Movie City News Archive for March, 2019

Deadline on WGA Satire

“A staggering 4 percent of WGA members voted No, signaling a deep divide in the union and assuring that this aggressive and ill-timed action will indeed destroy the entertainment business and will most likely result in a majority of agents killing themselves.” -Deadline tomorrow — Stephen Falk (@stephenfalk) March 31, 2019 Sure is. In a…

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Filmmakers Jennifer Reeder And Melika Bass on Agnes Varda

“During each of my three pregnancies, I considered naming the baby AGNES, as in Varda. Then I had three boys and opted for alternative ways to inject feminism and the history of radical filmmaking into their lives.” Filmmakers Jennifer Reeder And Melika Bass on Agnès Varda

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Hampton Fancher Distills Screenwriting Knowledge to Eighty Pages

Hampton Fancher Distills Screenwriting Knowledge to Eighty Pages

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“Why Hollywood Is ‘Shocked and Devastated’ Over Fox 2000’s Imminent Death”

“Why Hollywood Is ‘Shocked and Devastated’ Over Fox 2000’s Imminent Death”

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Bohemian Rhapsody in China

After watching a censored version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in which references to Freddie Mercury's sexuality have been removed, moviegoers in China left theaters determined to find out what they were missing https://t.co/bZg6SwJ2jU — New York Times Music (@nytimesmusic) March 30, 2019

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“Fan Bingbing has been mostly staying at home these days, sending messages on WeChat (the Chinese WhatsApp), working on her English, receiving guests, doing charity work “to wash away her sins,” and otherwise “trying to stay positive,” according to a producer who knows her well. But before the events of last spring, when she abruptly disappeared from public view for three months, she was busy being the most famous actress in China, which is to say, the most famous actress in the world.”

“Fan Bingbing has been mostly staying at home these days, sending messages on WeChat (the Chinese WhatsApp), working on her English, receiving guests, doing charity work “to wash away her sins,” and otherwise “trying to stay positive,” according to a producer who knows her well. But before the events of last spring, when she abruptly…

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Lord Putnam

David Puttnam calls for end to "one size fits all" approach to cinema release windows (exclusive) https://t.co/iD1yXy5ZaO pic.twitter.com/5fERpDXiwy — Screen International (@Screendaily) March 30, 2019

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Kent Jones on Arriving With DIANE

Mary Kay Place is a quiet revelation in writer-director Kent Jones’ fiction feature debut, but she’s surrounded by history: Jones’ own.

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Varda

Rest in peace, Agnès Varda. Thank you for seven decades of perpetually influential and inventive work that has moved us deeply. pic.twitter.com/vKdWuP1WRy — Film Society of Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) March 29, 2019

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The DVD Wrapup: Capernaum, Perfect Blue, Cameron Post, Tyrel, Ailes, Body Snatcher, Sam J. Jones, Sonny Chiba, Phantom Lady, Victoria’s Wedding … More

In Capernaum, Zain is a victim of a nearly universal legal system that allows unsuitable parents to retain control of their children. Here, Zain helps support the family by hauling goods to costumers in the street market. It’s more than his old man contributes.

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“Company spokeswoman Sarah Van Lange said the older North Vancouver location isn’t set up with the amenities moviegoers are looking for now – things like luxury recliner seats, UltraAVX, reclining D-Box motion seats and VIP areas.”

“Company spokeswoman said the older North Vancouver location isn’t set up with the amenities moviegoers are looking for now – things like luxury recliner seats, UltraAVX, reclining D-Box motion seats and VIP areas.”

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Dunkin al

Just in case you've never seen this. pic.twitter.com/IC0saqlVA6 — Zach Winn (@ZachFromIthaca) March 24, 2019

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JJ Abrams / WGA

J.J. Abrams Voices Support for Writers Guild in Battle Against Agents https://t.co/cbhP2zbx2w pic.twitter.com/lbOuOvgdV2 — Variety_Film (@Variety_Film) March 27, 2019

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Choreographer Madeline Hollander details what inspired the actors’ evil physiques, including Pac-Man, “Death Becomes Her” and “The Exorcist.”

“Choreographer Madeline Hollander details what inspired the Us actors’ evil physiques, including Pac-Man, Death Becomes Her and The Exorcist“

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“It’s SO perfect for us that the Pirate Parties think that paying creators is a form of censorship,” Says Jaron Lanier

“It’s SO perfect for us that the Pirate Parties think that Paying Creators is a Form of Censorship,” Says Jaron Lanier

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China Trump Grindr

The US government is forcing a Chinese gaming company to unwind its acquisition of Grindr—which has access to user data that includes sexual preferences, geolocation, and HIV status—likely because it poses a national security risk https://t.co/kO0NMRQnzJ — WIRED (@WIRED) March 27, 2019

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The Hidden Costs of Losing Your City’s Newspaper

The Hidden Costs of Losing Your City’s Newspaper

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Alden Fund

The buyouts at DFM's Southern California News Group come after recently announced cutbacks at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Boulder Daily Camera – and after DFM said last year that it already had "ripped off the Band-Aid" after the Denver Rebellion. #AldenExposed @dfmworkers pic.twitter.com/qDDbhuFqf8 — Darren Carroll (@darrendcarroll) March 26, 2019

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Ranking Roger

This is difficult. Words cannot express our sadness at the loss of our friend & brother. A loss to the world and to music certainly, but most keenly felt by those who loved him best. Deepest condolences to his family & to our Beat family worldwide. #RIPRogerRoger sirlou The Beat pic.twitter.com/S6CKKsccLY — The English Beat…

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Movie City News

“I don’t think it’s cruel to say this, because John himself would undoubtedly have turned it into a gleeful anecdote: When he had the stroke that killed him, he was at a local dinner theater. Hell of a review.”

“I am inclined to aver that every activity needs its critics, from narcissists bloviating in Washington to exhibitors of knee holes in their blue jeans by way of following a fad. So, too, tennis players and others wearing their caps backward. There is, to be sure, only fairly innocuous folly in puncturing pants or reversing caps, but for political or artistic or religious twisting of thought or harboring holes in the head there is rather less excuse. I have always inveighed against the bleary journalism practiced by newspaper reviewers, as opposed to the real criticism performed by, well, critics.”

“I often felt a twinge of grief at the idea that John Simon had devoted his life to a method of work that could only make him increasingly unhappy. Here was a man, elegant, articulate, and vastly knowledgeable, fluent in at least half a dozen languages, whose gifts of mind gave nothing back to the arts he wrote about except a few unkind remarks that made fun of someone’s performance, ethnicity, physical attributes, or, with a pun, on his target’s name. (“If this is Norman Wisdom, I’ll take Saxon folly.”) Other theatre critics keep such darts in their rucksacks for occasional use; John lived by them.”

“One person’s critic is another person’s crackpot. That they are not united in their opinions is ascribable to the Latin saying: quot homines, tot sententiae. I myself prefer being considered a creep, but that is what you get for having what Vladimir Nabokov called ‘Strong Opinions.’ It is odd that in a country so wallowing in negativity, starting with mass shootings and climaxing with Trump, such an unimportant matter as theater criticism should generate so much hostility. The only target patently more important is lead in the drinking water.”

Review: Little Women (no spoilers)

The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak

20 Weeks To Oscar: Cinema, Trump, and Oscar

E. Scott Weinberg On Youthful Fangoria Encounters

Rome Bookstore Closes

With a Grauniad-Alleged $300 Million Budget, Could The Yet-Unseen But Surely Weird Cats Pass A Billion Dollars at The Box Office?

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