MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Klady By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

Planes, T-r-a-i-n-s and RVsy

Better than anticipated debuts for RV and United 93 once again translated into improved box off ice results with the former comedic hijinx grossing an estimated $16.3 million to rank as the weekend’s top attraction. The frame also saw disappointing bows for the familycentric Stick It and Akeelah and the Bee and good response for…

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Black and Weitz

“Satire is what closes on Saturday Night” — George S. Kaufman Most filmmakers are superstitious. They wear things – socks, ties, shoes – that are supposed to bring them luck; they have traditions that have to be upheld when the deal is made, at the start of filming or on the first evening of a…

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Silent Hill… Holy Moly

Silent Hill scared up an estimated $20.3 million to rank as the top attraction at the weekend box office. The frames other debuting fare rated good returns of $14.4 million for the thriller The Sentineland a less than euphoric $3.8 million for the satiric American Dreamz. Overall business dipped modestly from the prior weekend but…

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The Big Chill

Imitation is the sincerest form of film production if Scary Movie 4 is any yardstick of contemporary Hollywood. The horror spoof sequel arrived with an impressive estimate of $40.7 million that provided a significant boost to weekend holiday business. The frame’s other major debut – the animated family yarn The Wild – ranked a disappointing…

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My Hand Has A Headache…

About 10 years ago ShoWest decided to carve out a couple of hours in its schedule for a reception dedicated to the art house crowd. At that point the event was dominated by lunches and dinners sponsored by the majors that featured product reels and daises over flowing with stars of upcoming movies. Whether the…

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Hot & Cold… and Hot

Despite a sharp 50% decline, Ice Age: The Meltdown remained the top draw in the marketplace with an estimated $34.2 million. Still there was unexpected heat from debuting fare including a potent second place finish for The Benchwarmers and a strong limited launch for Friends with Money. Overall it translated into a significant viewing increase…

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It’s All Greek to Me

  This past week in Los Angeles marked the 10th anniversary of the film series City of Lights, City of Angels. For the uninitiated, it’s a six-day program of recent French movies – an eclectic mix of popular and arcane cinema from the land of Truffaut and Renoir. It’s an initiative of a lot of…

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Cool Customer

There’s nothing quite like a hot movie to reinvigorate movie going and Ice Age: The Meltdown needn’t have worried about a chilly reception. The very animated sequel arrived with an estimated $69.3 million that sent revenues and attendance airborne. The film also added $43 million from international bows. The competition was pallid using the Ice…

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Klady

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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