MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

Klady By Leonard KladyKlady@moviecitynews.com

Advance to the Rear

Comedy ruled as the debut of Couples Retreat shattered expectations with an estimates $35.2 million opening to lead weekend ticket sales. The film had the unusual good fortune of being the only new national release in a session that includes holiday Mondays in Canada for its Thanksgiving as well as some Eastern states that celebrate…

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Daze of the Dead

Zombieland sprung to life to lead weekend ticket sales with an estimated $24.8 million. The session also saw good results of $12.6 million for a 3-D combo of the Toy Story films but there were lesser signs of stamina for the comic The Invention of Lying of $7.3 million and a $4.8 million tally for…

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I Want to Live ’til Monday

A trio of new titles couldn’t catch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for the weekend box office crown. Cloudy was hardly overcast as it dipped a modest 20% in its sophomore session to gross an estimated $24.4 million. But it was disappointing returns for the freshman class. The science-fiction thriller Surrogatesranked second with $14.7…

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Whether Report

Kid-lit fave Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs claimed bragging rights in the weekend box office race with an estimated $30.3 million debut. The frame was rife with new entries including three other national releases that bowed to tepid commercial response. The black comic The Informant!ranked second with $10.5 million trailed by the darkly romantic…

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The Weekend of Tears

The Gridiron Gang ascended, comparatively speaking, to weekend prominence with an estimated opening gross of $14.7 million. Three other films made their national debuts and followed in the rankings with the period whodunit The Black Dahlia bowing to $10.5 million; the animated baseball pic Everybody’s Hero was next with $6 million and the thirtysomething comedy-drama…

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The Weekend Report: September 13, 2009

Title Distributor Gross (avg) % change Theaters Cume I Can Do Bad By Myself Lions Gate 24.0 (10,650) New 2255 24 9 Focus 10.4 (6,280) New 1661 14.8 Inglourious Basterds Weinstein Co. 6.5 (2,010) -44% 3215 104.2 All About Steve Fox 5.7 (2,530) -49% 2265 16.01 The Final Destination WB 5.5 (2,020) -55% 2732 58.3…

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125 Days of Summer

The Labor Day holiday session saw a slight dip from 2008 revenues but, regardless of how one slices the pie, the final season tally experienced a box office upturn. Initial summer returns add up to approximately $4.36 billion for an improvement of 4.8%. The last gasp of summer had a trio of new national releases…

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The Weekend Report: September 6, 2009

Weekend Estimates: September 4-6, 2009 Title Distributor Gross (averag % change Theaters Cume The Final Destination WB 12.5 (3,990) -55% 3121 47.7 Inglourious Basterds Weinstein Co. 11.1 (3,310) -42% 3358 91.3 All About Steve Fox 10.8 (4,810) – 2251 10.8 Gamer Lionsgate 8.9 (3,560) – 2502 8.9 District 9 Sony 6.8 (2,160) -34% 3139 101.1…

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Flight Fright

The debut of The Final Destination (we can only hope) usurped the competition to lead weekend ticket sales with an estimated $28.4 million. The penultimate summer weekend included two additional national preems. Another old pal, Halloween II, opened in position three with $17.2 million but there was little nostalgia for Taking Woodstock with a $3.7…

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Natzi Schmooks

The alphabetically/historically challenged Inglourious Basterds quashed the Hun with an estimated $38.4 million to lead weekend movie going. The session’s other wide and limited releases were grappling with considerably more downbeat returns. The family targeted Shorts was sixth in the lineup with $6.5 million and the youthful romance Post Grad just tagged position 10 on…

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Property Values

The less than huggable E.T.s of District 9 led weekend box office viewing with an estimated $36.8 million. A clutch of new film releases with varying commercial potency buoyed ticket sales including the romantic sci-fi of The Time Traveler’s Wife that ranked third with $19.3 million. There were passable returns for the comic perspective on…

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The Weekend Report: August 9, 2009

Weekend Estimates: August 7-9, 2009 Title Distributor Gross (averag % change Theater Cume G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra Par 56.6 (14,120) – 4007 56.6 Julie & Julia Sony 19.6 (8,320) – 2354 19.6 G-Force BV 9.7 (2,790) -45% 3482 86 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince WB 8.9 (2,570) -51% 3455 273.8 Funny People Uni…

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LOL

A modicum of laughter propelled Funny People to the top of the weekend box office chart with an estimated $23.2 million. The frame also saw a complete miss for the family targeted Aliens in the Attic of $7.7 million and an OK $3.3 million for the thriller The Collector. The session also included a flood…

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Gee Whiz!

The rodents of G-Force proved to be mighty mites as they usurped King Potter for the box office crown with an estimated $32.2 million. Two other film debuts figured near the top of the charts. The template rom-com The Ugly Truth ranked third with $27.3 million and the generic chiller The Orphan followed in the…

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HP and the Full-Blooded Dish

It was all Harry 24/7 as the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, stormed the box office with an estimated $79.7 million box office ($159.9 million for 5½ days). It was the most fierce debut in the series history (inflation unadjusted) and all the more incredible in light of a paucity of Imax…

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Bru-Maybe

Fabulous! Brüno, everyone’s favorite Austrian fashionista, led weekend ticket sales with an estimated $30.2 million. The frame’s other national bow, I Love You, Beth Cooper received considerably less affection with a $5 million opener and in Quebec local hero De Pere en flic had a huge debut of $1.8 million that cracked the domestic top…

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Nice Age 3

It was a box office photo-finish for Independence weekend with sequels to Transformers and Ice Age going toe-to-toe and estimates giving the former a slight edge of $42.4 million to the latter’s $42.1 million. The session’s other major release was vintage gangster opus Public Enemies, which was next in the lineup with $26.1 million. Other…

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Transformers: Triumph of the Risen

The tracking was great … just not this seemingly boffo. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen smashed the competition with an estimated weekend gross of $110.8 million and a five-day near record gross of $200 million. That left the frame’s other wide release — the decidedly femme-centric, weepy My Sister’s Keeper — picking up scraps of…

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Wedding Bell Green

The Proposal was an offer the audience couldn’t refuse as the romantic comedy romped to an estimated $34.4 million debut to gain weekend bragging rights. The frame’s other national freshman — the caveman comedy Year One — grunted $20.1 million to finish fourth overall. New titles in limited or regional release had a few bright…

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Festival in …

They don’t have car shows in Detroit. But in Los Angeles — a once near-moribund venue for alternative cinema — the landscape is rife with celebrations of the seventh art. The unprepossessing-sounding Los Angeles Film Festival is one of two annual events (the other, AFI Fest, unspools in November) that at least on paper strive…

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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