Paul Haggis has said that Crash began its life as a television concept and you can see how that could be – it’s full of facile, easy resolutions that mean nothing but carry the weight of sentiment and mawkishness. It’s the sort of shit that would fit right in between Touched by an Angel and Celebrity Fit Club; Crash only contains profundity for those who have previously found meaning in a box of Mallomars.
Now Crash, after having stolen the Oscar, is returning to the medium for which it was truly built. Starz will air a 13 episode Crash series, marking the network’s first ever drama series. Paul Haggis, Don Cheadle and Bob Yari (who had been up to his balls in a Crash-related lawsuit at one point), and dig who will be writing the pilot: the singing voice of Aladdin! Dude is named Caleb Kane, and he wrote a track for The Black Donnellys, Haggis’ latest failed TV show. I don’t know if that’s where he got the pilot gig. There can be a pilot script because Lionsgate, who is making the show, recently signed a deal with the WGA. This is a stark reminder that while the end of the strike is something we all hope for, it will also mean the resumption of crap being produced.
Crash was originally going to air on FX, but that network wanted to wait because it had renewed it’s three newest scripted shows, Dirt, The Riches and Damages. Lionsgate was all about inflicting this show on a very small segment of America, though, so they went immediately for Starz.
“We’ll use the style of storytelling from the movie,” says Kevin Beggs, president of programming and production for Lionsgate, “but there’ll be new characters and new stories to get into the subjects of race and class, and the bigotry that’s simmering under the skin of a city like Los Angeles.” Hey Biggs, I don’t know what LA you’re living in, but that shit ain’t simmering under the skin. In fact, the way that LA keeps groups isolated actually makes all of this less interesting. Set the show in New York, where races and classes are jammed together in places like subways – that’s where there’s some simmering.
15 comments
Hah another reason not to pay for STARZ. Cause anything adding a Z to look cool just isn't worth your time.
Lionsgate never fails to fail.
Wait wasn't BRAD Kane the singing voice of Aladdin?
Meanwhile I will not be watching this show extra hard as I don't have Starz.
I think I'll stick with HBO and their original programming.
Screw you, Crash rocked! It got a little bit schmaltzy a times, but it had two of the greatest scenes in this century, and there were so many great performances. Take out the last overlong song montage and this movie is easily an A+. The movie won the Oscar for a reason. Accep it.
while i dont completely agree with your sentiment on the awfulness of crash i do feel like it was robbed..but not by brokeback mountain, which many people seem to feel was the best picture of the year. in reality, it was a mediocre melodrama pulled to the brim of excellence by the very controversy that surrounded it. munich was the best film of the year. hands down.
as for the TV show, it sounds alot like a cash grab, or it could be paul haggis's continued attempts to gain another emmy (those thirtysomething statues might me getting lonely).
was crash even a box office success? that i dont know.
Good times. Now I have something equally as awesome as 'Cavemen' to shit on.
I don't think I've ever actively hated a movie as much as I hated CRASH. What a piece of holier-than-thou, over-simplified garbage. The only good thing about it is the Stereophonics song that plays over the end credits.
Agreed with gravedigger. Crash was a travesty. It was a pretentious pile of trash that had to the gawl to imply that no matter how hard I try, you, I and everyone are racist bigots. The movie needed some hope and promise to create some balance. Cripes. The movie was a joke.
Agreed with gravedigger. Crash was a travesty. It was a pretentious pile of trash that had to the gawl to imply that no matter how hard I try, you, I and everyone are racist bigots. The movie needed some hope and promise to create some balance. Cripes. The movie was a joke.
Agreed with gravedigger. Crash was a travesty. It was a pretentious pile of trash that had to the gawl to imply that no matter how hard I try, you, I and everyone are racist bigots. The movie needed some hope and promise to create some balance. Cripes. The movie was a joke.
Preach brotha! Not only is Crash filled with pretentiousness and misplaced notions of socio-economic race relations, it was absolutely ludicrous that it could beat out Brokeback Mountain for best picture. And now we get to suffer through the indignation of a crappy tv show, based off of a crappy film. Thank you Paul Haggis, for nothing.
"previously found meaning in a box of Mallomars."
Stealing jokes from The Simpsons now? What's the matter–running out of annoying sarcasm?
Growing up in racially sensitive Chicago my whole life. Living through MLK's assassination, the riots, and the constant racism between white cops and black youth that still exists today, I would hardly call my view of racism simplistic. And yet I loved Crash. The problem was a lot of people wanted the movie to be something it wasn't: some sort of enlightening assessment of today's race-weary culture. Instead it explored the much more interesting angle of "every single person is racist", whether they want to be or claim to be or think they are or not. And personally I think they did it brilliantly. No there were no solutions because there aren't any solutions to this problem. I think that very conceit scared a lot of people who needed to attack this movie in order to resolve the fact that they are, indeed, racist themselves.
Just watched Crash for a 400-level Justice course and have to agree with Chuck (#14); it's an entertaining and often funny look at a bunch of racists that will uncomfortably remind some people of themselves. The operatic music woven through the film is a bit pretentious, but it doesn't destroy some good, solid character acting. It's not great cinema, but neither is it deserving of the hate it finds on these boards. (Oscars mean about as much as an MTV award anyway)
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