
It’s a weird election. The people voting for Trump are doing so because of Hillary, and the people voting for Hillary are doing so because of Trump. Just wish the third alternative was stronger.
Agree about the people voting for Trump. Disagree about the people voting for Clinton.
pete b, that’s BS though, hillary has a huge base. nobody talks about them because they’re generally not loud and obnoxious and it’s not ‘edgy’ – nor does it serve the media narrative, going strong for what, 3 decades now of faux ‘scandals’ and double-standards and desperate witch-hunts that at the end of the day, time and time again, amount to nada (because it’s not about good governance, but rather the ritual humiliation of a woman who won’t cowtow and submit). and all at the expense of the taxpayer, funny that, pay up suckers! enough already, it’s pathetic and an embarrassment to the US. the sheer number of scuzzy men trying so desperately to bring hillary down at this point, it’s like hmmm she must be doing something right.
the funniest thing is, i finally finished reading all of the dem platform/policies, it took me a while cause i hate that shit, but it actually looks like one of the most ‘progressive’ (oh how i’ve come to flinch at that word, when did so-called progressives become mouth-pieced by so many pricks?) platforms ever in mainstream american politics. and of course being a massive nerd hillary has it all laid out and planned to a t with her i’s dotted and t’s crossed, A+ book report dorkus. (i wonder how many people have actually read the platform, or are just content to have their heads up their asses for the duration)
ftr there are a couple things i disagree with re hillary’s past record during her time in the senate and obama’s admin as SOS (like every other candidate ever), and some of the proposed policies don’t go nearly far enough, but if you get out and VOTE to get a dem majority back in the house and senate then you can push through your representation for more, better reform and policies into the future. this is how it works, politics, the infuriating marriage of ideology and pragmatism
leahnz, I was going by personal experience on who I’ve talked to. I’ve met a couple Pro-Trump people, but the majority voting for him simply hate Hillary. The people voting for Hillary are luke warm for her, but hate Trump. And these have been women voters too.
The only folks genuinely enthusiastic for their candidate were the Bernie supporters.
I’m sure there are others out there, but I haven’t met them yet.
Let’s go by the polls: there’s been like 100 that have asked this question and while it was somewhat close when it wasn’t a 48-40 race with Hillary leading, those done recently back up brack and leannz…somewhat. About 60% of Hillary supporters are voting for her and 40% against Trump, and it’s the reverse for Trump (40% for him, 60% against Hillary). The most recently by McLatchy has it 57/40 pro Hillary among her supporters and 36/57 among Trump’s. Similar in Fox News. This is why Trump saying “she’s the devil” and “she’s a monster” at rallies plays so well for him.
The big divide is because of minorities, to be frank. Latinos and Asians have much more positive views of Hillary (blacks tend to really dislike Trump also…he actually polls 4th among blacks nationally behind Jill Stein and Gary Johnson in average of 4 most recent polls).
At this rate, the election is really just going to come down to the candidate that depresses their own party’s turnout the least, which gives Clinton the upper hand. The zealous hardcore will still get out and vote Trump even if he blames Hillary for killing Christ and inventing the holocaust, but the rest of the voters he desperately needs will be nestled in their homes, slumped down in an easy chair and muttering “god damn it…” to nobody in particular while they bathe in the hazy blue glow of Fox News’ election coverage.
That’s the hope for Democrats. The real question for this election is becoming can the Republicans hold onto the Senate by getting their voters to turn out and vote for their Senate candidates as they vote against Trump. Where the Senate goes, so goes the Supreme Court, which is where everything is happening since Congress abdicated on its responsibilities to legislate.