April 16, 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
Gonna watch Lady Bird and Shape of Water today but the 3 I’ve seen ( Get Out, Dunkirk, 3 Billboards)..,I liked but didn’t love any of them. Didn’t think any of them was entirely successful at what they were trying to do. I will be rooting for Sam Rockwell though. He’s a gift, and I found him to be very very good. He screwed up Zaphod Beeblebrox but I’ve gotten over it. Defoe would be just as deserving.
Best nominated movie: Phantom Thread
Could live with: Dunkirk, CMBYN, Lady Bird, Get Out (barely)
Not great: Three Billboards
Not good: Shape of Water
Not seen: Darkest Hour, The Post
Rumor going around online that the “creative differences” that got Colin Trevorrow fired from IX is he was fighting hard not to kill Luke or Snoke. And in his script Luke lived and rode off into the proverbial sunset passing the baton to Rey. But KK and RJ insisted on killing Luke and CT couldn’t accept that and they fired him. Not only that, but they flooded the media with gossip of him being difficult to work with.
So basically CT was fired and had his reputation damaged because he was fighting for the movie fans wanted. What. The. Fuck.
Oscar say what? He says It’s BYO Blog bitches! And this is the tea I brought. Enjoy.
GdB – interesting, but I don’t buy it. For one thing, that would mean Trevorrow was actively trying to interfere with the shape and storyline of someone else’s movie, a movie that was already deep into preparation. For good or ill (and this has been debated to death already so I won’t go too deep into it here) Johnson had the stones to take the world’s biggest franchise and still make it a personal movie (again, watch Looper and TLJ in the same day and note the parallels). If what you say is true, then Trevorrow was trying to undermine another filmmaker, and that won’t wash. And trying to make the movie ‘that the fans wanted’ is a fool’s errand. Going down that road gives you Schumacher-era Batman. Or Justice League. Or X-Men Origins : Wolverine. Or Spiderman 3.
Oh man, bring on the late night conspiracy theories…..that one is so off the tracks that it is hilarious…..
I’m definitely not buying all of it, or most of it, but Iike most rumors in this game, I bet there’s a grain of truth to it somehow/somewhere. Add the fact that it wasn’t reported on major sites also adds evidence that it’s not true.
Though it should be noted that RJ went and took everything JJ did and threw it out the window and undermined TFA, so not sure about that being the reason it’s not true.
I also have to disagree with the examples of movies the fans wanted. None of the Geeks in my world liked any of those movies or felt like they respected fans. Quite the opposite. Justice League is the only one out of your examples I could see that being the case only because its recent in an current era where they are trying to respect the source material to some degree. But I totally still take your point and agree with it in principle.
The thing that gets me; if there is any truth to it, is the publicity buzz about CT being difficult. If that’s what was really going on, on some level, then its fucked up to trash the guy over it. They should have said he left over creative differences and left it at that.
(I actually wafched JL last night for the 1st time. Better than I expected, but I also went in with very low expectations)
Also, I will be watching Black Panther during the Oscar telecast. In LA, Oscar day is one of the best days to catch a flick when you want the best seats or the theater all to your self.
I will never ever grasp, how LFL could look at the success of Marvel Studios, and go, “We don’t need any of that!” The moment Black Panther beats TLJ, thanks to China and Japan, then someone at LFL needs to get their walking papers. If it doesn’t happen, then they have a reprieve. It’s still insane, that they are jumping through hoops with the UHD/BD release of TLJ and explaining everything, when all they had to do was continue TFA. They had one job to do! ONE… JOB.
The theory sounds a lot like CT trying to save face by retconning his firing.
I think Shape of Water has the edge this year. I could go through all of its bonafides, but ultimately, it’s the movie that feels like that #2 slot.
What does Black Panther and The Last Jedi have in common? Are they both superhero movies? Are they in the same universe. I’m missing how you know for a fax that The Last Jedi would have grossed close to The Force Awakens if just turned Star Wars into a superhero universe.
I liked RJ f*cking with JJ’s mystery box and killing Snoke. Some problems with some ideas not fully realized or not being able to pull the trigger, but overall an improvement on the fanfic Mary Sue remake that was TFA.
Oh come on. If anything, TLJ is the Mary Sue fanfic. That’s just spatial distortion, man. TLJ takes anything that was fun about SW, and makes it dire slog.
And it’s not about being a superhero movie. It’s about pleasing people. 5 of the last 6 MSCU movies are over 800m dollars. Why? They don’t treat their die hard fans like shite. They actually have a plan, discuss the plan, and pay the plan off. It’s not about if you guys like the movies or not. It’s about what they do, and what do they do? They pay the plan off.
LFL and Kathleen Kennedy, have the third biggest movie of all time, looked at that box office, and told Rian Johnson, “Do whatever. It’s cool.” There was zero plan, RJ has said as much, and they took that 2bn, and couldn’t even turn it’s sequel into making JW money.
That’s why, I have no idea why LFL and KK didn’t look at the MSCU model and go, “Let’s copy that!” Every single turn, they have just made pigheaded and wrong decisions, that leave fans like my brother, checking out. After Solo, I am finished caring, because as a fan, a plan would have been nice. These mfers have time travel now, so who knows what JJ will do. I don’t care, because I have the MSCU films, and Kevin and co. continue to pay things off.
It’s not that I wanted TLJ to be exactly what I envisioned in my head. No, I wanted payoff, and what I received, what many received, is some straight up conflicted and tiresome stuff. That’s my opinion, but glad someone got something from it. Just because I hate it. Doesn’t mean I want a theatre full of miserable mfers watching it.
And I totally believe that Trevorrow stuff. Why? I wouldn’t know how to follow up TLJ either. Except, Trevorrow was probably not let in on the time travel thing, because guess what? JJ is going to Felicity this stuff, and that’s hilarious. If you don’t know what that means, JJ used time travel to fix all of his mistakes on Felicity. SW, now features time travel, thanks to Rebels, and it would seem like time travel would be the only true way to fix this mess for the future. Sure. It’s the last Skywalker Saga film for a long while, but I am sure they want to leave it open for the future.
“TLJ takes anything that was fun about SW, and makes it dire slog.”
This is the argument that makes no sense to me. TFA basically crapped all over the Original Trilogy. All the fighting against the Empire was pointless because the First Order immediately steps in. Leia & Han didn’t stay together, even after having a child. And that child grows up to kill his father. Luke Skywalker disappears and no one can find him. All that happens in TFA, but yet its the “fun” movie.
If you can accept everything that happens in TFA, then why does TLJ piss you off?
“And it’s not about being a superhero movie. It’s about pleasing people. 5 of the last 6 MSCU movies are over 800m dollars.”
So did the first two Star Wars ST movies. You can’t say Episode IX won’t top $800m because it hasn’t been released yet. So “pleasing people” equals “over $800m”. TLJ qualifies by your own standard.
“It’s not about if you guys liked the movies or not.”
So it’s not about “pleasing people?” Which is it JSP? WHICH ONE?
*awaits answer*
ANNNNNND…we’re back to TLJ.
Both perspectives make sense to me. It’s bad that they didn’t pay-off the expectations from TFA. It’s also badass that they didn’t pay them off, thus transgressively subverting preconceptions.
I’d say it wasn’t a complete success, but also not a complete failure. The reaction just depends on how tied you are to SW working in a specific way.
And I love time travel as a device, even if it sometimes invites a certain laziness. But I’m on board with SW as long as John Williams is around to score it.
Sometimes when you take the plunger to clean crap up, it’s a bit of a mess. But it clears things up for a new story.