Reality TV > 'Bug' Director Friedkin to Jury 'On The Lot'
May 23, 2007
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Written by: Noah Sanders
For any of you who've ever read Peter Biskind's amazing book 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls' you'll know that Wiliam Friedkin is an absolutely fantastic choice as a judge. Biskind paints the surly director as a sex-crazed, take-no-crap, son-of-a-bitch who'll say and do anything to get a picture on screen. He comes across as an absolute ball-buster, and I'm sure he'll just eviscerate the wannabe directors who crawl on to this show. Friedkin has just finished the Ashley Judd-starring thriller, Bug, which is getting good reviews across the country and was received kindly at Cannes.
Sorry indulge me for a moment. In another post, I lambasted Steven Spielberg for never being able to divide his blockbuster mentality with his more artistic sensibility. I can't stand that every time the man does something that befits a director created in the 1970s, he turns around and lines his pockets with some terrible product placement. The casting of William Friedkin is the really the icing on the cake of this theory. On one hand, we have the Spielberg who sees dollar signs dripping off everything celluloid. The one who's agreed to place egregious product placement of Verizon and Ford just about wherever they want him too. On the other hand we have the maverick film director that created the modern blockbuster. The ballsy genius who is about to toss a bunch of fresh-faced film wannabes into the snapping maws of one of the most entertainingly volatile film directors of all times.
I don't have much of conclusion here, I just wanted to draw the comparison.
