MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Columns By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

Jingle All the Way

It was a gift exchange as Americans rose from Thanksgiving tables to make the turkey trot to Four Christmases, which topped holiday viewing with an estimated $46.6 million for the five-day span. Though shy of a record breaker, business was brisk; experiencing a slight boost from 2007 but falling short of earlier sessions in 2005…

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Considering the Best Picture Oscar Contenders

Published under Oscar Outsider. How does a Hollywood outsider evaluate the Oscar contenders? I live in Seattle, outside the allure and glare of Tinseltown, and we generally get press screenings a couple weeks after the movie-world hubs of LA and New York; thus, I’ve only seen half the films on the Gurus o’ Gold Best…

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Quo Vadis

As the pool of epic movies yet to be released on DVD diminishes, each release that does appear seems to become all the more significant. Warner Home Video has issued an impressive Two-Disc Special Edition of the 1951 MGM production, Quo Vadis. 1951, remember, was before widescreen or stereo sound was utilized to make such movies…

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J. Michael Straczynski Screenwriter of Changeling

This week Noah talks with Changeling screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski about screenwriting, Clint Eastwood, television vs. film and the genius of Rod Serling. Listen to Noah Forrest Podcast with J. Michael Straczynski

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What I’m Thankful For – 2008

When I wrote this column last year, I had just started at MCN and I suppose one of the things I’m most thankful for is that I’m still here. And what that means, really, is that I’m thankful for you, the reader, for sticking with me for my first year and a half on the job….

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Twilight: Sometimes a Sexual Fantasy is Just a Sexual Fantasy

Twilight may or may not be more than just a teen vampire movie targeting the latent sexual fantasies of teenage girls, but it opened this weekend to just over $72.7 million, and suddenly male film journalists are sitting up and taking notice. The Los Angeles Times has a piece up by Richard Verrier about how shocking it…

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Fang You Very Much

Twilight, the teen vampire romance sensation, bit down hard to debut with an estimated $72.7 million and command about 44% of weekend ticket buying revenues. The session also saw the bow of the animated family film Bolt, which ranked third with $26.8 million in a frame that saw the sort of expansion Wall Street dreams…

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Consider the Source: Simon Beaufoy’s Adaptation of Slumdog Millionaire

Published under Oscar Outsider. Picture this: A very white, very British screenwriter has been hanging out in the slums of Bombay (also known as Mumbai) doing research for a screenplay he’s adapting from an Indian novel. He’s been haunting little chai shops, listening to the tales of the locals, absorbing as much as he can…

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Arnaud Desplechin’s Christmas Gift to Us

Cinema is a constantly evolving organism, one that takes on new characteristics and techniques slowly but surely. If we look back at the cinema of the ’80s, there are subtle differences in how the films were framed, edited and scored. Acting styles are noticeably different from decade to decade; what was considered terrific acting in…

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Prop 8 Boycotts: Witch Hunt or Right?

Does the gay film community have an obligation to continue to support a festival and an organization whose head has been publicly called out for financially supporting a proposition that took away their right to marry? You’d never know it by reading a lot of the trades, who seem by their silence to wish the…

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Shakin’ All Over

Five decades of good will added up to a staggering estimated debut of 00-$71.1 million for the 22nd James Bond (under the Broccoli imprimatur), Quantum of Solace. It was the biggest bow-wow for the enduring series domestically and wound up selling about 46% of all movie tickets; its anticipated potency had potential competitors steering clear…

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Oscar and the Absence of Femme Films

Published under Oscar Outsider. The box office success (and relatively high profit margins) of femme-focused films like Sex and the City, Mamma Mia! and, presumably, the upcoming Twilight (assuming it does well enough at the box office to make back Summit’s $37 million investment and justify a sequel, which I think it most certainly will) may well have…

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Does Bond Matter?

My buddy Steve loves every single James Bond film. Every time I see him, he always wants to talk about Bond and to appease the guy, I always pretend to be interested. He has every single moment of every Bond film memorized and I think he is representative of a lot of Bond fans out…

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Female Nudity in Films: Art or Exploitation?

The issue of nudity in art has been an issue for as long as there has been art, artists, and people to judge their work. When it comes to nudity in film, though, what relevance does the context of the nudity within the storyline or overall thematic elements have in determining whether the nudity is…

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Last One Out Turns Off the Lights

The traditional glib article about the American Film Market will talk about the parade of Troma characters parading in front of the Loew’s Santa Monica Hotel. Or, it will highlight the weird exploitation titles being sold (I Ate His Liver with Fava Beans) or the busty women handing out pamphlets and trade papers. Regardless, there’s…

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The Lion in Autumn

The animated antics of Madagascar: Back 2 Africa roared to an estimated $63.3 million to corral about 45% of weekend ticket sales. Despite its dominance, there was still ample room for a potent bow for the teen comedy Role Model of $19.1 million to rank second. The third national newcomer – the urban musical comedy…

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David Wain Director of Role Models

This week Noah chats with David Wain, director of the new film Role Models. They talk about Lost in Translation, Paul Rudd’s career, Robert Altman, the demise of Stella, and the rise of Wainy Days. Listen to Noah Forrest Podcast with David Wain

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24 Years Without Truffaut

When people ask me who my favorite filmmaker of all-time is, I usually answer by telling them, “Stanley Kubrick, closely followed by Francois Truffaut.” But on the days on which I’ve just re-watched Shoot the Piano Player or Stolen Kisses, I often reverse the names. It’s impossible for me to watch the mastery at work in a film…

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Vampires

If every vampire that’s appeared in a movie or television show were laid head to toe, the line of blood-starved bodies would stretch from Hollywood to Transylvania. The Internet Movie Database lists more than 1,100 productions in which vampires play prominent roles or are the central focus of documentaries. Other sources put the number closer…

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Of Kings and Queen: Why Can’t More Films Be This Good?

My first night in LA for AFI Fest, I went to a screening of A Christmas Tale director Arnaud Desplechin‘s 2004 film, Kings and Queen, which was one of those films that’s been on my “geez, I need to see that” list for a while now; the opportunity to catch it on a big screen, with Desplechin in…

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Columns

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

rohit aggarwal on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

https://bestwatches.club/ on: The DVD Wrapup: Diamonds of the Night, School of Life, Red Room, Witch/Hagazussa, Tito & the Birds, Keoma, Andre’s Gospel, Noir

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

GDA on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

Larry K on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

gwehan on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

Gary J Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Peppermint, Wild Boys, Un Traductor, Await Instructions, Lizzie, Coby, Afghan Love Story, Elizabeth Harvest, Brutal, Holiday Horror, Sound & Fury … More

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