MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Klady By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

Still Crazies (After All These Years)

February 28, 2010 The tremor continued in the marketplace as Shutter Island prevailed over two incoming missiles with an estimated $22.3 million weekend. Still the freshmen entries were close behind with buddy flics in Cop Out entering (but not breaking) the scene with $18.4 million and the redo of the 1972 apocalyptic thriller The Crazies…

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Shutter … the Thought

February 22, 2010 Paranoia reached new heights of popularity as Shutter Island topped weekend charts with an estimated $40.3 million. It was the sole new national release but reflecting the twisty thriller’s appeal was the exclusive bow of The Ghost Writer that rang up an impressive $43,200 from four reveals. Other niche and limited debuts…

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I Heart Presidents

February 15, 2010 It was candy and roses for Valentine’s Day as it ascended to the top of long weekend viewing with an estimated four-day box office of $66.2 million. In a bountiful frame two other freshmen entries followed. The youth targeted Percy Jackson and the Olympians bowed to $38.9 million and the revived The…

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The Weekend Report: February 14, 2010

February 14, 2010 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Weekend Estimates: February 12-14, 2010 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume Valentine’s Day WB 51.8 (14,140) New 3665 51.8 Percy Jackson & the Olympians Fox 31.4 (9,370) New 3356 31.4 The Wolfman Uni 30.5 (9,460) New 3222 34.7 Avatar Fox 22.2 (8,260) -3% 2685…

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Love Letters

February 7, 2010 Romance trumped visceral thrills as the three-hanky Dear John debuted at the top of weekend viewing charts with an estimated $32.7 million. The session’s other new national premiere From Paris with Love settled into position three with $8.1 million. Regional openers saw a solid bow of $232,000 for Les Sept jours du…

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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