Email here for additions & corrections.

Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

More Moneyball

email this story
read comments (13)
post a comment

A few days ago I posted a short piece about a letter posted by Carson Reeves' Scriptshadow that seemed to come from the Soderbergh side of the fence about the Moneyball shutdown. But that was only the beginning.

Reeves soon after removed this letter after threat of legal action. But an HE reader who'd copied the original letter pasted it into the HE comments section after the Scriptshadow deletion. Which led to my being told by the same people (not Sony legal, apparently) that the letter had to be removed because it was extremely actionable. I didn't see how or why, but I took it down anyway after talking it over with friends.

I never got into what was said in the letter, but MCN's David Poland has posted an intelligent inquiry piece that addresses asome of the issues rasied by iut, and in so doing he takes a swipe at sites whose reportings about the episode have more or less given Soderbergh the back of their hands.

"Movies die every day," Poland writes. "Feelings and careers are hurt. (Over 200 people were put out of work unexpectedly by [the Moneyball] cancellation.) But the cheap slaps at Soderbergh are way over the top and as unnecessary as slapping down someone you just fired with gossipy attacks (even if accurate), adding insult to injury. Hollywood treats artists like shit because of money and ego. But there is no excuse for those of us who cover the industry to be equally venal."

Original Post:

Scriptshadow's Carson Reeves today posted a favorable-to-Steven Soderbergh perspective [dead link]the Sony/Moneyball meltdown that sounds -- emphasis on that word -- fairly knowledgable and well informed. It comes, he says, "from someone very close to the project."

In a preface Reeves writes that "in real life there are two sides to every story, but in Hollywood there are a dozen [and] it seems that this thing is way more complicated than just 'your draft/my draft.'"

This latest perspective argues with Reeves' own view that Sony chief Amy Pascal reacted reasonably to Soderbergh having turned Zallian's allegedly "solid" Moneyball script "into an incomprehensible mess."

No Skin Off Mine<< previous | next >>Ding-Dong, Witch Is Dead

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 3, 2009 at 6:50 AM

comment #1

Scott Howard says ...

Link is dead... (More legal threats, perhaps?)

Posted by Scott Howard at July 3, 2009 7:16 AM

comment #2

Phatang! says ...

Wow, you had to remove a letter, and yet you were able to post the Zallian script for download and nobody cared? Because that was supposed to make Sony look good?

Also... if it wasn't Sony's lawyers, who was it? Are you forbidden to tell whose lawyers contacted you?

Posted by Phatang! at July 3, 2009 8:15 AM

comment #3

Stringer Bell says ...

I believe Soderbergh's pretentious glasses are to blame.

Posted by Stringer Bell at July 3, 2009 8:28 AM

comment #4

Glenn Kenny says ...

I tend to give DP a lot of stick, because I'm just a hostile person, but I thought that post was pretty on-target.

Posted by Glenn Kenny at July 3, 2009 8:45 AM

comment #5

corey3rd says ...

It's an ESPN special and not cinema worthy of $10 and a bucket of popcorn

Posted by corey3rd at July 3, 2009 8:53 AM

comment #6

buster keaton says ...

Just ask Michael Jackson -- in the immortal words of the King of Pop, "Sony executives are very devilish."

Posted by buster keaton at July 3, 2009 9:17 AM

comment #7

JD says ...

Did you have a part lined-up in this one, Glenn... as an umpire maybe? For the record, I thought you delivered in GFE. Nice work.

Posted by JD at July 3, 2009 10:00 AM

comment #8

p.Vice says ...

Poland's laughable attempt to make a distinction between "Hollywood/The Industry" and "Those Of Us Who Cover The Industry" destroys any credibility present in his argument.

The "legal" end is probably Soderbergh being told that if he wants to keep being paid to make movies nobody wants to see, he'd better keep his mouth shut.

Posted by p.Vice at July 3, 2009 10:16 AM

comment #9

Glenn Kenny says ...

JD, What I really wanted was to play Caesar in Soderbergh's "Cleopatra" rock musical, but SS handed the part to that hack Winstone before I could even audition. Drat.

(And, because you can't be too careful on the internet, here I make clear that I'm kidding when I call Winstone a hack.)

Posted by Glenn Kenny at July 3, 2009 10:17 AM

comment #10

Terry McCarty says ...

After the misfire that was ALL THE KING'S MEN, one would think Amy Pascal would be a bit less reverent where Steven Zaillian is concerned.

Posted by Terry McCarty at July 3, 2009 11:45 AM

comment #11

BurmaShave says ...

I love it when you and Poland take the same side on something. It's like Xavier and Magneto joining forces for the sake of the greater good.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 3, 2009 12:01 PM

comment #12

Scriptshadow says ...

Yeah, it sucked having to take it down because I did want to present Soderbergh's side of the argument. I mean, his draft *was* bad, but there were so many other things at play here that it was important for people to understand the entire picture.

Posted by Scriptshadow at July 3, 2009 1:15 PM

comment #13