A Scanner Darkly

MBM

Well-known member
Loved the book when I read it - but it's been a while (7 years?). And now Richard Linklater is making a film of it with Keanu R (boo!), Robert Downey Jr (ray!), Woody & Winona (hmmmm).

Looks like he's doing some weird-ass animation over it as well. Which could either be fantastic (ala Manga) or suck majorly.

One issue I have is that ASD always read as primarily a junkie story (e.g. Jesus' Son) rather than a SF extravaganza. I hope RL isn't tempted to "Blader Runner" it up.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Looks like the trailer (at least?) is attempting to cash in on / tie this to the Matrix films. Hopefully the movie itself doesn't, paranoid drug dissolve into entropy type flicks seem much more fun. I haven't read the story, mind...

I reckon Linklater is sooooo overrated. Actually, maybe he's not overrated, because not that many people like his films. I guess he's like Gus Van Sant or someone - it seems right that he has a bit of a cult following, but is generally ignored.

Still, the animation looks nice and it's good to see he's only pulling it out when he thinks it suits, rather than doing it on every movie since 'Waking Life'.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
adruu said:
funny...just saw the trailer a second ago...
http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/ascannerdarklyqt.html

animation looks great of course, but since when did The Keanu get a lockdown on every sci-fi movie lead? please new faces are a good thing!!!!! especially surprised they picked him since it was linklater...

Oh god I hate Reeves. And this will be the second PKD book ruined by him won't it? Or was Johnny Memonic by someone else?
 

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
Johnny Mnemonic was/is a William Gibson short story.

I really can't see anybody - let alone Linklater - turning ASD into something Matrix-esque... but then *they* turned We Can Remember It For You Wholesale into Total Recall....
 

Yuri

Active member
A little on Dick from, well, the Matrix.

Phillip K. Dick, the late schizoid Sci-Fi author and Ira (The Unicorn) Einhorn, sixties radical activist turned seventies New Age networker cum fugitive axe murderer, began a correspondence in early February of '78 centered around Dick's firmly held (on shaky ground) belief that the Russians were beaming psychotronic transmissions via satellite into his already somewhat disturbed mind.

http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/hambone/pkd.html

And this:
http://www.totse.com/en/conspiracy/mind_control/165623.html
 
O

Omaar

Guest
Interesting article.

I really enjoyed VALIS when I read it. I didn't realise it was based on Dick's personal experiences. That whole trilogy is pretty good I reckon.

I think most attempts to make movies out of his books have failed. Bladerunner is quite good, but is utterly different to the book. Both are good in their own ways, I liked the book more. Di danyone see that recent ben affleck one? looked pretty crap. ah.. paycheck:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0338337/

hmm john woo ok I am tempted to see this now ... actually the concept sounds fun. anyone seen it?
 

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
kind of off topic but...

Quote:
Phillip K. Dick, the late schizoid Sci-Fi author and Ira (The Unicorn) Einhorn, sixties radical activist turned seventies New Age networker cum fugitive axe murderer, began a correspondence in early February of '78 centered around Dick's firmly held (on shaky ground) belief that the Russians were beaming psychotronic transmissions via satellite into his already somewhat disturbed mind.

This seems a misjudgement of the PK to me; in Divine Invasions and the exegesis his ideas are presented more like probes à la Mcluhan than firmly or dogmatically held beliefs. He does *believe* them but is continually questioning, revising and adjusting them. The Russian satellite thesis was given as much credit as the prospect that all his experiences were delayed methamphetamine and LSD side effects...
 

Buick6

too punk to drunk
michael said:
I reckon Linklater is sooooo overrated. Actually, maybe he's not overrated, because not that many people like his films. I guess he's like Gus Van Sant or someone - it seems right that he has a bit of a cult following, but is generally ignored.

I thought the same thing until I saw 'School of Rock' which I think is one of the best kids books ever. 'Wanking Life' is one of the worst films I've ever seen thought 'After sunrise' is a cute indie-shmindie anorak-lovestory. 'Suburbia' is OK too. i think Linklater has turned a corner and will deliver with 'a scanner darkly' the animation adding to the drugfucked dislocated/dreamworl of the novel, while still retaining that suburban junkie netherworld.

I don't mind gus Van Sant actually, though yes, he is over-rated too, though 'elephant' was quite brilliant, though alan Clarke is still better..
 
D

droid

Guest
Phillip K. Dick, the late schizoid Sci-Fi author and Ira (The Unicorn) Einhorn, sixties radical activist turned seventies New Age networker cum fugitive axe murderer, began a correspondence in early February of '78 centered around Dick's firmly held (on shaky ground) belief that the Russians were beaming psychotronic transmissions via satellite into his already somewhat disturbed mind.

Is this correct? Didnt Dick believe that VALIS itself (Vast Active Living Intelligence System) was communicating with him, and controlling his visions? That he had become the focus and receptacle of/for vast amounts of alien knowledge?
 

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I'm also a huge PKD fan. I remember reading Valis and honestly worrying if it would make me insane (I was in amsterdam at the time so there were other reasons for this as well). Scanner is one of my favorite books of his and I'm very worried that they're gonna fuck with it. The invasions of insanity, paranoia, strange big brother technology into a more or less 'normal' hippie drug scene is what makes it so good. If they matrix it up it's gonna get really un-interesting. And my guess about Keanu is that he's not as dumb as he acts and he's picking these movies, therefore allowing them to get funded and made. People forget that Hollywood is a star based system where unless you have a big stupid face attached your movie will never see light of day. I'd guess Keanu sees that his bad acting does OK in the SF format and so keeps picking these movies. In this case it's a real stretch but.. I'm hoping for the best. I'm actually glad that it's linklater and not the wachowski bros or john woo or any of those guys who would certainly feel compelled to put in some explosions.

Me and a friend were just talking about this on email and my main peeve with filming PKD's works is that they often smooth out a lot of the wackiness and humor that's in there, which is usually where a lot of his political comments are encoded. And I think the SF-ization of things like Blade Runner has to do with this, it's not spooky and futuristic enough to put in all the goofy shit he wrote. That said I love both BR and Androids but they ended up being VERY different works.
 

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
(get's nerd hat on) I'd say that is blatantly a joke. For a start much of the technology included in the described PKD Android is not yet existent or is too big to fit inside a moveable human shaped case.

'Biometric-identification software and advanced machine vision allows the robot to recognise people -- even in a crowd'

I really don't think so. I'm not a roboticist but those are VERY hard things to do. Most robots have a very hard time walking and standing upright in a lab. A lot of the individual things they're describing are theoretically possible but usually are done by one robot at a time ie: conversation, walking, seeing. Kind of a funny joke though.
 
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/280406powerfulfilm.htm

Powerful New Film Expertly Exposes Phony Drug War & Police State

A Scanner Darkly set to shake collective unconsciousness through viral popular culture shot in the arm


Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | April 28 2006

A new film set for release later this year chronicles how power interests exploit the drug war in order to create unthinking armies of drone servants and erect police state measures to prevent the people from ever glimpsing the dark truth behind a highly mechanized surveillance panopticon.

A Scanner Darkly is a powerful dystopic film set in the terrifying near future-- a world controlled by high-tech surveillance and ruled by a liberty-destroying police state. Director Richard Linklater picks up where he left off with his ground-breaking Waking Life-- its rotoscoped look has now advanced exponentially into a startling visual element which only supports the themes of this new film. A Scanner Darkly is a heavily researched, amazingly conceived blend of Phillip K. Dick's acclaimed novel and the frightening real technology emerging in our threatened world....
 
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