oh no "a scanner darkly" staring Keanu Reaves... directed by the same man who did Dazed and Confused...

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ARGH

http://www.philipkdick.com/films_scanner-061204.html

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

also: Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr.

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't like the keanu bit, but i do like linklater!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i mean considering the shitty dick adaptations recently i think rl would definitely be an improvement

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

is this the LSD fucks you up book? OH NO another split personality movie. who'll play the other Keanu?

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

"whoa"

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:05 (twenty-two years ago)

justin long (xp)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Keanu should only play Theodore S. Preston, Esq.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the idea of Linklater working with a fucking STORY.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:08 (twenty-two years ago)

to be honest that's what kind of worries me, but we'll see...

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean, like, as opposed to just letting random stoner fuckfaces off the street ramble on about whatever the fuck is on their mind.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

HSTENCIL: WILLIAM S. PRESTON AND TED THEODORE LOGAN FOOL!!!

― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

random stoner fuckfaces off the street ramble on about whatever the fuck is on their mind

Er...isn't that the plot?

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

oh fuck, whatever, I need more coffee.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

disc 1 of Led Zep's BBC SESSIONS has three versions of "Dazed and Confused" on it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Poor Dick is becoming short-hand for a type reality twisting, but otherwise conventional, action story. A lot of my favorite aspects of his work (like his strange religious obsessions and his troubled shmuck protagonists) never make it onto film. Its painful to see celebrity bone-heads like Ben Affleck name-checking Dick during interviews nowdays.

― Phil Peirson, Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Exactly. How could you ever make a movie of VALIS?

(Actually, it saddens me a little to think of Affleck ever having read VALIS)

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

You couldn't make a movie of VALIS, but you could make a movie of Radio Free Albemuth and call it VALIS. They're basically the same story, just RFA is more of a conventional pulp.
Linklater could pull off A Scanner Darkly; it's basically a bunch of druggies hanging out talking shit. That's his strength, right?
Perhaps we can take solace in the chance that Keanu will be spending good screentime disguised in a cloaking device.

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 17 June 2004 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

actually, as the Onion pointed out, ALL hollywood sci-fi flicks are little more than just standard action movies, with a slightly different bit of technology being blown up.

― Kingfish of Burma (Kingfish), Thursday, 17 June 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Linklater's a next-to-perfect choice ... he's a great director of fairly non-narrative film; and P. Dick's such a plodding author that it's likely the pacing will even itself out.

That being said - split personality (following the weirdly lauded Fight Club) is really chic. It's like the new countdown-timer of action conceits, or the F/X driven VR flick of the late '80s, and there's bound to pop out of the bajillions of repititions some half-decent movies. Linklater's at home with the reality-bending motif and, even if he's kinda bubble-gum-trite, he proved that he can do the half-baked intellectual schtick with Waking Life. I hope that Linklater's atmospherics - sunny, and extra-sharp - can be applied to A Scanner Darkly. The post T2, post Matrix washed-out gunmetal palette needs some of the sunshine that R.L. has made one of his trademarks.

Granted, I think that Cronenberg might have been a better choice, but he's a little unbankable and alienating. Coupled with Dick, he might be insufferably glum. Overall I don't think Linklater's a bad choice.

― x Jeremy (Atila the Honeybun), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Cronenberg's better when not working with adaptations.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Scanner's all about hazy daze. Cronenberg might be better at tackling the more terror-oriented stuff like Ubik or Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge or Flow my Tears.

― SexyDancer, Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

well I also meant given his novel adaptation track record (Naked Lunch, Crash, any more?), I'd hope he'd stay away. Plus goddammit PKD books should not be set in Toronto.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

what about the dead zone? that was good!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

please tell me there will be a meatball sandwich and skydiving scene.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

ah I never have seen or read The Dead Zone.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Cronenberg is really spotty. Videodrome, Crash, The Fly, and eXistenZ notwithstanding, the guy's output is really nothing to laud.

― x Jeremy (Atila the Honeybun), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:59 (twenty-two years ago)

SCANNERS YOU FUCK!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Crash sucks hard too, dude.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

crash sucks but cronenberg is still the best anglo canadian filmmaker ever

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I forgot Scanners... and Crash was fucking cool when I was 18.

― x Jeremy (Atila the Honeybun), Thursday, 17 June 2004 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

slocki do you want Guy Maddin to make "THE SADDEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD" now? 'Cause you just might make him cry.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

This is going to be Rotoscoped like Waking Life.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Thursday, 17 June 2004 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Keanu should only play ["Ted"] Theodore [Logan]

Actually he wasn't bad as Tod in Parenthood. Then again, Tod was just a slightly more realistic version of the same character. Ted could very well be a caricature of Tod.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 17 June 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

"POSE AS A NARC!!!"

"IF I COULD JUST HAVE ONE MORE HIT, I'M SURE MY BRAIN WOULD REPAIR ITSELF"!!!

(this book is basically unfilmable. I mean, what is the point?)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah David Cronenberg, nothing to write home abt ...oh, apart from Rabid, obv ...oh and Scanners...and Shivers...and Videodrome...and THE BROOD!! etc. etc.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

and of course you didn't include an adaptation in that list.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, Slacker rocked, stfu.

― David Allen (David Allen), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha Norman that 2nd line is FANTASTIC

I wld say that ASD is Dick's best bk - and yeah, aside from the metaphysical complications, the nov's brilliant balance between black humour and sheer unremitting grimness will be v. tricky to pull off - I wld like to see Michael Haneke give it a go

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

David Allen get with the program now, we're talking about Cronenberg.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

My bad, my bad. Well, I saw his version of Crash, which was pretty hilarious, and a friend told me he did a version of Naked Lunch that was atrocious as well.

― David Allen (David Allen), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

Woah boy. I can't believe this is going to be good, BUT I'm interested in seeing what he's going to do with it anyway. Most of Dick's best novels are pretty unfilmable though and this may be other than Valis or Radio Free Albemuth the most unfilmable of them all.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

how awful would it be if the soundtrack included any tidbits from robert downey jr.'s new album. hahaha! i gotta get my paws on a copy of it soon purely to torture myself.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

produced by freaks and geeks producer
directed by the director of the paris hilton sextape

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

oh he's good

― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

the most unfilmable of them all

yeah, but this is animated a la waking life, i believe?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

It is? Oh that might be different (might be worse too.) Hmmn. Well I'm shouldn't write Linklater off.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

this should be great if linklater is unfaithful. otherwise a bust.

― henry miller, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

This had better be good or I'm going to fucking kill someone.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm not sure this is unfilmable but this reminds me that i'd really like to see someone try to film Ubik sometime...that would either be totally unfilmable or the best special fx EVAH

― sean c via cell, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

also.. the unteleported man would be quite a film. do we have a PKD thread?

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dead Ringers" is another good David Cronenburg movie. It is probably Jeremy Irons creepiest role in a career of playing creeps.

The PK Dick book that could be an interesting movie is "The Man in the High Castle".

― earlnash, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.philipkdick.com/images/films_scanner-keanu-woody.jpg
what's going on here?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Where was that interview I read talking about how Chris Cunningham wanted to adapt this? And didn't Charlie Kaufman write a Scanner Darkly script? now that would be AWESOME. Linklater is good, but i'd be so much more excited to see what Cunningham and/or Kaufman would do with this.

― lemin (lemin), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do you people always hate on Keanu Reeves? I mean, The Matrix, Johnny Mneumonic, The Replacements, Bill & Ted 1 & 2, Point Break...the dude is like the best actor of our times, what gives with you hipsters. Though I'm still not sure why he was in Dangerous Liasions.

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

ALSO: THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE! Speed?? Please, people. Let's be reasonable.

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

My guess is that Constantine is going to be his nadir.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You must've missed A Walk In The Clouds, then.

― Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyzay), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

well I also meant given his novel adaptation track record (Naked Lunch, Crash, any more?)

bbbut these are his best films!!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I harbor a secret love for Johnny Mnemonic.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Crash is a perfect example of filming the unfilmable IMHO and Naked Lunch was a game try.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

as for adaptations there's also "spider" but i didn't like that one. i'm not the world's biggest cronenberg fan in general.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i think he is totally brilliant (at devising fascinatintly twisted narratives-shading-into-nonnarratives among other things) but sometimes i think he lacks a certain film sense, his movies don't flow and command my attention like the best movies do.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

what's going on here?

I really really really don't want to know.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do you people always hate on Keanu Reeves? I mean, The Matrix, Johnny Mneumonic, The Replacements, Bill & Ted 1 & 2, Point Break...
[snip]
ALSO: THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE! Speed?? Please, people. Let's be reasonable.
-- Allyzay Needs Legs More (allyza...), January 4th, 2005.

If you didn't just answer you're own question, I'll eat my hat. Or buy a hat on the way home to eat. Or make a hat out of a burger I can buy on the way home and eat that.

But I digress. Keanu sucks when his role calls for something more than saying "Whoa", which is why he was great in Bill & Ted and the first Matrix film. I'd almost prefer Ashton Kutcher.

I've just finished reading ASD for the second time, and I reckon it's my favourite PKD novel, (storyline is here for anyone who hasn't seen it: http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/dick.scanner.shtml ) but I don't think it should be filmed. Apart from Bladerunner, the only PKD story (and a short one at that) to turn out good as a film was 'Screamers', although 'Total Recall' is fun, mindless entertainment.

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

minority report was pretty good, man.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 04:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I enjoyed it (mainly the SpeshFX), but it was COMPLETELY different to the story. Even the concept of the actual 'minority report' was wrong.

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the best movie would be a biopic about PKD during the time his electricity bills were surging, his dog died, and he believed a pink light awakened him to his past life during the time of jesus.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 05:59 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean VALIS?

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:08 (twenty-one years ago)

no, because everyone claims valis can't be written.

VALIS is in the mind of horselover fat or whatever his name is. the film in envision would not be from PKD's subjective perspective, less like cronenberg's naked lunch...

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"written" as a screenplay, that is.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I must say I'm actually getting more excited about this movie. Putting Keanu Reeves out of my mind for a second, I really like the idea of Robert Downey Jr. as Barris (obnoxious smartass) and Winona Ryder as Donna (small, soft, fine featured, mysterious).

I think this film might be best shot in first person, or with as little visual focus on the main character as possible. Why the Kaufman screenplay was overlooked is beyond my comprehension - if there's anyone that can capture Bob Arctor's paranoid, surreal reality it's him.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:13 (twenty-one years ago)

the end of ASD is so depressing! let's hope it stays that way.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

and bob doesn't go run off with donna somewhere in the country to live happily ever after.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway, linklater was so enthusiastic in his PKD monologue at the end of waking life, i don't see how he could do a disservice to this novel.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

the end of ASD is so depressing! let's hope it stays that way.

What?! It's one of Dick's most optimistic endings... Maybe you should go back and read those last pages again.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i lent it out and never got it back. i remember it being:

SPOILERS:

bob, braindead, practically drooling, working on some commune, not knowing who he was?

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 06:19 (twenty-one years ago)

minority report was such a turd!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, Waking Life. There are people in Austin who talk like that, but we need to be developing a virus that will kill off 99.7% of them, not making movies about them. Do people from California feel the same way about Valis?

― A. Ustin, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 09:20 (twenty-one years ago)

SPOILERS:

bob, braindead, practically drooling, working on some commune, not knowing who he was?

Not quite. It's not just "some commune", it's a farm that covertly grows the plant from which Substance D is derived. In the last paragraph he picks up one of these blue flowers and puts it inside his shoe for safe keeping. His mind has been overwrought, and in many ways destroyed (I guess), but he still retains elements of his training and some sense of his mission.

― Andrew (enneff), Friday, 7 January 2005 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

"Where was that interview I read talking about how Chris Cunningham wanted to adapt this?"

I wish Chris Cunningham would make a movie. There has been talk for a few years that he was trying to do Neuromancer. I don't know if what he does would hold up over a whole movie, but if it is as good as his videos, it could be amazing.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Friday, 7 January 2005 03:25 (twenty-one years ago)

evelopment funding is in place for Chris to direct (and co-write) his first feature film. Entitled either Happy Birthday Lubna or Ranx, it is an adaptation of the comic book RanXerox by Tanino Liberatore and Stefano Tamburini.
    The UK Film Council awarded Chris and Rule 8 Productions Ltd. £95,300 ($164,200) from its Development Fund. "The aim [of said fund] is to raise the quality of screenplays produced in or from the UK through targeted development initiatives. Over time, the fund aims to build creatively focused relationships, with a breadth of talent, from 'first timers' to experienced practitioners." The Council also has a New Cinema Fund, and a Premiere Fund for features, which focus more on actual production and marketing.
    Dec 8 Variety reports that the script, which is in its early stage, is being co-written by Gordy Hoffman.
    Two men are checked as producers: Paris-based Fernando Sulichin (Jonas Åkerlund's Spun, three Oliver Stone films), and former FilmFour executive producer Jim Wilson.
    A short explanation: The comic book series RanXerox "features a punk, Frankenstein's monster (made from photocopier parts) named RanXerox and Lubna his teenage sidekick. Together they form a bizarre beauty and beast team in a post-apocalyptic world."
    The film was originally titled RanXerox, until a lawsuit from Xerox.
    Happy Birthday, Lubna is the second book in the RanXerox series.

(taken from http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/510.html )

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 7 January 2005 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

obviously that's a missing 'd' before evelopment

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 7 January 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=19085

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 9 January 2005 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

if it is as good as his videos, it could be amazing.

like all those other music video directors who made such wonderful features???

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 9 January 2005 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Cunningham's videos aren't like all those others!

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Sunday, 9 January 2005 05:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The stills from the link two posts up look quite amazing. Much more promising than I'd thought.

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 9 January 2005 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh wow a RanXerox movie! cool!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Sunday, 9 January 2005 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Trailer is up and floating around. Uses the weird animation effect from Waking Life but looks much better than that flick did. This is going to rival Sin City (and perhaps Batman Year One) as either this years biggest triumph or--perhaps more likely--its biggest disappoint. Enjoy the trailer.

http://s30.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1R93R5MJ6TO440FXHHX184I1ZS

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 21 February 2005 06:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Ryder's the only one in the preview who you immediately think okay this person doesn't belong here (glah that voice.) Reeves seems like he might be fine (Downey and Harrelson are great actors IMO, I couldn't be happier with them being in it.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 21 February 2005 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh man oh man, that actually looks like it could be REALLY good. I love Linklater's animation style.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 21 February 2005 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, my first thought upon seeing the preview was "okay this might not suck after all".

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 21 February 2005 06:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, wow, I'm actually sort of excited about this. Also kind of stoked about Keanu being in it, he's really a better actor than ppl give him credit for.

― as we proceed!! (PUNXSUTAWNEY PENIS), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 08:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, that trailer looks absolutely great! Who'd have thought it?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

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