Search form

A Scanner Darkly

42 posts / 0 new
Last post
A Scanner Darkly

A new Philip K. Dick (Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report) movie is on its way, this time directed by Richard Linklater and produced in the "animation" style of Linklater's Waking Life.

It will star Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson. It's being produced by the Clooney/Soderbergh team (Insomnia, Out of Sight, Ocean's 11, Solaris, Far from Heaven, Confederacy of Dunces).

"[font=Arial]Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, undercover cop Fred (Keanu Reeves) is one of many agents hooked on the popular drug Substance D, which causes its users to develop split personalities. Fred, for instance, is also Bob, a notorious drug dealer. Along with his superior officers, Fred sets up an elaborate scheme to catch Bob and tear down his operation."[/font]

[font=Arial]more about the book here:
http://www.philipkdick.com/works_novels_scanner.html

Here's the studio that did Waking Life. I assume they'll be developing this Dick film as well:
http://www.flatblackfilms.com

Here's an old interview with the director:
http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=3737&f=1

[/font]

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

Here are some screen grabs from the movie, which doesn't open for another 8 months.

that is a great book...but that is the *worst* cover art for it I've ever seen! UGH!

Ender

Yeah, there were better covers, but I felt that one was the most descriptive.

You couldn't even pay me enough money to see another Linklater animated movie.

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

a few early reviews

"There are moments where not only does the lead character not know what’s going on, but I’m not sure if we’re supposed to know what’s going on and you have to go with it."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

"The movie probably involves more dialogue and less action than some people will expect; it’s about the nature of a life where you can never be sure what or who is real."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Roger Ebert, EBERT & ROEPER

"Plot point by plot point, the film seems more concerned with achieving a lucid retelling of the novel's events, resulting in an almost disappointingly well-behaved sci-fi noir that's mildly provocative rather than visionary."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Justin Chang, VARIETY

"Scene after scene of verbose fiddle-faddle: Characters orate at each other, while sitting in cars, sitting at dining tables, sitting in living rooms, sitting at office desks. The film might be better titled The Big Sit."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Duane Byrge, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

I give props to Linklater for trying to legitimize animation for adults. I dig the roto style, although I know many people don't, but if a movie like this can do some business, maybe more will be made. I'll be there opening day :)

I don't think Linklater has any interest per se in "legitimizing" animation; I think he's going for something different-looking. You're probably right in that the industry may pidgeonhole this as animation, and if it does well...

I'm with Ape though - couldn't get through the last one; will be skipping this one.

more reviews

"Watching A Scanner Darkly, we can feel [Philip K.] Dick's world close in on us. And we can be glad we're only visitors."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/source-268/]
[/URL]

"The risks Scanner Darkly takes both with its subject matter and its method make it difficult to dismiss."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Gene Seymour, NEWSDAY

"This straightforward version of Dick's anguished vision of drug-addled addiction makes Naked Lunch seem positively romantic."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE

"In A Scanner Darkly, we're watching other people freak out, but the film is maddening to sit through because their freak-outs never become ours."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"The brilliance of A Scanner Darkly is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Carina Chocano, LOS ANGELES TIMES

I read an interview (maybe as far back as Waking Life press) where Linklater expressed a frustration that animation is percieved as only appropriate for telling stories for kids. Not that he's this big champion of animation or anything, but I definitely share that viewpoint.

Will ASD succeed as an animated film? Will it succeed as a faithful PKD adaptation? It's tough to attempt both in the same film. PKD's writing, as much as I admire it, is really not well suited to screen. It deals heavily with the character's thought processes, which in movie form requires an attention span that most viewers don't possess. Maybe Scott, Verhoeven, Spielberg, etc. already figured this out when they played up the action scenes.

I'd like to see more American animated films made specifically for adults. I will see ASD and hopefully enjoy it, but if it fails commercially, Hollywood economics dictate that we will not see many more like it from major studios.

I think it's great that some artists (not necessarily animators) found employment on this project, although I've read that it's a tortuous process for all involved. Apparently the software used isn't particularly intuitive, and on this one Linklater exercised much more control over what each scene was to look like (as opposed to the somewhat freewheeling style of Waking Life).

As to whether this is animation or not, I'll let someone else open that can of worms. I think we can all agree though that this is at least rotoscoping taken up a notch.

"A Scanner Darkly is a visually riveting mind-bender inspired by drug-induced experiences."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

"As fascinating and intelligent as the movie is, A Scanner Darkly leaves you wishing it might have actually been less faithful in word, and more in spirit, to Philip K. Dick's universe of bugged-out paranoid weirdness."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Geoff Pevere, TORONTO STAR

"Fans of the late sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick may rejoice at the news that Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly is the most faithful adaptation of one of his stories to reach the screen. Unfortunately, the story is one of Dick's least cinematic."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Jack Mathews, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"A Scanner Darkly doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening sequence, but it's still an audacious offering during a season of brain-dead blockbusters."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST

"For science fiction fans who prefer ideas over laser battles, this is the most meticulous and faithful movie adaptation of Dick's work -- and one of the most thoughtful."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Peter Hartlaub, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Identities shift and melt like shadows in Richard Linklater's animated adaptation of the 1977 novel by the science fiction visionary Philip K. Dick."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Manohla Dargis, NEW YORK TIMES

I wonder if Scanner will be put in the Animated Film catagory at the Oscars.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

If you're asking whether it's a live action film or an animated film, I'd say animated.

If you're asking whether it will be nominated, it seems that there's enough competition - Over the Hedge, Cars, Flushed Away - to keep it out. But who knows? Voters might lean toward a more unique contender.

"A lot of terrific Dick prose makes it to the screen, and it's hard to think of a better cast, or at least one whose wide range of well-publicized offscreen drug experiences could give the film more resonance."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Keith Phipps, ONION AV CLUB

"This is a movie about losing one's grip and like any addict's story, it's boring, ugly, sad, and terribly human. And surprisingly funny."[URL=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1153215/reviews.php?critic=col...
[/URL]
-- Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE

"Cars" will win.
With the unequaled boon that is the multifacted talent of comedic genius "Larry the Cable Guy", how could it possibly lose?

animated or not???

If you're asking whether it's a live action film or an animated film, I'd say animated.

Really? For me it's no real animated film... and now we're back again on an old topic:
Animation FOR ME ist a creative process, and the most important part of it is the animator, who CREATES the motion.
'A scanner darkly' to my knowlegde was made by a special software (i soppose it's something like a filter??) (http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Scanner.html) and a lot of rotoscoping, I think...
So the real motion was made by the actors...
and you can't say that you've an animated film, just by applying an artistic filter on your holiday video...

Otherwise, what's about Motion Capture?
Hmmmm, really difficult...

Maybe it's an animated film after all... ;)

Does anyone know more about the technique such a film was made (f.e. explain how this misterious, secret software works, and wich parts were made manually)?

Greetz

Really? For me it's no real animated film... and now we're back again on an old topic:
Animation FOR ME ist a creative process, and the most important part of it is the animator, who CREATES the motion.
'A scanner darkly' to my knowlegde was made by a special software (i soppose it's something like a filter??) (http://www.flatblackfilms.com/Scanner.html) and a lot of rotoscoping, I think...
So the real motion was made by the actors...
and you can't say that you've an animated film, just by applying an artistic filter on your holiday video...

Otherwise, what's about Motion Capture?
Hmmmm, really difficult...

Maybe it's an animated film after all... ;)

Does anyone know more about the technique such a film was made (f.e. explain how this misterious, secret software works, and wich parts were made manually)?

Greetz

To my knowledge, the question of what "animation" means has been fairly well -and simply- resolved.

It amounts to something to the effect that it is the manipulation of sequential images to create the illusion of motion in which single images are created by non-photographic and filmed (photographed) in sequence.

Regardless, all of Sabiston's films contain a high degree of artistry (one of the easy ways of distinguishing his work from imitators). To claim that it's "just a filter" is insulting. It's a specific technique used for a specific purpose.

No other approach would have suited Linklater's film as well.

The picture is fabulous. I would watch it again and again, which is far more than I can say for most of the children's films that get lionized by animation fetishists.

To claim that it's "just a filter" is insulting.

Amen. If it were that simple this film would've been out 2 years ago. Look at some of the other animation on Sabiston's site, and the extra features on "Waking Life", this is a style of its own. Weren't many of Disney's early films based largely on rotoscoping? It's just a tool, there's still atistry involved.

I never intended to verbaly put down the complexity of such a movie and the tools creating it. Althogh I don't know much about the techinque, this film was actually made, I'm a compositing artist myself, and I'm aware, that it is an incredible work and that they don't just take the filmed footage and apply a filter ;)
So, my filter-comparison was surely ironic and exagerated.
I think, that's just because I wanted to find out in which way this tool works, and my personal definition of animation has always been "bringing something to life what actually don't lives"...
well, I think it's not that simple...

There's no question, that it's art; it looks awesome to me and I'm really looking forward watching it.

Weren't many of Disney's early films based largely on rotoscoping?

No. You're probably thinking of Max Fleischer, a contemporary of Disney's who used rotoscoping extensively in his Koko the clown series.

Weren't many of Disney's early films based largely on rotoscoping?

No. You're probably thinking of Max Fleischer, a contemporary of Disney's who used rotoscoping extensively in his Koko the clown series.

However, Disney did extensively use what some might consider rotoscoping for his more realistic human characters: frame-by-frame live-action film reference. Actors were filmed, each frame was enlarged and traced, and flip books of these tracings were used as a guide. This is why characters like Snow White and Cinderella often feel rotoscoped. Walt explained that his animators just weren't good enough actors to create the necessary fluidity.

This is why characters like Snow White and Cinderella often feel rotoscoped.

I seem to recall reading once that the prince in Snow White does utilize some rotoscoping. Not as much as this guy though... ;)

box office results

Scanner was only in limited release this weekend and made about $400K on 17 screens total, averaging $23K per screen.

As a limited release, it was the 19th largest earner, between RV and MI3.

To be fair, rotoscoping can be a crutch or a shortcut as well. The Fleischer films are more obvious, but the result is still a distinctive and creative style, I particularly like Gulliver's Travels. Seems like it got really over-used in the 80's, like in Heavy Metal, Bakshi's fantasy films, and the like, not to mention A-ha's Take on Me video.

I don't understand why they used it in those Charles Schwab ads, why animate a guy talking about his stock portfolio?

watch A Scanner Darkly now

http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media/670/670907/vids_1.html
rated R

Click above to watch the first 24 minutes of A Scanner Darkly for free.

TIP: Pause the movie until at least half of it is buffered (may take about 15 minutes depending on connection), otherwise the movie will stall every few seconds.

i saw Scanner a few days ago in the limited release dates. I only have 2 comments about it. Boring.............but you absolutely CANNOT take your eyes off of it, it's so beautiful to watch.

I'll probably buy it if only for the aesthetic quality of the film. Very well rendered!

What did you find beautiful about it sketch? I haven't seen it, and after falling asleep 5 minutes into the 24 minute clip, I still have no desire to see it. Maybe it gets beautiful after the first 24 minutes?

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

It probably helps if you don't try to compare it to traditionally-animated films.
I find that it has more similarities with indie sci-fi films like Pi and Solaris. If you didn't like those boring movies, chances are you won't like this one.

It probably helps if you don't try to compare it to traditionally-animated films.
I find that it has more similarities with indie sci-fi films like Pi and Solaris. If you didn't like those boring movies, chances are you won't like this one.

I didn't see either Pi or Solaris. I did notice in the credits that Soderbergh is one of the executive producers. I'm not comparing it to traditional or 3D animated films, just from the little I saw from that teaser, aside from the bugs and the Keanu suit, it didn't look like it needed to be animated. Maybe I just don't like Linklater. I think if I watched Waking Life with out the animation I'd still be put to sleep. Just not my thing I guess. But hey, I can't hate too much, I like Michael Bay movies. :p

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

What did you find beautiful about it sketch? I haven't seen it, and after falling asleep 5 minutes into the 24 minute clip, I still have no desire to see it. Maybe it gets beautiful after the first 24 minutes?

If I could pop in a comment- this film isn't just beautiful, its hypnotic. I don't think I blinked through the entire thing. (I found myself muttering "The colors, man! The COLORS," throughout the screening.) The story was kinda fuzzy to me, but who cares about a silly thing like plot when there are Scramble Suits to marvel at.

...and I gotta say, the visuals are much much more compelling on the big screen than in a quicktime. :)

[SIZE=2]Have a Cup O' Jo! - [/SIZE]www.cupojo.net

But hey, I can't hate too much, I like Michael Bay movies. :p

You're not alone in that, judging by his box office numbers... ;)

I find that it has more similarities with indie sci-fi films like Pi and Solaris.

Bingo! We need more films like this, animated or not. I like a hover-motorcycle chase now and then, but good sci-fi should be like "yoga for the mind".

To further Mr. Human's point on the picture's SciFi tendancies -that is exactly why it should be animated and exactly why this was the perfect techinique.

It's both realistic and fantastic, concrete and abstract, artistic and industrialized and ultimately less expensive than a full live action film with loads and loads of special effects.

well Ape, Joanna summed it up pretty well. On the big screen, the colors were amazing. They rotoscoping was very tight, very on model. Every frame of that film could be hung on a wall. Compared to the horribly dizzy Waking life, this film excelled.

I thought this movie was good as hell but you have to be stone to like it witch i was. the artwork was great. the key to liking this movie is to get stoned

... witch i was. ... the key to liking this movie is to get stoned

You're a WITCH!?! ... no wonder they stoned you.

Why was Polar Express panned by the membership here, even though it was trying to portray the look of the original work.

Why is this being considered great when in essence it's doing not much more than rendering individual film frames to vector.

Hard to understand. Those ads during the olympics made me sea sick, and these just bore me.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

I guess if you can't draw or appreciate a previous work, you find this sort of stuff impressive. I don't.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.