misc

Who’s Who in Wonderland?

By David Poland - Thursday, March 4th, 2010

ALICE is a 19-year-old woman contemplating her future.  An independent soul, she feels trapped in the narrow-minded views of women in aristocratic Victorian London and uncertain how to balance her dreams with other people’s expectations.  Following the death of her beloved father, she attends a garden party with her mother and sister, although, unbeknownst to…

Read the full article »

When Johnny Depp Speaks …

By David Poland - Thursday, March 4th, 2010

No matter what the character, he has a language all his own …

Read the full article »

Oscar Winning Shorts: 1965 The Dot and the Line

By David Poland - Saturday, February 27th, 2010

The story details a straight line who falls in love with a dot. The dot, finding the line to be stiff, dull, and conventional, turns her affections toward a wild and unkempt squiggle. The line, unable to fall out of love and willing to do whatever it takes to win the dot’s affection, manages to bend…

Read the full article »

Toy Story 3: A Few of the New Guys

By David Poland - Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Saddle up for fun and let Buttercup lead your child away on a magical adventure! This cuddly unicorn features velvety-soft, snow-colored fur with sparkly gold and pink accents. He sports a signature mythical golden horn and a fun-to-comb mane and tail. Buttercup’s durable plastic eyes are both charming and scratch-resistant. Hypo-allergenic. Ages 3 and up….

Read the full article »

Alice in Wonderland: Johnny Depp Behind The Scenes

By David Poland - Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Read the full article »

“Alice (Underground)”

By David Poland - Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Avril Lavigne’s new song, from the end credits of Alice in Wonderland.  Tripping out, spinning around I’m underground, I felt down, I felt down I’m freaking out to all am I now upside down and I can’t stop it now it can’t stop me now I’ll, I’ll get by I’ll, I’ll survive while the worlds…

Read the full article »

2010 Paramount Preview

By David Poland - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Shutter Island –  Feb 19 Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island. _________________________________________________ She’s Out of My League – March…

Read the full article »

Disney’s 2010 Preview

By David Poland - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

When in Rome – Jan 29 Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Alexis Dziena, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Kate Micucci, Bobby Moynihan, with Danny DeVito and Anjelica Huston An ambitious young New Yorker, disillusioned with romance, takes a whirlwind trip to Rome, where she defiantly plucks magic coins from a fountain of love, inexplicably igniting the…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Avatar: 22 Minutes Behind The Scenes

By David Poland - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Read the full article »

A Look at 2010 From Warner Bros.

By David Poland - Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Book of Eli – Jan 15 Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Frances de la Tour, Michael Gambon, Evan Jones, Joe Pingue, Tom Waits Action Adventure. In the not-too-distant future, across the wasteland of what was once America, a lone warrior must fight to bring civilization the knowledge that could be…

Read the full article »

In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

By David Poland - Monday, January 18th, 2010

I Have A Dream .. His Last Speech … And Walter Cronkite reports his assassination.  

Read the full article »

Poland v. Faraci on Avatar

By David Poland - Monday, January 4th, 2010

MCN’s David Poland and CHUD’s Devin Faraci debate Avatar on G4.  Here’s the clip .. Video Games – E3 2010 – The Loop

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Prince of Persia: The Ability to Turn Back Time

By David Poland - Monday, January 4th, 2010

“The holder of the dagger is the only person who can see the time go backwards …” Jerry Bruckheimer and Jake Gyllenhaal talk about sands and daggers.

Read the full article »

Happy New Year – The Decade at a Glance

By David Poland - Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Read the full article »

Happy Holidays from Princess Leia

By David Poland - Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Princess Leia singing an ode to “Life Day” – the Star Wars Universe’s answer to Christmas.  This aired on local Chicago TV on Friday, November 17th 1978.

Read the full article »

Making Avatar

By David Poland - Monday, November 30th, 2009
Read the full article »

Happy Thanksgiving!

By David Poland - Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Avatar Does 60 Minutes

By David Poland - Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

New Featurette: Avatar

By David Poland - Friday, November 20th, 2009
Read the full article »

Twilight: New Moon

By David Poland - Friday, November 20th, 2009

MCN Review: Like its heroine, Kristen Stewart — once again playing the central character of tormented, horror-smitten high school outsider Bella Swan — it’s moody and pretty, and constantly in the throes of a wild supernatural crush. But I didn’t like it much. And the fact that audiences are coming in droves didn’t reassure me. Trailers & Images…

Read the full article »
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

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