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
more like CAT-ain marvel, ba dum dum tss
(goose – aka chewie, from what i gather in this case played by 4 ca[c]t[er]s – giving masuka a run for the money for most bitchin’ cinema feline)
Don’t fuck with a Flerken. I am just happy, that Secret Invasion is dead. You don’t create someone like Talos, to have him lose control of his people, and let them start copying people. It’s such a stupid story, but people are still hung up on it. Much like with the way they TIMED OUT the Netflix shows. The Marvel Studios producers really figured that shit, and I commend them on it.
I was thrilled with the face turn. I stopped reading the comics in the early 90’s. Skrulls were always villains. Period. Kree were just assholes.
What we need? A workplace sitcom with Talos. Disney+ needs to make this happen yesterday.
“Listen, I need your TPS report immedia…no..stop…stop turning into a TPS report. That’s…not gonna work…again.”
Amblin, LOL. I’d watch that.
We had a lot of fun. It’s probably mid-tier Marvel but they are all so close in quality to me that it’s not a knock. Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 are low end outliers. Thor: Ragnarok is the only MCU movie I’ve top 10ed.
I seem to be in the minority in loving the first end credit scene. It was an effective tease for me even if a bit spoilery. Didn’t care.
My eleven year old daughter went with a birthday party and absolutely loved it. Any problems I will eventually have after seeing it will be insignificant to the movie delivering an exhilarating theatrical experience to my kid. I believe it will be tougher to turn her into a obsessive movie watcher than it was to turn me (not having Sneak Previews each week at an impressionable age has probably set her back years) but each good movie experience is another brick in the temple.
Just as recently watching The Favourite was another brick in mine.
Pretty cool that the teams, both in front of and behind the cameras, for Wonder Woman and Cpt Marvel are trading congratulations and compliments. None of this Marvel vs DC bullshit.
Well. That’s the teams, because I doubt Warner’s are in love of the idea, that Captain Marvel could end week two with more money domestically than Aquaman. Justin Lin helped a lot aboard, but Aquaman barely beat Batman vs Superman domestically. That’s just not a good sign for any DC movie, when they require international to hit so hard. I hope Shazam could break that shit up, but who knows?
It’s nice when people are congratulatory though. That’s how it should be.
James Wan directed Aquaman.
I haven’t seen Aquaman yet, I assume it’s better than BVS ,it would have to be, right? But the hype alone carried Martha’s Boys to humongous heights, that Aquaman was able to match, and pass it, would be a positive not a negative. It’s sixth on Warner’s all time list, there’s no way they’re disappointed in that.
They probably won’t have a domestic tally that high this year. I don’t see Joker or It cracking the 318 it would take to land in their top ten (though I didn’t see Aquaman doing it either).
JS, you’re a Marvel guy through and through. I get it. But you don’t have to deny Aquaman its success in order to best Cpt Marvel’s chest. Aquaman had a tough road to overcome especially after Justice League. You say if barely beat BvsS, but are conveniently leaving out that it also beat all three Thors, 2 AntMen, 2 Cpt Americas, 1 GotG, 2 Ironmen, and soon Spider-Man Homecoming. And all basically without being required viewing to know what went on before or what’s to come.
Don’t be that guy.
There s another aspect from the comics that could come into play with Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers, and would dovetail with some of what was depicted in Ant-Man and the Wasp, as well. That movie ends with Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, getting trapped in the strange alternate dimension the Ant-Man movies refer to as the Quantum Realm. There s no direct parallel for that place in the comics, but there is a mention of something that looks and sounds awfully similar in the comics, which was brought to our attention thanks to an obscure superhero from the named Quasar.
Marvel has long-since surpassed DC (and everything else except James Cameron’s output) in box office prowess. Captain Marvel’s success over Aquaman isn’t some new thing WB has to contend with. By now, I’d hoped WB would care more about things that actually matter like building their own brand instead of just getting into a pissing contest.
BvS earned half its domestic total on opening weekend. That means it dropped like a stone with hobbled legs. The fact that Aquaman got to a comparable total but doing it through legs is much healthier overall. In other words, they did something right and that’s something they can build on.
BD, you mean all of those movies, that are featuring characters PEOPLE KNOW? You mean all of those household names? Far from Home is going to eat some lunch this Summer, so please keep throwing Spider-Man in there it’s funny, like you thinking I don’t care about DC. I do, but these jamokes want to make a TRENCH MOVIE! They finally get a hit, and guess what? THEY STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO FUCKING HANDLE IT! That’s frustrating as hell, on just a, “YOU GOT A WIN, AND THAT’S YOUR RESPONSE?”, level.
And it’s not about putting Aquaman down. It’s about the problem DC has, and that’s domestic. It also has to do with China, and a bunch of other things. Seriously. I can be whatever guy that I want to be, but Warnermedia is now owned by ATT. ATT, are a bunch of nutjobs, that have run off multiple division heads, they are billions in debt, and they are cutting jobs left and right. Do not think for a minute, that they don’t want their own 18bn plus franchise, or that someone there isn’t trying to figure out how to make their films mean more domestically.
Palm, yeah, I own james and Justin apologies, but again… Warnermedia.
I’m confused. I was under the impression that the general consensus is that Aquaman’s domestic box office is good and better than what was expected. Not the case? And of course they are doing spin-offs. That’s to be expected isn’t it? And if I remember correctly people loved the trench sequence and it got talked about a lot so it’s not that crazy that they would do a trench movie.
JS, I am more concerned about what Fox looks like in two years, but am apprehensive about all the Warner movement as well. It seems like ATT just bought a shiny new car and want to drive it at 200 miles an hour and shunting away anyone who wants to tell them that its terrible for the engine.
ATT bought a remarkable resource that fits perfectly into what the future is going to look like in the post cable arena, they’ve got a news source, their television catalog rivals Fox’s (or exceeds it depending on taste), they have been one of the most robust movie producers for decades, and have HBO which is one of the most identifiable brands in media, especially among the consumers that are going to be making the financial decisions on what streaming services to keep. Ignoring the talent, or worse chasing them off, that built this massive beast you just purchased is insane.
And is a Trench movie really that insane? Better than the shared universe that they messed up they are going micro. Aquaman leads to a Trench movie, Suicide Squad leads to a Harley Quinn, Batman leads to a Joker, Green Lantern leads to a Corps and where the hell is an announcement of a Diana less Island movie? I am the last one to hope for more comic book movies but this seems like a smarter strategy than simply aping what Marvel has tried to do. Plus Warners has already paved their own blueprint of it with the Conjuring films.
SB, internationally? Exceptional. Domestically? If BvS is treated like a failure for that take, then beating it by three million isn’t a good look. That’s just how it is, but it’s still a hell of a fucking win.
A win they want to follow up, with a trench movie. HC, that’s just a terrible idea. Why? It’s limited in scope, it’s wasting a slot they could use on something that’s not the trench, and it shows horror guys really don’t understand comic book guys. Sure. The Venn Diagram overlaps with the two audiences, a lot of the time, but there is a difference between the audiences. The trench movie even being discussed, is bright neon sign, that says, “WE LOVE OUR HORROR SENSIBILITIES!”, and guess what? That’s good for horror movies, but a trench movie is a waste of time for a comic book division.
I mean. Where’s Batman? Where’s Superman? You’d think ATT would be like, “HOW ABOUT WE DO THE BIG HEROES?”. It’s just a mess over there, and we as movie fans should not ignore it. 120bn in debt, because they couldn’t fucking afford to do what they’ve been doing.
And yeah, what happens to FOX on March 21st? What happens to the FOX TV network? Here’s hoping they have a plan, because Disney should have some clue what they are doing.
But why is a direct comparison between BvS and Aquaman fair? The expectations for each were entirely different. A horror guy just made a comic book movie that a whole lot of people liked. Not sure I agree with your police work there.
“A horror guy just made a comic book movie that a whole lot of people liked”
Not the first time-
Omen ~ Superman
Hills Have Eyes ~ Swampthing
Beetlejuice ~ Batman (OK maybe not a true horror film, but Burton has such a Hammer sensibility)
Evil Dead~ Spider-Man
Cronos ~ Blade 2
Dawn of Dead ~ Man of Steel
The older talent who loved the superheroes were also crazy about EC horror.
As for taking up a slot, a Trench movie would be lower stakes like an Ant-man film. There is no doubt they are still developing more Sup and Bat films but they need to be carefully developed. There is no way someone has a Batman idea and an exec goes “ah, lets make the fish movie instead”
You associate Richard Donner with the Omen?
The Swamp Thing is wonderful, but it’s sorta a horro movie.
We don’t talk about Avi Arad’s stuff. WE DON’T TALK ABOUT IT!
And he fucking DIDN’T UNDERSTAND SUPERMAN!
This is where your lack of deep diving on the MSCU hurts you: Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp are two of the most important movies in the cinematic universe. What happens in Endgame, does not happen without those two movies, and there’s no what happens in the next 5 years without them as well. Yes. I get your point, but I’m just stating they are more important than you are letting on.
Again, the trench movie is being greenlighted, because it’s horror guys greenlighting it. They are using that horror mind set (“KEEP IT CHEAP! RAKE IN!”), and that doesn’t always work with comic book movies. Just stating.
SB, that’s the comparison being made by Box Office Mojo on its front page, and while one film is clearly more successful than the other. If BvS is treated like a red headed step child for 330 million dollars, then how does Aquaman beating it by 3 million any less… disappointing? Disappointing may not be the best word, but there it is.
Is Shazam an example of keep it cheap and rake it in? I thought I read that the budget was under $100 million and it’s heading for an opening north of $50 million. With a horror director no less! It doesn’t seem all that ill-advised to use a horror mindset in some instances.
I don’t think a Mojo comparison makes it so. Again, I don’t understand how BvS and Aquaman is an apples to apples comparison. Expectations were completely different right?
BvS opened to $98 million more than Aquaman. For Aquaman to hang around and surpass it domestically shows amazing legs. That isn’t a disappointment by anybody’s standards. This is “the guy who talks to fish” making more than the 2 biggest names in DC.
Both Bats & Supes need to be in mothballs while the studio figures out what they’re doing and who’s playing them.
just because ‘aquaman’ made coin doesn’t mean it’s a good movie and not a freakin’ overstuffed mess
Actually Leah, that’s a more apt description of Suicide Squad (keeping the DC angle).
[And condolences for the tragedy in your part of the globe.]
Yeah I second that. Condolences leah on the awful terrorist attack.
I feel utter despair over what happened in leah’s beautiful, creative and amazing country. It sucks. We’re not safe anywhere.
James Gunn back on GOTG 3. Wow.
What is the story with this. I can’t imagine Disney realizing they were wrong and being nice and fair. Was it that they couldn’t find anyone else who they trusted with all that $$? Did Feige push them? Or Drax?
Fuck these stupid motherfuckers, and their stupid fucking white fears. Fuck them.
Outside of that utter fucking disgrace to the face of humanity… FUCK AND YES to Gunn returning. About fucking time, because no one else could finish that story. Also, the Guardians need to face Adam Warlock, and they need to be set up for the threat coming in the next decades of these movies. The new Guardians that is, who obviously will be doing something with Warlock for years to come.
Such a sad day for New Zealand. But I am heartened to see the PM condemning the attack for what it is.
The reports say that the deal was made a while ago. Links front page.
Right after Taika Waititi turned it down?
thanks, i think we’re still in deep shock and hurting very badly, overwhelming sadness for all those affected and our funny little country. hugging loved ones very tight today. i guess we’ll never be the same.
(i must admit i’ve had this niggle in the back of my mind feeling relatively safe, wondering if we could be targeted precisely because we’re small and sparsely populated and super boring, and yet racially and culturally quite diverse — i mean we certainly have our share of problems with our own brutal history of colonisation and systemic inequalities and inequity, but in general as a people we’re fairly laid back – the old adage about kiwis feeling especially posh might actually put on their pants that day isn’t far off – and welcoming to all and sundry to our weird little home, with a stubborn egalitarian streak so everyone just goes about their lives and does their own thing unfettered for the most part…and also so small and boring that we’re probably very underprepared in terms of official response and infrastructure for such for an act of terror, making it all the more surreal and unbelievable. sorry to ramble on i have so much to say and can’t really get out anything useful, just deep sadness)
No need for apology leah. The way you feel is totally understandable. It’s so sad and scary and maddening.
thank you, i don’t know that i’ve ever felt like this, the horror is overwhelming. i’ve been learning more about the victims today as information comes out, so very many, lots of refugees who came here for a better life — apart from the nearly 50 people who were murdered there are scores of people critically wounded and fighting for their lives in hospital – some of whom are children – so if you believe in any sort of power of collective positivity or consciousness or power of the universe in all things – and i don’t know if i believe in these things but maybe it’s possible so it can’t hurt – please spare a thought for their strength and recovery
(on a personal note: immediately after the attack happened and we didn’t know what was going on at all, a few others and i were looking for info online and a news outlet had the terrorist’s head cam video on autoplay on its site, and before we could understand what we were watching we saw the first victim greet the gunman at the doorway and we saw him shot down. we stopped the video but it was the most terrible thing i’ve ever seen and i’ll never forget it. apparently the man was a refugee from afghanistan and a grandad and i saw him murdered, i feel like i’ve been exposed to pure evil and i don’t know how to clean off the residue. i can’t even begin to imagine how the witnesses to this atrocity are coping, not to mention the families and loved ones of the victims)
I also saw video of him on accident when looking for news updates on Twitter. Didn’t see much but more than I ever wanted to and yeah it’s hard to fathom how families, loved ones, and witnesses are coping. I thought social media sites had staff whose job it is to remove videos and suspend accounts quickly.
So sorry to hear you came across that, Leah. I can’t imagine anything I want to see less than a frame from this footage.
To conservatives in my country, If you support our American President even a little, you own this. And the rest of the non-nazi world better get their shit straight because it appears that it’s Nazi-punching time again.
sadly the death toll has now risen to 50 the last i heard.
a visit to our local mosque today and a vigil/service this evening in the city (which was massive, one of many around the country) was a good chance to grieve en masse for our fallen muslim sisters and brothers, and hopefully begin to heal our broken-hearted country in solidarity. i think it will be a long road with many stages of grief.
i must add that i’m grateful for our unconventional PM J-ardern and her no-nonsense, compassionate leadership in this horrible moment in our history, which has set the tone and helped unite the nation (and apparently is being hailed around the world — you never know how people will rise to the occasion when tragedy strikes). i think there’s a feeling that we are in good hands in trying to heal and also unravel this unprecedented attack and how to go forward in safety.
i’ll also add – because who knows how many people may read this – to set the record straight after looking around at some reaction in the media: this was an international terrorist incident, not domestic. the white supremacist who carefully planned and carried it out was an australian who had been here since 2017 apparently casing out the joint and amassing guns.
i’ve learned after this horror that we’re a bit like canada here in enzed in that we have high gun ownership per head of population due to rural farming/hunting/target shooting but low gun crime/people shooting stats – and a gun licence is quite rigorous and difficult to get, so somehow this freak fell through the cracks in the system that clearly needs to be fixed (on the cards i believe) as he managed to convert semi-auto weapons into fully automatic machine guns in order to specifically inflict maximum carnage on muslims at prayer, precisely because of our combination of an inclusive, diverse culture and underpreparedness for such an act of terror (after a few arrests in the aftermath it’s been reported that only one other person besides the gunman has been charged and the charges are not directly related to the terror event itself, so perhaps some sort of abetting or it may be unrelated altogether, we’ll probably find out at some point).
while we no doubt have our own shameful history of white colonisation/supremacy and pockets of white supremacists here, which is a serious issue, australia has a particularly unique and ugly history of systemic white supremacy – from unthinkable aboriginal genocide and systemic oppression to the literal ‘White Australia’ policy that may have ended decades ago but seems to linger insidiously on some deeper level with some of the most racist politicians and attitudes i’ve seen anywhere in the world in my fairly limited time there, which seems to have surged in recent years with more hateful right-wing ideology, rhetoric and islamophobia as evidenced by the likes of pauline hanson and fraser anning (not sure what the deal is with racist/bigoted queenslanders?).
tbc i’ve got loads of friends/colleagues in oz and there are masses of really lovely, inclusive people there, and they all seem to agree that things have taken a nasty turn in regards to white right-wing backlash against inclusivity and diversity. so please, australia, collect your people and get your head right. ironically the tougher gun laws there due to the massacre in port arthur and subsequent gun safety measures is no doubt part of the reason the nutjob came here to hate-kill, which is very painful.
ok didn’t realise how long that vent was but i’ll just leave it under the circumstances
Leah, thanks for the update. Underlying all this is a leader of the Free world who doesn’t have a problem with white supremacists and encourages and enables them. I’m so sorry for those 50 folks who lost their lives for this madness.
oh absolutely palmtree — i figured if i got started in on the deranged fungus squatting in the white house enabling this dangerous and violent ideology my multi-paragraph vent would have multiplied into a multi-page scorched earth screed, ha
(one thing i’ve seen mentioned by our security services in the aftermath of this is that, given our tiny size we depend on our allies for intelligence re these matters, and certain allies have in recent years become far more narrowly focused on the jihadist threat at the expense of other very real and dangerous threats, the major reason why no great mystery)
“Underlying all this is a leader of the Free world who doesn’t have a problem with white supremacists and encourages and enables them.”
I can’t believe it, but I actually missed it the first time Trump told that horrific fake story about the general who slaughtered 49 Muslims with “pig blood dipped weapons”. What. The ever. Loving. Fucking. Fuck. Couterfactuals suck but…picture Ilan Omar telling a similiar story, except change “muslims” to “Jews”.
https://twitter.com/politvidchannel/status/1107733471558983680
at least you can go down fighting for what’s right and good about your country, and the world
(assuming you’ll have a free and fair election to ‘fix it’ is the ultimate folly — ask yourself why the ‘publiKKKans are so brazen in their lack of accountability to the people and embrace of kleptocratic authoritarianism)
it’s heartening to see US gun-nuts (and so-called ‘christians’) react to a firearms law change in a small country half a world away across a vast ocean with such a thoughtful, knowledgeable display of sanity