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
good points Dave…clearly the traditional Hollywood media simply isn’t set up to handle a “story” like this that emerges in an off-hour. nor have they shown a desire to adapt. (yet, Defamer ignored the story until this morning)
seems like there was a lot of “wait and see” going on… and then the old media essentially reacted to the new, as you say.
for the record, Anne’s RiskyBiz blog is among my favorite places for breaking Hollywood news, information and commentary (right up there will MCN). i don’t really bother with the Hollywood trades until the end of the day, for the wrap-up and sometimes the bigger picture.
personally, i first became aware of the Gibson news on Saturday morning when my RSS Reader found Anne’s post about the situation. so i went to GoogleNews to discover what he actually said (and i’ve since added TMZ to my RSS reader).
interestingly, i have “in the know” friends and colleagues in the biz who didn’t know a thing about all this until it was reported by the “legit” media… maybe Internet access is rare in The Hamptons?
Defamer had the story not long after it happened, on Friday.
Yes… Defmaer linked to AP, which got the story from TMZ.com
sorry, i should have clarified…. they had the drunk driving news, but didnt update the story when it blew up over the weekend… they waited till this morning to tackle that… and i have to say, i loved their round-up today…
Yeah, It’s pretty clear that Lisanti and Seth don’t work on the weekends.
Also, it was interesting to see the story on local channel 7 news. They properly credited TMZ for breaking the story (Where does Television news fit in terms of Old and New Media Dave? At least in this case?)
The other thing of interest is the nice corporate offices of TMZ in the background during the Levin interview. Hilarious.
Quite the different image than what I imagine the Defamer offices to look like:
I always imagine Lisanti or Seth blogging in their boxers from their apartment, bong by thier side, with Denton calling every now and again for something.
I think what’s bugging you Dave, is now that the world has gotten smaller with technology. There is this immature attitude on all sides of the press that EVERYONE has to cover the same story, once it breaks, or they’re not going to sell papers, get ratings, or be part of some journalism cool crowd.
And now that the world has gotten smaller, we pretty much have all the info already once the story breaks from the first couple of sources. The barrage of coverage is just not needed.
It’s just like when you work a junket as an actor/filmmaker and you get the same questions from all over the world. And you’re just thinking “Fuck guy, the same 40 people before you asked me the same things, and only ONE of you has to report it for everyone to see. Come up with something ELSE!”
How long will it take media to learn that one website is all that’s needed for everyone to get all the story; and that there’s plenty of news in every facet of the world that not every outlet needs to cover the same 5 stories because someone else broke them?
I should add, the thing that would be of interest to the Gibson story that the MCN players could add, I know I would want to read is any/all op-ed piece from the MCN players on the reality of this situation for Gibson. Not just how the story affects the media, but what does someone like Ray Pride (or whomever) think of something like this?
I guess the point I am trying to make, is sometimes reading someone’s opinon can be just as enlightening as reading the facts of the story.