A Scanner Darkly

[metulj]

Whoa. Something is afoot at the local cinema ... dude.

(I am all over this.)

[TallGirl]

I got a review copy of it. After I got past the weirdness of everything being in live comicbook form, I kinda liked it. Kinda. Very unusual.

[Hi Top]

I liked "Slacker" and "Dazed and Confused" but haven't really been into anything else he's done. Think this will be good?

[jeffx]

*drools*

[fluffy]

basically a extension of Waking Life, isnt it?

[jeffx]

basically a extension of Waking Life, isnt it?

nah, scanner is based off a phillip k. dick. it's just faux-rotoscoped like waking life.

[omgwtf]

I absolutely LOVED Waking Life and am looking very forward to seeing this one.

*stoked*

[Hi Top]

Oh yeah! I forgot "Waking Life". That was good.

[jack frost]

I've been worked up over this movie for over a year now, since the first trailer hit. Early reviews are very positive. Linklater is a genius and I think this will be one Hell of a fun, paranoid, fascinating movie. Word is that it follows the novel religiously, down to some very small details (including an ending that will probably piss off and/or confuse many moviegoers) so I know the story is good.

Latest clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqJ2KByY3Kc

[gypsy]

coincidentally or not, i just started reading the book. i guess i'll finish it before i watch the movie.

[F-Stop]

Looks like it's out tomorrow.

I may have to go see this on Monday with my pal and his gf. They're both huge Phillip K. Dick fans...

Has anyone seen the Proposition yet? I think i'm going to that tonight at Downtown West.

[jack frost]

Also, hilarious clip at the end of this rather uninformative "Q&A session".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5oUxB6h0M

Oh, and great interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoiPTy2GVPk

[jack frost]

Knoxville, YOU GO TO HELL. YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE.

Apparently, getting rave critical reviews and starring Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu fucking Reeves isn't enough to get a movie played in this town.

What the fuck.

[jeffx]

yer kidding. not even downtown west?

[metulj]

Knoxville, YOU GO TO HELL. YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE.

Apparently, getting rave critical reviews and starring Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu fucking Reeves isn't enough to get a movie played in this town.

What the fuck.

They're afraid it might take a bite out of the revenue off Cars or that new Will Farrell thing.*




*Which I will see if only because I grew up in Martinsville, VA and part of the movie was shot there.

[fluffy]

Knoxville, YOU GO TO HELL. YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE.

Apparently, getting rave critical reviews and starring Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu fucking Reeves isn't enough to get a movie played in this town.

What the fuck.


looks like it might be bitorrent time for you, bub...

[fluffy]

They're afraid it might take a bite out of the revenue off Cars or that new Will Farrell thing.*

hmm, am i to assume that downtown west has started moving away from their indie bent and back to mainstream slop? or were you just bein persnickity?

[jack frost]

Actually, it looks like today was the "limited" release date - so I'm hoping it's one of those cases where Downtown West will eventually get it. Still, I don't know why they wouldn't - DW has pulled in some real stinker art movies that probably didn't make a dime. Scanner Darkly has huge potential to make at least a few bucks off the stoner crowd for its humor and anti-police-state message.

[DnB]

Knoxville, YOU GO TO HELL. YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE.

Apparently, getting rave critical reviews and starring Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Keanu fucking Reeves isn't enough to get a movie played in this town.

What the fuck.

Take a deep breath Jack. :0

When I first saw the ads on tv, I thought they were really doing the film a diservice by not listing the actors. I noticed last night they are now.

[jack frost]

Good news: opens tomorrow in Knoxville!

Some cities apparently aren't getting it until August. Damn, yo.

[DnB]

Ok, so it took us a almost a year to get around to this film, but we received our copy from Netflix Friday.
I was not overwhelmed by the film. We both agreed the weird comic/cartoon appearance detracted from the film. We did figure out Wynona's character before the end of the film. It could have been better.

[gypsy]

We did figure out Wynona's character before the end of the film. It could have been better.

i didn't figure that out because i'd just read the book and that particular twist is not in the book. but yeah, i thought it was an interesting but not really successful adaptation. i liked the scenes with rdj and woody harrelson tho.

[jack frost]

I stand by my assertion that it was a perfect adaptation.

Also, the twist at the end actually is hinted at in the novel, just not explicitly shown like it is in the film.

[gypsy]

i didn't think it showed arctor's mental disintegration convincingly. partly because the condensation of the story didn't really allow for it to develop, and partly because keanu seemed more befuddled than ka-RAy-zee.

[jack frost]

I disagree. I'll grant you that the disintegration wasn't as subtly gradual as it was in the novel, but I don't think it would be possible to transfer that to film without using voice-over, and do you really want a whole movie narrated by Keanu?

Much of why I disagree is that, in the novel, I saw Arctor as being more befuddled than crazy. His mental breakdown was the process of him literally losing his mind - his memories, his sense of self, etc. He wasn't "going nuts" in the sense that he was acting irrationally, he was having huge bits of his brain burnt out. Which is precisely how Keanu acted in the film; burnt out.

Word is that three more PKD novels have been licensed for adaptation, including what I consider his best work, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said.

And, in checking that information to make sure I wasn't losing my memory, I just learned that that Nick Cage movie coming out in a couple weeks - Next - is based on a PKD story. Why does Hollywood love turning PKD stories into stupid action films?

Also saw that there was a Canadian TV show called Total Recall 2070 that ran for 22 episodes and was allegedly "much more faithful" to his work than the Ah-nold movie. I'll have to track that down.

[Ian]

Did not like.

It was like the annoyance sparked by those Charles Schwab commercials, except those were made bearable by the parakeet-like attention span I have for movin-pitchers media, meaning I forgot about them a minute or so after the thirty seconds' worth of "hey look at this neato Final Cut Pro filter I downloaded!"

Geez. I'm glad some people liked it, I guess, although I'd like a refund for the hour or so we spent watching it. A free frozen pizza would do.

[gypsy]

It was like the annoyance sparked by those Charles Schwab commercials

rotoscoped by the same guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Sabiston), fwiw.

[Hayduke]

It's never as good as the book, but I thought the film did a really good job of capturing the feel of the story. Probably the only way to film it without a James Cameron budget and it was always going to be way too freaky for a general audience.

And he didn't start doing the Schwab commercials until after he tweaked the software to do the movie, so if you had seen it when you were supposed to you wouldn't be sick of it already.

[Ian]

I can tell the software was a good bit refined by the time he did the Charles Schwab commercials, which makes me wish an equal amount of progress had been applied to the Louisville Slugger, and subsequently applied to his hopefully-unbacked-up-studio.

(didn't much care for the film, if I haven't mentioned that yet)

:)

[spinetingler]

those Charles Schwab commercials,

fuck do I hate those.

[Tess]

I always wonder if that is some way to avoid paying the actors scale. It may be that by digitizing real people they can say they aren't using real people and don't have to pay union wages.

[jack frost]

They can be credited as "voice actors" instead of "actors", but I doubt the pay differential for doing a commercial in those cases is very significant. Pretty sure they just do it to look "cool".

[trancendyce]

eh... i've seen better and i've seen worse.

[DnB]

I always wonder if that is some way to avoid paying the actors scale. It may be that by digitizing real people they can say they aren't using real people and don't have to pay union wages.

Since actors must have a SAG card to act, they are part of the union, and get a set minimum base pay but that doesn’t mean they don’t command much much higher. For this film I read that Reeves and Ryder agreed to work for the Screen Actors Guild scale rate plus back end profits. I don’t know what RDJr or Harrelson received for wages, but I imagine they were well compensated. ( In interviews I saw that the actors did have to show up every day to act, like a regular movie. Apparently though, they didn't have to do early morning make up and such. :) )

[Tess]

I was thinking about the Swabb commercials more than the movie, but either would be the same as far as the union, I guess.

[DnB]

I was thinking about the Swabb commercials more than the movie, but either would be the same as far as the union, I guess.

Ahh, yes. I would think there is a union scale for acting in advertisements, too.

[jeffx]

did not hate or love this movie. hate that i didn't love it, i guess. certainly hadn't crossed my mind again until this thread resurrection.

[jack frost]

I don’t know what RDJr or Harrelson received for wages, but I imagine they were well compensated.

Actually everyone did the film on the cheap, because they were huge fans of Linklater's work and the novel and everyone pretty much knew it would never get made right on a big budget.

[trancendyce]

Actually everyone did the film on the cheap, because they were huge fans of Linklater's work and the novel and everyone pretty much knew it would never get made right on a big budget.

yeah, that's what i remember from when it was made.

[Hanno]

I'm glad we're seeing more of Winona Ryder these days.