Okay, so I forgive Khan, fully and formally.
Daryle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I met Garrett Wang at LAX Airport yesterday morning. It was a very cool
conversation. If you¹re ever at a Trek con and see him there, by all means
strike up a conversation with him. He asked if I knew about the project.
Apparently he¹s being considered for one of the roles. As of yesterday, he
hadn¹t read the book So I described it for him. So if he ends up in the
movie I¹ll be pretty excited.
I am all for this project being made, and Khan¹s Britney Spears work is
completely irrelevant. He directed music videos, he didn¹t write the songs.
Steven Spielberg directed ³1941² and ³A.I². If any of us had done those
pictures, we¹d never work in Hollywood again. It¹s time for directors to
branch out and do challenging work. That¹s enough of Brett Ratner doing
everything.
There is apparently a lot of backlash about Khan getting the project, which
is reeeeally interesting to me. Music video work is better than film school
sometimes. His commercial work is really good! I don¹t know if any director
would ever be ³good enough² to take this project on, and apparently Khan
agrees.
The following is from Joseph Khan¹s MySpace blog:
³Variety blew my cover over the weekend. This is the screenplay I've
been working on for the last two years.
As to the backlash.
There's going to be a backlash. You have to be nuts or stupid to take on
a monster like this. I knew what I was getting myself into. Stanley Kubrick
could take this on and he'd have a 14 year old in Iowa blogging on how wack
the cgi effects were in 2001, and then on the other hand a 45 year old child
molestor completely insistant nothing will ever look as good as the visuals
in his own head.
And they'd both hate Torque.
I could see how the combination of the Britney Spears director with
William Gibson is a controversial choice. But the problem is, the summation
of my career is not Britney Spears. I've done plenty of "cred" videos: Moby,
Chemical Brothers, Korn, U2, Muse to name a few. The headlines sound
attractively pessimistic to slap the successful pop example of my work to a
supposedly nihilistic work like Neuromancer. It really just demonstrates how
little most people know of the music video world and how it pertains to
filmmaking.
For instance, before David Fincher became the dark auteur that fanboys
salivate over, he made his name doingPaula Abdul videos. And hard core
Michael Bay with his rumbling guns and explosions madeMeatloaf videos, as
well asThe Divinyls "I Touch Myself." Those of you in the music video
business know the score and understand why this is.
I guess this is turning into a defense of myself, so I will defend
myself.
The other complaint lodged at me is that my movie Torque basically
sucked. It's either a sell out piece of commercial crap, or an incompetant
long form music video, or both, and it's a sure sign I'm clueless as a
filmmaker. And to all of this, I'll say: they're wrong.
Making your first movie under the Hollywood studio system is hard. It's
the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm telling you honestly with no
exaggeration: you have no clue what it's like to be put through that studio
grinder and retain any sort of authorship. The politics, the pressure, the
scapegoating, the interference, the pure physicality of an intense 70 day
shoot, the budget hysterics, the permeating sense of fear and negativity
from everyone. Torque is not 100% of what I wanted, but I'm proud of what it
is, because at the end of the day, after going through this studio machine
that blends movies together into mediocrity, it split people. Some hated it,
others loved it. Some actually had both reactions at the same time. Whatever
it was, it wasn't safe. The ice cream on the cone couldn't be digested
without a strong opinion. That's a tall order for an Ice Cube biker flick.
Your welcome.
So that's one of the reasons why "they" hired me to do Neuromancer, and
make no mistake, Gibson is one of "them." There's no way in hell I'm on this
without at least a half disinegnous grunt of approval from him. Yes, Chris
Cunningham was attached to this years ago and you may think him as a far
cooler director than me, but he quit. HE QUIT. Understand? Sorry. He
abandoned the baby on the doorstep, and it will never come to daddy again.
I'm on it because I am nuts, and I am stupid, and I will throw
everything I have at making a book that's been ripped off left and right and
considered impossible to adaptwork. I've spent my whole life making things.
People who don't know me seem to dismiss me as some cliché blinged out music
video director, and even if that jealous perception were true then remember
this - I started with nothing. No contacts in Hollywood, no money, nothing.
All I've ever had to survive is the dedication to my craft. All I know how
to do is make things, and if Neuromancer is on my plate, I am going to make
it. That's why this film finally has a chance at getting made.
Now here we are and all I know is this: the movie in my head rocks. I've
already watched it, I just need to execute. Is it Gibson's vision? Not
quite. There's no way this film can ever achieve what Gibson did. He
practically changed the world and how we imagined ourselves growing up into
it. The novel is always going to be the superior work of art. The book's a
legitimate work of genius in a millenial way, not the Richard Roeper thumbs
up way. I'm working on a two hour movie, so it's my distillation of his
vision into a much shorter form. Compomises and interpretation will be
required, and the personal issues I chose to focus on will be the things
that turn me on about the book. So at the end of the day, there's wiggle
room: the good shit is his, the bad shit is mine.
But when it gets made, maybe on some level, everyone will be ecstatic to
see some version of it moving on a movie screen, like when a parent is happy
to see their toddler draw a crayon of the sun. If I'm lucky, maybe even
Gibson himself will dig it.
So there it is.
I only have one more thing to say.
When Variety broke the story, this is how they described me:
Joseph Kahn, a Korean-American commercials director who made "Torque"
for Warren Bros., has inked to direct.
What the fuck does my race have to do with directing Neuromancer?
- Joseph Kahn²
On 11/26/07 10:13 PM, "Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> No, Bosco, this is the first I recall of it being mentioned.
>
> Bosco Bosco <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:ironpigs3%40yahoo.com> > wrote:
> Read a rumor that Gibson's Neuromancer is being brought to the big
> screen which made me jump for joy until I read that it would be
> directed by Joseph Kahn who directed a Brittany Spears video.
>
> Did this get discussed here already and I missed it? If not, does
> anyone know anything further?
>
> Bosco
>
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