Note Pad Archive for November, 2009

10 LIVE ACTION SHORTS ALIVE IN 2009 OSCAR® RACE

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 live action short films will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Seventy-one pictures had originally qualified in the category. The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company: The…

Read the full article »

10 ANIMATED SHORTS MOVE AHEAD IN 2009 OSCAR® RACE

Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category. The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company: ” “The…

Read the full article »

Hamish Hamilton to Direct 2009 Oscar® Telecast

Hamish Hamilton will direct the 82nd Academy Awards® telecast, show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today. It will be Hamilton’s first time directing the Oscar show. “Hamish is a first-rate live-show director who will bring enthusiasm, experience and a fresh eye to the table,” said Shankman. “He’s also a master of working with…

Read the full article »

15 Documentary Features Continue in 2009 Oscar® Race

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Eighty-nine pictures had originally qualified in the category. The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company: “The Beaches of…

Read the full article »

Twenty features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards®

The 20 submitted features are: “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” “Astro Boy” “Battle for Terra” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” “Coraline” “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” “Mary and Max” “The Missing Lynx” “Monsters vs. Aliens” “9” “Planet 51”…

Read the full article »

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to Host Oscar® Show

Beverly Hills, CA (November 3, 2009) — Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will serve as co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards®, Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today. “We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars,” said Shankman and Mechanic. “Steve will bring…

Read the full article »

Note Pad

Quote Unquotesee all »

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