Press Releases Archive for July, 2016

UCLA Explains The Coppola Live Cinema Workshop

“I felt the need to experiment in order to learn the actual methodology of live cinema, which is a hybrid of theater, film and television.”

Read the full article »

Screenwriter Mark Boal Sues Feds For Military Overreach In Bowe Bergdahl Case

MARK BOAL SUES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR OVERREACH BY MILITARY IN BOWE BERGDAHL CASE   Military Prosecutor’s Threat to Subpoena Boal’s First Amendment-Protected Taped Interviews with Bergdahl Prompts Suit   Taped Interviews Were Part of Boal’s and NPR’s Peabody Award-Winning Investigative Report, ‘Serial’   LOS ANGELES, CA, THURSDAY, JULY 21—Mark Boal filed a suit in a…

Read the full article »

54th NYFF Sets First Nonfiction Opener, Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Doc On Racial Inequality

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES AVA DuVERNAY’S THE 13th AS OPENING NIGHT OF THE 54th NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL First nonfiction film to ever open the festival makes its world premiere New York, NY (July 19, 2016) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces Ava DuVernay’s documentary The 13th as the Opening…

Read the full article »

Spielberg, Laura Dern, Roger Ross Williams Among New Academy Governors

THE ACADEMY ELECTS 2016–17 BOARD OF GOVERNORS Runoff election required for Film Editors Branch LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced its newly elected 2016–17 Board of Governors.  A runoff election is required for the Film Editors Branch. “I’m honored and privileged to welcome the Academy’s new Board,”…

Read the full article »

“SONY PICTURES’ “GHOSTBUSTERS” OFFERS FIRST-EVER FRONT AND REAR-FACING LENS ON SNAPCHAT”

 On July 7th, Snapchatters Can “Bust” Ghosts Using Their Front-Facing Camera or “Slime” Friends Using their Rear-Facing Camera on Highly Popular Lens Feature Adored By Millions For the first time ever, Snapchatters can use both the front and rear cameras of their phones with a new type of Lens as millions of users become true Ghostbusters on…

Read the full article »

JOHN COOPER AND JAMES FRANCO TO RECEIVE AWARDS AT OUTFEST LOS ANGELES

FILMMAKERS ROSE TROCHE AND GUS VAN SANT TO PRESENT Los Angeles, July 7, 2016 – Outfest – the Los Angeles–based nonprofit organization promoting equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBT stories on the screen – has announced the recipients of their two major awards. Former Outfest Director of Programming and current Sundance Film Festival Director,…

Read the full article »

SUBMISSION DEADLINES FOR 2016 OSCARS® APPROACHING

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today published its list of upcoming submission deadlines for 89th Academy Awards® consideration. Submissions for individual categories and the General Entry/Official Screen Credits (OSC) form are due by 5 p.m. PT on the following dates: Scientific and Technical Awards Wednesday, July 13 Documentary…

Read the full article »

Press Releases

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