April 30, 2024
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Susu on: The Letters From Iwo Jima review
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20 Weeks To Oscar: Rush To Poor Judgment?
20 Weeks Extra: Could There Be One More Turn?
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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
Six figures? Wow, good job.
Aren’t you supposed to be at an awards show or something?
Seriously, you can huff and puff until you’re blue in the face – the date change has altered the Oscar race in a negative way. Full stop. No one can convince me otherwise. Harris’ piece is great.
“Expectations is”? Sorry, David, but I would flunk you for that.
“the date change has altered the Oscar race in a negative way.”
Yeah, for the studios et al. who are still acting as though the old date is still in effect. Whose fault is that?
The effect on the Oscar race is debatable but whatever it is it is not “unjust” which is where Harris loses me. Everyone knew the dates when the year started.
BiPed, would you really honestly like to keep talking about the Oscars for another month or two? Late March/Early April is ridiculous for Oscar. Considering it’s all pretty stable except for the fifth position in most categories from December onwards, an extra month and a half is just painful.
Plus, I want good movies all year around, not just when the studios think I do. They say they would lose out on $$$ my releasing films throughout the year, but wouldn’t they recoup it from the fact that there aren’t 27 other arthouse titles competing for it? If Letters from Iwo Jima was released sometime in April for instance, I’m sure you’d get a bigger audience because they would be up for something being hailed as a sure-fire Oscar winner. But at the end of December pretty much everything is touted as being an Oscar lock.
I read an article today about Chris Noonan (director of Babe and the new Miss Potter) that said, and I quote:
“It was a savvy choice, with the film’s star Renee Zellweger figuring in awards nominations over recent weeks for her touching performance.
Though the film’s marketing budget has been much smaller than others courting Oscar gold, buzz has been steadily growing surrounding a likely Academy Awards nomination for Zellweger, something that delights Noonan.”
And also, because studios don’t release these late December titles overseas usually until after the Oscars they lose out because we all know they didn’t win anything. If they released Factory Girl (for example) they could trumpet it’s so-called Oscar abilities, but when the film’s release comes around in May (or later, probably) it’ll be an even more of a non-factor.
And then there was an ad in a newspaper today claiming Blood Diamond WON Best Picture at the National Board of Review (click my name to see it). Ridiculous.
BiP – Please be specific. How exactly has the shortened season – now three years old – damaged anything?
“But to argue that they were victims of a short season is to be either a sucker or a fool
I also love how Dave insists the Oscar date change doesn’t matter, except he regularly discusses every single date change in depth, analyzes how a release date change of even a week can hurt or help a movie, and is so into the concept of when things happen that he is bashing Entertainment Weekly for their tradition (which has to be several years old) of putting out an Oscar prognostication issue shortly after the new year. The only change there has been that they used to day “The Oscar Race Begins!” but now thanks to early bird pundits, can only claim “The Oscar Race Is On!” When would you rather have them put out the issue, DP? Twenty weeks prior?
It’s not the date of the ceremony that matters, but the date the studios can be bothered releasing their movies. Is it really going to hurt Miss Potter to be released a few weeks earlier?
If everybody knows the Oscar dates in advance, the studios can schedule their films, wisely or unwisely, accordingly.
Exactly. It’s their own fault.