Ten Percent of Nuthin'

Special Hell => Book Club => Topic started by: Spooky on September 23, 2010, 04:46:26 PM

Title: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 23, 2010, 04:46:26 PM
http://blastr.com/2010/09/dont-miss-harlan-ellisons.php (http://blastr.com/2010/09/dont-miss-harlan-ellisons.php)
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Pearl@32 on September 24, 2010, 07:59:48 AM
Did you read the comments? It sounds like Ellison is a PRICK. Oh well, he did contribute some fine stories to the science fiction genre.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 24, 2010, 07:52:56 PM
You've been a sci-fi geek how long and are just realizing Harlan is a prick?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Pearl@32 on September 27, 2010, 08:00:44 AM
Hey, I never really read up on the man or have really read his works, only in tv and movies. Guess my geek status has gone down a point or two. :doh:
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 08:12:32 AM
We saw him the very first D*C we went to, the one where Jewel created the 'flipoff' for Nathan. We went to the parade and quickly bolted for the room. Back then, there were no lines, you just showed up. Ellison had the room before Jewel, Nathan, and Adam. Ellison was puzzled why his panel that started off with 20 or so people had more and more people coming in as the panel went on. He was a little chagrined to see these 'browncoats' filling his panel not to see him, but the people coming in after him. He did laugh about it and said he'd hope they would enjoy the panel. And we did.

Harlan Ellison is a crusty, often bitter, often angry, very, very talented writer. He told some great stories and kept all entertained. Ann really enjoyed the panel, as did I.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: AdmiralDigby on September 27, 2010, 08:22:22 AM
(http://www.treksinscifi.com/trekdaily/pictures/2008-02-18-City_Edge1.jpg)

(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tvsquad.com/media/2006/09/edgeofforever250.jpg)


"My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain."
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 08:27:06 AM
That's one of the things Ellison is the most bitter about.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: AdmiralDigby on September 27, 2010, 08:42:44 AM
Quote from: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 08:27:06 AM
That's one of the things Ellison is the most bitter about.

I remember something about that .
What was his beef ?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 09:00:23 AM
IIRC, the crewman that went nuts from space madness had been written as as druggie that went on a bad trip. Ellison was adamant that there was no reason to think people wouldn't still use drugs 300 years from now. Gene said no way no how were there going to be drugs in his utopia. Roddenberry changed the words that Ellison wrote and Ellison was all kinds of pissed.

ETA: From Wiki: Ellison has repeatedly criticized how Star Trek creator and producer Gene Roddenberry (and others) rewrote his original script for the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". Ellison's original work included a subplot involving drug dealing aboard the Enterprise and other elements that Roddenberry rejected. Despite his objections, he kept his legal name on the result instead of using his "Cordwainer Bird" nom-de-plume. Ellison's original script was eventually reprinted in the 1976 collection Six Science Fiction Plays, edited by Roger Elwood. In 1995, White Wolf Publishing released Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever, a book that included the original script, several story treatments, and a long introductory essay by Ellison explaining his position on what he called a "fatally inept treatment". Both versions won prestigious awards.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 27, 2010, 09:57:44 AM
http://www.documentaryfilms.net/index.php/dreams-with-sharp-teeth/ (http://www.documentaryfilms.net/index.php/dreams-with-sharp-teeth/)

   
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
By David Loftus in Featured Reviews Archive, General Film, News
By David Loftus
May 6, 2007

When the screening ended, the crowd leapt to its feet to applaud and cheer the subject of the newly-completed (or rather, nearly-completed) documentary. Characteristically, but good-naturedly, he shouted: "Stop! Stop! I'll only say something that'll alienate you later!"

On Thursday, April 19, "Dreams with Sharp Teeth," a new film by the producers of Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," received its first public screening at the Writers Guild Theatre in Los Angeles.

The audience included Herzog, guitarist Richard Thompson (whose lively acoustic tunes graced the soundtrack), Josh Olson (Academy Award-nominee for the screenplay of "A History of Violence"), Ron Moore (creator and executive producer of the current "Battlestar Galactica" series), Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson, Len Wein (creator of Swamp Thing for DC Comics and Wolverine for Marvel), and of course the subject of the film: Harlan Ellison.

Billed as "An Unruly Evening with Harlan Ellison" (though anyone familiar with his reputation would know the phrase is a redundancy), the event promised a Q&A with Ellison and Olson after the film. Writer, director, and producer Erik Nelson said he intended the show to be a tribute and thank-you to its subject.

Ellison may be one of the greatest "unknown" writers of our times. Like that of Bradbury and Vonnegut, Ellison's work was shunted into the literary ghetto of "sci fi" early in his career, though even at the time (mid to late 1950s) he was also writing pulp fiction, detective stories, westerns, and essays. One could better characterize his stories as fantastic (in the genre sense) or speculative. His considerable body of nonfiction ranges from political and social commentary to film, music, and television criticism. His oeuvre also includes an array of memorable teleplays (many honored by awards), screenplays (most of them unproduced, sadly), a couple of novels, and occasional comic books and graphic novels.

The average person on the street may not instantly recognize the name, but if you tell him Ellison wrote the most famous episode of the original Star Trek series – "City on the Edge of Forever," the one where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy travel back in time to Depression-era Chicago, and Kirk falls in love with a Salvation Army nurse played by Joan Collins – the listener's face will usually brighten. Some will possibly recall an episode of The Outer Limits that starred Robert Culp as "Demon with a Glass Hand," whose script won the 1966 Writers Guild of America award for best teleplay for an anthology series. Fewer still may have seen a very B-grade 1975 cult film starring a then-unknown Don Johnson, called A Boy and His Dog, based on an A-grade Ellison novella by the same title. More recently, the writer has served as creative consultant for The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.
He made his name in the late 1960s and early 1970s with stories that had eye-catching titles such as " 'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs," and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." His stories were startling, vivid, often violent and profane. The author clearly didn't want you to look up from one of his tales and say "that was a nice story"; he wanted you to get angry, to quake with fear, to jump up and do something! His writing was a sharp rap upside the head.

Unlike many authors, Ellison is a dynamic public speaker – no surprise since his past includes side careers in stage acting, stand-up comedy, and nightclub singing. (That's him in the chorus of the original 1953 Broadway cast recording of "Kismet" warbling "Marsinah, buy from me!") Now nearly 73 years old, hobbled in 1994 by a massive heart attack and quadruple bypass, the fabled angry young man has slowed a breakneck pace of speaking engagements he made for decades on the college circuit. But he's still the best advertisement for his own work, which publishers never figured out how to market properly and all too often left to go criminally out of print.

Ellison's talents, gregariousness, and powerful ethics have put him into amazing company and pivotal historic events over the decades, from hanging with Lenny Bruce, Charles Mingus, and Steve McQueen; to a historic spat with Frank Sinatra and his goons (minimally chronicled by eyewitness Gay Talese in an Esquire feature) and a more personal beef with Barbra Streisand (who Ellison claims stole the entire tips jar when they were both singing at Rienzi's in Greenwich Village); to participation in the Century City riots, barnstorming on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment, and Martin Luther King's march on Birmingham. He also "demystified" writing by composing stories in store windows, and accepting ideas from others for stories to be written within a daylight hours deadline.

All of which suggests why a documentary about this "unknown" writer makes a lot more sense than one about a more famous, bestselling author such as Grisham, Steel or even King would be. Stephen King's tales are striking and various, and he's a thoughtful, charming guy (two hardcover collections of interviews attest to this), but Ellison makes a fascinating subject as a person, even if he had never written a word. Given a decent treatment by a documentarian, Ellison bids fair to pique the interest of viewers who have never heard of him and don't give a fig for fantasy or science fiction. (Or reading, period.)

Nelson shot his first footage of Ellison at the typewriter (always an Olympia manual propelled by two fingers – never an electric, let alone a computer) for a March 1981 PBS segment, when the filmmaker was just 24. At the time he had no plans to make a full-length film. Over subsequent decades Nelson continued to film Ellison only now and then, pretty much from the standpoint of a fan, while he pursued his own career.

That path led Nelson through production jobs with a variety of nonfiction TV series (at least seven episodes of "Unsolved History," for example) and more recently, documentary features (executive producer on "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man," "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," and "Grizzly Man").

It was only in October 2006 that Nelson realized he had collected some decent footage over the years, to which he could add excerpts from Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow Show" and other Ellison TV appearances. Plenty of colleagues and admirers of the writer, from Neil Gaiman and Dan Simmons to Robin Williams, Olson, and Moore, were glad to sit for Nelson's cameras.

"Dreams with Sharp Teeth" was not entirely finished by time of the Writers Guild Foundation screening. End credits were not included in the print (they are listed below), and the director acknowledged having cut two minutes just the day before. He has since cut another three. But he pronounced himself largely satisfied with the result, and is actively seeking a distributor.

Moore, one of the screenwriters on "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Mission: Impossible 2," author of many episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and a handful each of "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager," launched the evening by saying a stranger might approach Ellison in a bar and ask: "You! What the hell is so goddamned important about you?" Only Ellison would have the chutzpah to address someone this way, Moore went on, so in the scenario Ellison would address himself. The reply, as suggested by Moore? "It's the words, dummy." He added, "This film finally provides a glimpse into the small parade that is Harlan Ellison."

Early in the film, Gaiman echoes this point with the phrase "this huge piece of performance art that is Harlan." (Stephen King once noted that Ellison has never drunk alcohol or tried recreational drugs and concluded, "Harlan's drug of choice is Harlan.") Of Ellison's words, Gaiman says, "You're reading them in your head, and they sing."

Although the documentary follows a rough arc of Ellison's life and activities, at least two pivotal elements are placed early and out of sequence. First, California buddy Robin Williams comes on like gangbusters in the first few minutes, the better to arrest the attention of Ellison neophytes. The writer is "a combination of borscht and Berkeley," Williams says. He recounts a laundry list of legends about Ellison – drove a dynamite truck? mailed a dead gopher to a publishing house? threw a fan down an elevator shaft? attacked an ABC executive, breaking his pelvis? – and the author responds as to whether each is true or not. Later, Ellison's escapades as a single guy in Hollywood in the 1960s and 70s are alluded to, and Williams cracks, "He saw more puss than a litter box."

The second early scene-setter is a long take in which Ellison talks about a relatively recent tussle with folks at Warner Brothers who wanted to use some of his commentaries as extras on a DVD reissue, for no compensation. "I should do a freebie for Warner Brothers? What is Warner Brothers – out with an eye patch and a tin cup on the street? Chuck no! . . . I sell my soul, but at the highest rates. I don't piss without being paid."

The incident illustrates Ellison's long and steadfast insistence on his – and any other Hollywood writer's – receiving proper credit and payment for work done, in a milieu where ideas have long been stolen and labor casually elicited and/or used for no pay.

There's archival footage of Ellison at science fiction and horror fantasy conventions, on Snyder's show, being interviewed by youthful Tom Brokaw and Jessica Savitch, and "rapping" with college kids. One wishes his abortive appearance on "The Dating Game" (uproariously detailed in The Other Glass Teat, the second of two collections of television criticism, due for reissue by Charnel House Press within a year), or his searing splash on the Merv Griffin show before a hostile crowd and a bewildered host (also described, this time verbally, on the audio CD On the Road With Ellison, volume 2, from Deep Shag Records) had survived to be enjoyed by more viewers.

One of the most striking sequences in the film – because of his own reaction – is some grainy, black-and-white 8mm footage taken sometime during the Second World War, when Ellison was maybe 10, and copied onto a Beta cassette and sent to him years later by relatives. Little, gangling Harlan is shown walking in a sailor suit with his mother at Niagara Falls, and (typically) sticking his tongue out at the camera.

But there's more. Ellison did not remember because he had watched it once when he received it and stowed it away on a shelf. But he brought it out for the filmmakers and, unbeknownst to him, they filmed him watching it with them. When he sees and realizes that it has the only image he has ever seen of his father putting an arm around his shoulders – though the film does not mention it, Ellison's father died of a massive heart attack in their home, right in front of his 15-year-old son – Ellison tears up. (After the screening, worried that it looked "staged," he explained the circumstances of what appears in the documentary and was assured by Olson and the crowd that it does not.)

The viewer also gets some random footage of Ellison yelling at other drivers from behind the wheel of his car, shouting at cars as a pedestrian, and just generally tossing out opinions, which he loves to do. Looking out over the San Fernando Valley from his home perched high above Sherman Oaks, he tells the camera, "The only smog is down in the valley, killing Republicans – I don't give a gao se about that."

To help the uninitiated get the merest hint of the writing that everyone else is raving about, the filmmakers include several sequences – not enough, in my opinion – of Ellison reading from his work, with evocative graphics behind and around him. You can get a sense of this from the clips available on the movie's Web site – http://www.creatvdiff.com/harlan_ellison.php (http://www.creatvdiff.com/harlan_ellison.php) – though unfortunately, most of these have not been included in the film. (Big extras for the eventual DVD, one supposes; I especially miss the excerpt from "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World," labeled "A Dangerous Vision" on the above site.)

Though the film is clearly a loving tribute, it doesn't skirt a few sensitive points, such as the one Ellison screenplay that made it to celluloid in 1966, "The Oscar." Ellison has long accepted the fact that it turned out to be one of the worst movies ever made. Mention is also made of The Last Dangerous Visions, the third and final collection of groundbreaking stories collected from colleagues and edited by Ellison but still unpublished after more than three decades.

A friend ruefully describes him in the film as one of our greatest writers who is also an "alternately impish and furious 11-year-old boy." ("Seven!" countered an audience member at the screening, to laughter). In the concluding moments of the film, Ellison admits, "if you had to live with me 24/7, you'd put a gun in your mouth, or my mouth," and adds, "If anybody watches this movie and says, 'god, what a mook,' well, I can't argue with that."

World premiere and standing ovation over, Ellison clambered onstage with Olson, who tried in vain to interview him. As almost always happens, Ellison took over the process. Olson got maybe two questions into what became a half-hour Ellison monologue. Earlier this year Olson became the first writer to collaborate with Ellison on a teleplay — an adaptation of Ellison's story "The Discarded" for the ABC mid-season anthology series Masters of Science Fiction, in which the author cameos as an alien. So he knew what he was getting into here and and apparently didn't mind, even as his "interviewee" kidded him with "Jesus Christ, Charlie McCarthy never gave me this kind of trouble."

Ellison's dismissal of "the pusbag Aaron Spelling" went over big with a crowd consisting mostly of writers of one stripe or another. ("Did he die? What a shame. I have to go home and raise my flag to full staff.") And his description of various forms of revenge he got on Streisand ("this harridan, this shrike, this butcher bird, this Jewish-American princess with a nose like the prow of the Titanic") for stealing his song set as well as the tips jar way back in the early '60s did not even include the earth swallowing up her townhouse in his story "Ecowareness."

To top off the evening, an audience member offered to replace Ellison's stolen $21 in Rienzi's tips if the author could prove he was worth it by singing something. Ellison obliged with a stanza of a Shel Silverstein song.

All of this was captured by Nelson's cameraman, Wes Dorman, who was still shooting on site. "Wes was with me [during the 1981 PBS shoot]" Nelson told the audience, "and Wes, I think it can be safely said it's sort of a wrap now." A 25-minute set of video excerpts went live on the above Web site May 2. If you watch it, you'll see Ellison speak of how weird it is to watch a film about yourself, and he recalls the incident in Tom Sawyer when Tom and Huck watch their own funeral after they have been reported drowned. Later, Ellison wrote, "It was one of the most bewildering and petrifying experiences at which I've been an observer, in a long life bloated with weird and memorable experiences. It was like being a disembodied spirit, floating invisibly above my open casket, hearing what everyone...ANYONE...would say about me when I'm gone."

So does this documentary deserve distribution to a general audience? I think so, and I hope it gets it. Given Ellison's limited notoriety, it may initially prove a challenge to get people into seats at a general screening, but once they're there, most of them will be intrigued if not captivated by the subject. "I think I would find it interesting if I was just going to a theater and watching it," Ellison himself remarked: "You know, 'gee, kind of an interesting, weird guy.' " Olson agreed, saying, "It's as close to the experience of hanging out with you as I can imagine on film."

At the post-screening reception, I talked with a woman who was not familiar with Ellison but had attended with her fan of a husband. She used a phrase that readily comes to mind to describe one's impression of Ellison in person: "a force of nature."

—–

David Loftus first read a Harlan Ellison story collection (Deathbird Stories) in 1975 as a high school sophomore in Coos Bay, Oregon; interviewed Ellison by telephone from Boston in 1985; proofread and fact-checked Ellison's Edgeworks volume 3 and Slippage in 1997; and is currently indexing the upcoming reissue of Ellison's twin collections of TV criticism, The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat, for Charnel House. Otherwise, he knows nothing about the man and claims no responsibility for his actions.

—–

Lead review photo courtesy of Harlan Ellison and Erik Nelson.

Review photo of Harlan Ellison and Josh Olson courtesy of Steven Barber.

—–

Film Credits:
Erik Nelson – Director, Producer
Randall Boyd – Co-producer, Editor
Richard Thompson – Music, Composer and Performer
Tom Ronca – Additional Editing
Amy Briamonte, Dave Harding – Executive Producers
Wes Dorman – Principal Camera
Kris Denton, Steven Miko, Adam Goldberg – Additional Camera
Dave Coulter, Glen Bates, Chris Aidenhead – Sound
Douglas Martin – Visual Effects and Graphics Supervisor
Todd Gallahan, Esther Lucini, Patric Martin, Paul Marengo – Additional Graphics
Douglas Martin, Patrick Martin, Tom Ronca, Tony Russomanno – Segment Producers
Jessica De Jong – Production Manager
Jane Pfeister, Lala Damonte – Production Coordinators
Colin Hatton – Post-Production Coordinator
Tree Falls – Post-Production Audio
Linda Callahan – Stock Footage Coordinator
Simon Tassano – Music Audio Mix
Jan Machalik – Gaffer
Joel Potter – Grip
Lorraine Martin, Cheri Minns – Make-Up/Hair
Kari Hunter – Script Coordinator
Cynthia Shapiro – Business Affairs
Footage/Artwork/Stills Provided By:
M.I.T. Lecture Series Committee
James Gunn and the University of Kansas Center for the Study of Science Fiction
Josh Olson
Jacek Yerka, Morpheus International
NBC News Archives
MGM/UA Television
Sabucat Productions, Inc.

Special Thanks:

Keith Addis, Neil Gaiman, Josh Olson, Rebecca Spencer
Appearances by: Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, Ron Moore, Peter David, Michael Cassutt, Stu Levin, Marty Shapiro, Richard Curtis
Archival Footage includes: Tom Snyder, Tom Brokaw, Jessica Savitch
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Pearl@32 on September 27, 2010, 11:03:01 AM
Quote from: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 08:12:32 AM
We saw him the very first D*C we went to, the one where Jewel created the 'flipoff' for Nathan. We went to the parade and quickly bolted for the room. Back then, there were no lines, you just showed up. Ellison had the room before Jewel, Nathan, and Adam. Ellison was puzzled why his panel that started off with 20 or so people had more and more people coming in as the panel went on. He was a little chagrined to see these 'browncoats' filling his panel not to see him, but the people coming in after him. He did laugh about it and said he'd hope they would enjoy the panel. And we did.

Harlan Ellison is a crusty, often bitter, often angry, very, very talented writer. He told some great stories and kept all entertained. Ann really enjoyed the panel, as did I.

I was totally at that FF panel! I was a little late though so I missed all the "Birds."
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 27, 2010, 12:18:57 PM
Quote from: Pearl@32 on September 27, 2010, 11:03:01 AM
I was totally at that FF panel! I was a little late though so I missed all the "Birds."

I didn't see you there. :neener:
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 15, 2011, 10:13:51 AM
Harlan Ellison claims Justin Timberlake's In Time rips him off

The groundbreaking, award-winning science-fiction godfather is suing Fox to prevent the release of Andrew Niccol's sci-fi thriller, claiming that too much is too similar to his own "Repent, Harlequin! Said The Ticktockman."

And Ellison doesn't just want to get paid for what he sees as copyright infringement—he wants to stop In Time's October 28th release and force New Regency and Fox (the producer and distributor, respectively) to burn every copy of the film.

In a complaint filed yesterday, Ellison claims that Niccol's film is based on his 1965 work, itself "one of the most famous and widely published science fiction short stories of all time." And, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the suit claims that both stories are about a ...

"dystopian corporate future in which everyone is allotted a specific amount of time to live." In both works, government authorities known as a "Timekeeper" track the precise amount of time each citizen has left. ... The complaint goes on to list similarities in the features of the universe as well as the plot surfaces—the manipulation of time an individual can live, the type of death experienced by those whose time runs out, rebellion by story protagonists, and so forth.

Ellison has reportedly been fending off Hollywood interest in Repent, Harlequin for years but recently allowed "a third party" to adapt it into screenplay form, hoping to sell it—and In Time jeopardizes that potential.

Most copyright infringement lawsuits get dismissed from court, but given Ellison's standing, the pervasiveness of the work itself, and the fact that Ellison has sued on similar grounds before with positive results—-The Terminator has a "with acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison" credit, after the author sued, claiming that James Cameron ripped off Ellison's Outer Limits episodes "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand"—it's entirely possible this won't go away any time soon.

http://blastr.com/2011/09/harlan-ellison-claims-jus.php (http://blastr.com/2011/09/harlan-ellison-claims-jus.php)
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 15, 2011, 10:16:38 AM
Harlan Ellison sues everyone. Has he ever won?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 15, 2011, 10:26:09 AM
QuoteAfter the original "Terminator" was released in 1984, [Harlan Ellison] sued the filmmakers saying that portions of the film had been lifted from his works. The well-known science-fiction writer eventually won the case. Although, as part of the agreement, the principals were not allowed to discuss the terms of the settlement, one thing is known: Ellison was to receive screen credit at the end of the film "gratefully acknowledging his work" on all showings of the movie, including television, videocassettes and laser discs. ("Terminator 2" will not carry the credit to Ellison because the sequel doesn't draw from Ellison's work.)

http://tinyurl.com/3huyega (http://tinyurl.com/3huyega)
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 15, 2011, 10:28:19 AM
And... (looks like he's been pretty successful)

QuoteOn April 24, 2000 Ellison sued Stephen Robertson for posting four stories to the newsgroup "alt.binaries.e-book" without authorization. The other defendants were AOL and RemarQ, internet service providers whose only involvement was running servers hosting the newsgroup. Ellison claimed that they had failed to stop the alleged copyright infringement in accordance with the "Notice and Takedown Procedure" outlined in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Robertson and RemarQ first settled with Ellison, and then AOL likewise settled with Ellison in June 2004, under conditions that were not made public. Since those settlements Ellison has initiated legal action and/or takedown notices against more than 240 people who have distributed his writings on the Internet, saying, "If you put your hand in my pocket, you'll drag back six inches of bloody stump".[32]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison#Copyright_suits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison#Copyright_suits)
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 15, 2011, 10:29:35 AM
How did that suit against Star Trek (the JJ Abrams movie) go?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 15, 2011, 10:38:59 AM
http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/18/rumor-control-harlan-ellison-not-suing-over-new-star-trek-movie/ (http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/18/rumor-control-harlan-ellison-not-suing-over-new-star-trek-movie/)

Rumor Control: Harlan Ellison NOT Suing Over New Star Trek Movie

QuoteTrekMovie actually talked to Mr. Ellison about this a month later in December of 2007, and he dispelled it. We got Ellison on video saying that he looked into it and there was no Guardian of Forever in the Star Trek movie, and he went on to say the Internet 'bombed out of existence' and refered to people who spread rumors on it as 'idiots'  along with many other colorful metaphors. Ellison went on to say he thought JJ Abrams was "a brilliant writer" and that Abrams is "does not need to steal" from him.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 15, 2011, 10:39:57 AM
He's a cantankerous old ben tiansheng de yidui rou ain't he?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 16, 2011, 08:39:46 AM
From the 4Chan thread: Chuck you Harlan you fat autistic piece of gao se, If you stop me seeing Amanda Seyfried in those tight dresses and cute little haircut I swear to god I will wreck your gao se.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Spooky on September 16, 2011, 08:47:20 AM
It'll probably end up like some of the previous suits. He'll get an undisclosed amount of money and/or credit, or he'll lose, but he seems to have a compelling argument.
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: TinkTanker on September 16, 2011, 08:52:49 AM
But how many different ways can you tell a time travel story?
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Eric on September 16, 2011, 09:23:45 AM
Quote from: TinkTanker on September 16, 2011, 08:52:49 AM
But how many different ways can you tell a time travel story?

(if you're referring to In Time: )
It must be a pretty forgettable subject matter, since Sara and I saw the In Time trailer in front of Captain Amerikkka and I only remembered it after re-reading the lawsuit article.   :doh:
It's about knowing exactly how much time each person has to live and somehow transferring it to others.   It sounds like a pretty typical "rich living vampirically off the poor masses" story with a slight twist. 

Official In Time Trailer [HD] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw#ws)
Title: Re: Harlan Ellison says he's dying, plans last convention appearance
Post by: Pearl@32 on September 16, 2011, 11:30:40 AM
I'm fine with everything about the movie.........except for Timberlake. I think he's great doing comedic, semi-dramatic roles. But, to see "Dick in a Box" shoot a gun is laughable to me. YMMV. (hopefully not by much)

Great to see Vincent Kartheiser and Matt Bomer in a feature film trailer though.