- Griffin Mill: It lacked certain elements that we need to market a film successfully.
- June: What elements?
- Griffin Mill: Suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mainly happy endings.
- June: What about reality?
- Griffin Mill: I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here.
- Larry Levy: I'll be there right after my AA meeting.
- Griffin Mill: Oh Larry, I didn't realise you had a drinking problem.
- Larry Levy: Well I don't really, but that's where all the deals are being made these days.
- Detective Susan Avery: Mr. Mill, have you been going to detective school?
- Griffin Mill: No, actually, we're doing a... a movie right now, called Lonely Room, and Scott Glenn plays a detective much like yourself.
- Detective Susan Avery: Is he a black woman?
- Griffin Mill: So, what's the story?
- Walter Stuckel: Twenty-five words or less? Okay. Movie exec calls writer. Writer's girlfriend says he's at the movies. Exec goes to the movies, meets writer, drinks with writer. Writer gets conked and dies in four inches of dirty water. Movie exec is in deep shit. What do you think?
- Griffin Mill: That's more than 25 words and it's bullshit.
- [Levy suggested that writers could be eliminated and any old news story could provide a movie story idea]
- Bonnie Sherow: "Further Bond Losses Push Dow Down 7.15." I see Connery as Bond.
- Jimmy Chase: Hey, you're Martin Scorsese!
- Alan Rudolph: No, but I know Harvey Keitel.
- Jimmy Chase: Of course you do! Hey, I loved Cape Fear!
- Bonnie Sherow: How could you let him sell you out? What about truth? Reality?
- Tom Oakley: What about the way the old ending tested in Canoga Park? Everybody hated it. We reshot it, now everybody loves it. - That's reality.
- Griffin Mill: Let's go to Acapulco.
- June: Is that the thing to do?
- Griffin Mill: It's *a* thing to do.
- Griffin Mill: Just... stop with the postcards...
- David Kahane: [enraged] I don't WRITE POSTCARDS! I WRITE SCRIPTS!
- [Asked to look at police mug shots]
- Griffin Mill: Um, no. I - I mean, I - You're putting me in a terrible position here. I would - I would hate to get the wrong person arrested.
- Detective Susan Avery: Oh, please! This is Pasadena. We do not arrest the wrong person. That's L.A.!
- [after watching The Bicycle Thief]
- Griffin Mill: Great movie, huh? So refreshing to see something like this after all these... cop movies and, you know, things we do. Maybe we'll do a remake of this!
- Malcolm McDowell: Griffin? Griffin! Hi, how are you? Listen: the next time you want to badmouth me, have the courage to do it to my face. You guys are all the same.
- [first lines]
- Man 1: [voiceover] Quiet on the set.
- Woman: [voiceover] OK, everybody, quiet on the set.
- Man 2: [voiceover] Scene 1, take 10. Marker.
- Man 1: [voiceover] And - action!
- Detective Susan Avery: So you're saying if you drove a shitty car, you would park in the parking lot.
- Griffin Mill: No, I'm saying if I were driving a shitty car, I would be a dead man.
- Griffin Mill: Who's the D.A.?
- Tom Oakley: Ah! No one.
- Griffin Mill: No one?
- Tom Oakley: No stars on this project. We're going out on a limb on one.
- Andy Civelli: You know, uh, like unknown stage actors or maybe somebody English like what's-his-name.
- Griffin Mill: [looking at June's paintings] These are very interesting. I like them... Where do you show?
- June: Hmm?
- Griffin Mill: Gallery - - what gallery? Who's your dealer?
- June: [chuckles] I don't have a "dealer." I couldn't sell these. They're never finished.
- Griffin Mill: They're never finished?
- June: No, they're just... what I do. For myself. What I feel.
- Detective Susan Avery: Paul went and saw a movie the other night and he keeps talking about it. What was that movie, Paul?
- Detective DeLongpre: Freaks.
- Griffin Mill: Oh yeah, Freaks, Tod Browning, It's a classic.
- Detective DeLongpre: One of us. One of us. One of us.
- Detective Susan Avery: He keeps saying that.
- Detective DeLongpre: [stopping Mill just as he's exiting his gated driveway] Mr. Mill, I'm Detective DeLongpre, Pasadena police.
- Griffin Mill: Yes, I recognize you. Did you have a good time at the party last night?
- Detective DeLongpre: No, I didn't. I'm not supposed to have a good time when I'm on duty.
- Walter Stuckel: How many meetings did you have with this guy?
- Griffin Mill: One.
- Walter Stuckel: Not counting last night.
- Griffin Mill: Not counting last night.
- Walter Stuckel: Why'd you go all the way to Pasadena to meet him?
- Griffin Mill: He had an idea I was interested in, I wanted to talk to him right away.
- Walter Stuckel: His girlfriend, I guess she was a friend of yours, too? Think fast!
- [He throws a ball at Griffin who barely catches it]
- Griffin Mill: Jesus Christ, Walter! What is this?
- Walter Stuckel: It's called the third degree. Don't like it? Wait till the police are asking questions.
- Jan: A guy named Joe Gillis called. He wants you to meet him at the St. James Club at 10:00 on the patio. Know who this is?
- Griffin Mill: Never heard of him.
- Jan: He said you'd know him.
- Griffin Mill: Anybody know who Joe Gillis is?
- Joel Levison: He's a character William Holden played in "Sunset Boulevard." The writer killed by a movie star.
- Bonnie Sherow: Gloria Swanson.
- Griffin Mill: [starts to laugh] Oh, that guy. Last week he said he was Charles Foster Kane. A week before that it was Rhett Butler.
- Gar Girard: [in the Pasadena police station hallway, on the way to the lineup] Mr. Mill, Gar Girard. I'm here to represent you. Dick Mellen called me in on this. Here's the situation. They've got a witness and they want you to do a lineup. Now, if you say no, they'll arrest you. I'm certain of that. And even if you get identified, I'll get you off on bail. Now, this witness lives across the street from the parking lot. Even if she makes an identification - a positive ID, right now - even if that happens, it was very late at night. By the time I'm finished with her, the world will have a whole new legal standard for blindness.
- June: [on the phone with Griffin] David's gone to the cinema.
- Griffin Mill: Oh. When will he be back?
- June: When the film's over, I presume.
- Griffin Mill: And you are?
- June: June.
- Griffin Mill: June...?
- June: Here we go. You want to know my last name. Well, you're not going to pronounce it - no one can.
- Griffin Mill: Try me.
- June: Gudmundsdottir.
- Griffin Mill: [saying it a few times, pronouncing it fairly accurately] Gudmundsdottir... Gudmundsdottir - - How's that?
- June: Eh, very good!
- Griffin Mill: Thanks. What do people usually say?
- June: Oh, don't ask. Like, anything from Good Dog's Water to Goulash Wallop.
- Larry Levy: Bonnie, you're fired.
- Bonnie Sherow: Fuck you.
- Larry Levy: Oh, it takes more to make it in this business than a dirty mouth.
- Walter Stuckel: Pictures they make these days are all MTV: cut, cut, cut. The opening shot of Welles' Touch of Evil was 6 and a half minutes long.
- Jimmy Chase: [amazed] 6 and a half minutes long?
- Walter Stuckel: 3 or 4 anyway. He set up the whole picture with that one tracking shot. My father was the key grip on that shoot.
- Jimmy Chase: Hey, what about Absolute Beginners? That was an extraordinary shot!
- Walter Stuckel: What the hell was that? Never heard of it.
- Jimmy Chase: It's Julien Temple. It's an English movie.
- Walter Stuckel: We're talking about American movies. Orson Welles was a master!
- Larry Levy: Burt? Larry Levy. I hope you don't remember me, and if you do, I hope there are no hard feelings. I was only working for Kaster at the time.
- Burt Reynolds: Yeah, right.
- Griffin Mill: Hiya, Burt. Griffin Mill. Good to see you.
- Burt Reynolds: Oh, hi, good to see you.
- Griffin Mill: Hi, Charles. How are you?
- Charles Champlin: Griffin, nice to see you this morning.
- Burt Reynolds: [as Mill walks away] Asshole.
- Charles Champlin: One of a breed.
- Burt Reynolds: No, actually not one of a breed, there's a whole breed of them. They're breeding them actually.
- Walter Stuckel: My old man worked for Hitchcock on Rope. It was a masterpiece. Story wasn't any good. Shot the whole thing without cuts. I hate all this cut-cut-cut.
- Jimmy Chase: Oh yeah? Well, what about Bertolucci and that great tracking shot with Winger in Sheltering Sky.
- Walter Stuckel: I didn't see it.
- Phil: [eulogizing at the funeral] The Hollywood system did not murder David Kahane. Not the $98 million movie, not the $12 million actor, nor the million-dollar deal that David Kahane never landed. No, the most that we can pin on Hollywood is assault with intent to kill, because society is responsible for this particular murder, and it is to society that we must look if we are to have any justice for that crime. Because someone in the night killed David Kahane, and that person will have to bear the guilt. And if David were here right now, I know in my heart that he, he would say, "Cut the shit, Phil. What did you learn from this? Did you learn anything from all of this?" And I'd say, uh, "Yeah, David, I've learned a lot. We here will take it from here." And the next time we sell a script for a million dollars, the next time we nail some shit bag producer to the wall, we'll say that's another one for David Kahane! David was working on something the day he died, I'd like to share it with you.
- [starts reading from a script]
- Phil: Blackness. A mangy dog barks. Garbage cans are lifted as derelicts on the street hunt for food. Buzzing, a cheap alarm clock goes off. Interior: flophouse room, early morning. A tracking shot moves through the grimy room. Light streams in through holes in the yellowing window shade. Moths dance in the beams of light. Track down along the floor, the frayed rug, stop on an old shoe. It's empty.
- Phil: That's as far as he got. That's the last thing he wrote. So long, Dave. Fade out. Thank you.
- Bonnie Sherow: What is going on?
- Griffin Mill: What do you mean?
- Bonnie Sherow: I mean handing Larry Levy your project like that.
- Griffin Mill: Well, I just thought Larry had a firm grip on the style of the piece. That's all.
- Bonnie Sherow: The only thing Larry Levy has a firm grip on is his dick, and you know it.
- Griffin Mill: Oh? Where's are you kind-of, sort-of not from?
- June: Well... do you want the long story or the short one?
- Griffin Mill: The long.
- June: No, you'd never believe it. The short one... Iceland.
- Griffin Mill: Iceland? No one comes from Iceland. I thought it was just a block of ice.
- June: It's green, really.
- Griffin Mill: Really? I thought that was Greenland.
- June: Greenland's very icy. Iceland's very green. They switched names to fool the Vikings who tried to steal their women.
- Griffin Mill: Oh, I see.
- Griffin Mill: I will not work for Larry Levy.
- Joel Levison: I'm not asking you to.
- Griffin Mill: I report to you. If I have to report to Larry Levy, I quit.
- Joel Levison: Can't quit. I wont let you quit. You have a year and a half left on your contract and I will sue you for breach if you don't show up in the office every day. With a smile.
- Griffin Mill: Why Levy?
- Joel Levison: Levy was available. He's good on material, you're good with writers. We're a team. He's a new member of the team, that's all. He can make us all look good.
- Griffin Mill: [to the waitress, annoyed] This is a red wine glass. Can I have my water in water glass, please?
- Joel Levison: Well?
- Griffin Mill: I'll have to think about it, Joel.
- Joel Levison: I want an answer this afternoon.
- Griffin Mill: Well, I have to go out to Palmdale. The director of Lonely Room is giving Lily a hard time. I'll be back around 5.
- Joel Levison: Well, call after 5.
- Griffin Mill: [brusquely] I'll get back to you.
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