MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Klady By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

Poehler Opposiyuks

Comedy was king as a rare instance of a trio of laughers led weekend movie going. At the top of the list were newcomers Baby Mama and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay that bowed to respective estimated grosses of $18.2 million and $14.5 million. The session’s third national opener – the thriller Deception…

Read the full article »

Fagetaboutit!

The anticipated dust up between the Jackie and Jet in Forbidden Kingdom and the naughty bits of Forgetting Sarah Marshall saw the martial artists draw in an estimated $20.8 million and the latest comedy from the Apatow corral gross $17.4 million. The opening strength of the two films left poor seconds for the Al Pacino…

Read the full article »

Vadim Perelman

Vadim Perelman had the sort of feature film debut most filmmakers dream about but rarely are able to realize. An acclaimed director of commercials, he optioned the novel House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, adapted it for the screen with Shawn Lawrence Otto and co-produced the film with Michael London. The tale of a young woman…

Read the full article »

Hop To It

Weekend movie going dressed up and gave its corsage to the scare fare Prom Night that bested all comers with an estimated $22.8 million. Another freshman, the tough cop Street Kings ranked second with a so-so $12.1 million and the limited wide release preem Smart People entered the fray with respectable revenues of $4.2 million….

Read the full article »

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was the sort of movie icon that received either grudging respect or abject derision rather than the praise or affection extended such contemporaries as William Holden and Burt Lancaster. The caricature is one of a face permanently cemented in some tense fashion with teeth clenched. The verity of his filmography contradicts such easy comic illustrations….

Read the full article »

Leathertails … Oops!

The thrill of victory eluded the debut of Leatherheads as its estimated $13.4 million weekend trailed the $15.4 million sophomore session of 21. The frame’s other freshmen releases also opened on the dull side with the family friendly Nim’s Island grossing $13.2 million and the horror entry The Ruinsbowing to $7.6 million. In the continuing…

Read the full article »

Klady

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