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
Dave I find this pic insulting. How dare you equate Donald Trump to a pig. We all know he’s beneath that.
You should make another one of those and put Devin Faraci’s head on it.
“Should Donald Trump drop out of the race? Yes. He should drop out of the human race. He is an animal. Apologies to animals.”-Republican consultant Ana Navarro.
Another realization for me on how insulated I am is when Hillary provided what I thought was a genuinely eloquent answer on having different policies in public vs private in reference to Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” and the insider work he did to pass the Thirteenth Amendment (the leaked email in question was her reaction to the movie). Trump immediately attacked her on comparing herself to Lincoln and the audience guffawed along with him.
The Democrats have nominated technocratic, analytical candidates for president for over 30 years now, and I thought we’d reached the point where anti-intellectual arguments were losing steam at the national level. Hillary, her many other flaws aside, isn’t very good at this. She can rattle off encyclopedic knowledge of internal Kurdish politics at an 11-hour congressional hearing, but much like Kerry and Gore, and unlike her husband and Obama, has no patience for dumbing down when necessary. I assume because she thinks it’s beneath her, or perhaps isn’t quick enough on her feet in these operatic spectacles. But I can’t believe it still is necessary in this day and age. Sad!
Speaking of “Lincoln,” which is a master class in humanizing a revered figure, and pointing out the petty wheelings and dealings that he wasn’t, and couldn’t be above, I finally caught up with “The Innocents,” which is a 180; how not to make a movie of an historic event. I’m totally down with slow-moving monastic dramas, and “Innocents” is very well crafted, but it needs to have a narrative, or some spiritual or metaphorical value in order to engage me, ala’ “Of Gods and Men.” Otherwise you’re just mounting a very expensive semi-reenectment.
I loved Cruz’s “where was this eight months ago” reaction to the tape. Forget that his party has nominated a buffoon who is gross and grossly unqualified by all measurements to be president, Cruz sees a conspiracy because the tape wasn’t found early enough to help his chances. This tape is only some sort of smoking gun if you have already ignored DNA evidence, survallence footage, eyewitness testimony and whatever else fits into that metaphor. It’s amazing to me that people are committing crimes to hack into databases to get nondamning evidence against Hillary while trump is easily hung because he betrays his creepiness in normal conversation into an open mic.
Good point Bill. How do you not remember something but also assume it’s true and beg for forgiveness? That makes no sense. I never liked the guy. He always seemed to represent the worst of online critics going back to the days of CHUD.
Will the footage from The Apprentice ever see the light of day? At this point I can’t imagine it matters as the election is over (Andrew Sullivan, really?).
I’ve never liked Faraci either. He’s always been a bully, a hypocrite and a creep. Not beating my chest over this because it’s awful and someone was harmed. But he deserves the scorn being heaped upon him. He’s said and done so many other rotten things this is somewhat unsurprising.
Initially the pressure was on Mark Burnett to release, but he’s claiming MGM has it. Will Rob Lowe and others be pressured? Time for a boycott of Code Black!
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/devin-faraci-birth-movies-death-sexual-assault-1201885262/
It’s good that there has been blow back on Devin.
I guess everyone’s now waiting for Tim League to say some more on the subject
Devin once responded to a 20 year old female you emailed him about his Passion Of The Christ review by asking for nude photos. I have a screenshot of it. This was 2003. He’s always been a bad person.
I probably shouldn’t be as surprised by the Devin story as I am. It’s easy to see a line between the bully he can be and the behavior that’s been reported. I’m not feeling a shred of sympathy for him. But I have been examining my own behavior over the years. There’s nothing like what Trump described or what Devin seems to have done. But, man, this type of behavior is so pervasive and wired into the culture. Not saying that as “holy shit, what a revelation!” Just that there are so many ways this crap happens even when it stops short of physical abuse. If there’s any good that can come out of this lanced boil of our political process, I hope it at least leads to a wider examination of all of this.
Shit. I totally missed that shit about Devin, but this dude has needed to be phased out for a while. He just got madder and madder at people’s fandom, and this isn’t even the bad moments of fandom. He just seemed continually pissed off, that people could enjoy something. His Luke Cage review, being another example, of the motherfucker being all about shitting on something, that received a lot of love. Hid sexual assaulting ass can stay the fuck at home and maybe pay for a fucking movie, for fucking once. The world has moved on, from his view of fandom. Grabbing someone like that… Is just so vile.
I always thought he seemed like a loutish asshole, but that was based on his writing and hyper-aggressive fandom. It’s not like I had any idea what he was like in-person. But it’s clear that this comes as no surprise to people who actually know or knew him. And I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that someone who belittled and bullied people for not sharing their movie preferences behaved like this. What took so long? It took a single tweet about Trump to blow this up? Better late than never I guess, but it’s highly unfortunate he wasn’t held accountable much sooner if he’s been like this for a long time.
He’s been a bully before in an uber-film-geek, self-righteous way. The specific nature of this news was a surprise to most of us who only know him one way. But once this stuff surfaced, the verdict was swift. I’m sure Tim League doesn’t want anything like that associated with him. But, yes, if people knew about this all along and covered for him or kept quiet (apart from the victim because I can’t imagine how hard it is to step into a spotlight like that) then it’s ridiculous it took this long.
Good riddance to Devin. He was an anti-cinema bully boy who ran a hateful and unreadable website. Another example of it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you say the right thing.