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Some Big News On A SCANNER DARKLY!! Richard Linklater To Direct'!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This makes me happy in a very simple, direct way. Here is one of those match-ups between filmmaker and material that can't miss. Especially if the rumor turns out to be true that they're doing this as an all CG feature. After seeing WAKING LIFE, I'm in. I'm ready. Please... let this happen immediately!!
Dear Harry and Moriarty,
Here is some inside news that I can report about the recent option by Warner Bros. of Philip K. Dick's classic drug novel A Scanner Darkly. The property was optioned for Steven Soderbergh's Section 8. A source close to Jennifer Fox at Section 8 reports that the writing and directing gig has been offered to none other than Rick Linklater. The parties are currently in negotiations. This makes sense considering that Rick himself goes on about Dick in Waking Life (sounds funny, doesn't it?).
I'm curious to see how Linklater adapts this brilliant work of fiction for the screen. The novel itself doesn't follow the structure of a typical Hollywood screenplay, especially the ending.
You can call me Barney Mayerson.Thanks for the tip, Barney! I'll be following this one up in the days ahead to see how firm this is, and what the plans are for this most interesting of adaptations.
"Moriarty" out.
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Im sorry for doubting.And id love this to happen but this seems too good to be true. An unfilmable novel transferred to the only medium capable of doing it justice (CGI) with Hollywoods hottest (Soderbergh) behind the scenes. SOunds like that CGI Turtles movie with John WOO helming. An absolute gem of an idea that may never see the light of DAY. PEACE
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Unfortunately we Brits have yet to see Waking Life for ourselves, but if the buzz on these sites is true, I'm really looking forward to it.I absolutely love Dazed & Confused ("I wanna DANCE!") but though Slacker was hugely over-rated.
I hope you people aren't building WL up to be something that's going to disappoint... -
"I get older and they stay the same age. Yes they do." Gid bless Linklater! Yeeehaaaw!
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Soderbergh tackling Lem's SOLARIS and now Linklater is attached to A SCANNER DARKLY? This sounds like the resuscitation of the sci-fi film. Now, if only Section 8 would hook up with Neil Stephenson.
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Mar 08, 2002 9:55:29 AM CST
Could someone please tell me what is so good about Dazed and Con
by judo john
'cause I fail to see what's so special about it. As far as I can tell it's just a bunch of silly kids doing silly things in a narrative that doesn't really go anywhere. Am I missing something?
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Linklater is an excellent choice to write and direct this film. The plot of the book is structured enough so that he will not be able to meander so much, but his tone is perfect for much of the dialogue in the movie. Other than Soderbergh himself, I can't hink of anyone better suited to make this movie. I have been waiting soooooo long for this film to get made.
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Is a cast of then-unknowns right before they all became stars, and an affectionate script that's pretty amusing. What's NOT so good:
the fact that it's only amusing, and yet it's become a well known indie film. My theory? It's fun to watch when you're in college or in a "college state of mind" (and drinking, smoking, etc.) and the peer pressure factor in college is intense. If you haven't seen or don't like the movie you're on the outs. So a lot of people wind up over hyping it.
It's good, not great. -
Dazed and Confused has the most perfectly written characters. I don't know if you come from the midwest, ubt Everyone I know identifies with every character in that movie because we all know people exactly like every character in that movie. I know this is incredibly hard to read but I'm not editing it.
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I just hope they don't fuck with it too much. _Blade Runner_ was a vast improvement over the book (don't believe me, just compare the climaxes), but _A Scanner Darkly_ could be even trickier. I'm not sure all-CG would be the best way to go, at least for this. Dick doesn't have that much of a following even inside sci-fi fandom, and outside it he's virtually unknown (except as the author of what became _Blade Runner_) and most people nowadays would react in terms of _Final Fantasy: The Dipshits Within_ if they heard of a new sci-fi movie being made in all-CG. This would then depend heavily, heavily on word of mouth, which won't carry it far if it isn't knock-your-socks-off outstanding. I wish much luck to Linklater or whoever does it, but I have worries that it won't come off. Or that the studio will tinker with it too much and ruin it.
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I hope it is animated in the style of Waking Life--perfect way to do this material. However they do it, having a unique sensibility like Linklatter's will ensure that this is an interesting movie, and not just a transcription of the book. Ooooh, I'm excited!
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OK, it's the last day of school. Your whole year has been leading up to this moment, and as the clock ticks closer and closer to 3:00, you feel like a sling shot being pulled tighter and tighter, and you watch that second had go around, and then it hits 3:00 and the bell rings and it's like this explosion in your head, you run out of class screaming "Schoooools Ooooout for Summer!!!!" and there's three months of possibilities stretched out before you--it's the greatest moment of your teenage life! And D&C captures that perfectly. That's why I watch it every year around Memorial Day, right when the weather starts getting hot. >>>>It's funny, now I think about it, when I heard that Scanner might be done cgi, my first thought was "why?", and then I thought about Waking Life, and how neat it would be if it was done in that style, all trippy and fluid. OK, I guess I should see what other scoops have been posted...
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After seeing WL, gotta say that Linklater would be great for adapting A Scanner Darkly. One of Dick's best novels, IMHO, and even though the ending isn't conventional (though not many endings in Philip K Dick are), it remains one of the most haunting and strangely beautiful endings in a SciFi book that I've read. Blue flowers and death growing. Apparently, Natasha McElhone has been cast as Kelvin's wife in Soderbergh's Solaris. That is a damn fine casting choice too.
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They are entirely different stories with entirely different motivations - and I much prefer the book because of the very difficult and bizarre questions it raises - I hated that Blade RUnner totally got rid of the entire religion angle as well as the pet-ownership storyline - which I thought added so much in terms of understanding what it is that makes people people - as well as the scene with the spider - which was a perfect visual moment that would have been great on screen. basically, I thought the book raised questions that were much more interesting simply in the asking than anything in the movie - which I loved basically for its visual style above anything else.
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I am not a fan of Dick's books brought to the screen...I liked Blade Runner okay, but enjoyed the book light years better, and I won't even mention Total Recall (oops!).
BUT! Linklater is one of my favorite directors, and I think he could pull it off...it's gonna take a director who can THINK to pull this one off, and Linklater fills that bill better than almost anyone these days (and yes, doing it in "Waking Life" style animation would be okay with me!!!)
Scanner is such a heavy book...I was in tears at the end, as I've known a few folks in life who've ended up like the main character...(well, close anyways!)...if Linklater gets it, I wish him all the luck putting one of my favorite Dick books on the screen (hopefully next is "Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch"... -
those of us that remember the 70's have a special atatchment to this flick for a reason.....it simply recreates the era perfectly. the clothes the music the haircuts......it's perfect down to the last detail.....I watched a round table discussion on local cable a few years ago during one of the Toronto Film festivals....one of the guy's was a producer or suit and was rambling on about working on Dazed and Confused...he was to assemble the songs for the soundtrack, and got in a huge fight with Linklater...this idiot wanted to have modernday artists (read limp bizkit, big mountain, hootie type bands) re-do the songs inorder to have a Hit Soundtrack CD release....he was incredibly angry at what he considered Linklater's short sighted view to have the original songs, rather than covers by new artsists................and there you go, film fans......this is precisely the sort of SUIT nonsense that our favourite directors have to stuggle against inorder to see their projects through to completion.....can you imagine if for scanner darkly, if Linklater proposed having the score done with Charlie parkeresque jazz music, and some suit arguing that it would be a fantastic idea to have the songs redone by Brittney Spears, cuz it would bring in the 12 year old female demographic?....what utter idiocy.....how do these parasites keep their jobs????
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He got Christopher Nolan the job on Insomnia and he got Linklater this (didn't Linklater have a cameo in The Underneath...Soderbergh was in Waking Life...I'm sure they're friends, anyway). I've also heard that Section 8 is producing Todd Haynes' next film. This is the kind of production company Hollywood needs more of: a company that makes material/director-driven films, rather than "star vehicles" (not including Ocean's 11 of course...but that was also director driven, even if it did suck...IT DID.). Proven directors shouldn't have to battle in the trenches for 5 years to get a film made (as Terry Zwigoff did on Ghost World and the Coen Brothers will on To the White Sea: hell, they should go to Section 8 with that film.).
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I can see an all-CGI version of, say, 'Stigmata' or 'Ubik' or 'VALIS'...but 'A Scanner Darkly?' That's really fucking brilliant, guys--film a movie about three dope addicts that sit around bullshitting and trying to bone a narc, all in expensive computer graphics. -- on a serious note, sure, a few _select scenes_ could be enhanced with CGI -- the Dona/Connie face melt sequence, or when Bob gets sick while driving...but what's the point of spending all that money on something that most probably will be a cult-hit at best? Moriarty, you and Harry should know better...oh wait, maybe you don't...:P
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Mar 08, 2002 3:08:53 PM CST
BEFORE SUNRISE is the HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER of roma
by cash bailey
A movie that is so pure, honest, perfect and un-Hollywood that it renders any other attempts at the genre completely useless. Watch BEFORE SUNRISE and I guarantee you'll never be able to stomach schmaltzy nonsense like YOU'VE GOT MAIL again.
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"Dazed and Confused" is a great film (or at least a really good film) because it portrays a time and a place (American High Schools in the 70's) with great accuracy. People who went to High School in that era feel transported back to that time and feel something akin to all the great highs and lows that they had then when they watch the flick. If you did not go to school around that time, this movie might be lost on you. If you DID go to school during this time and still don't get the movie, I am baffled. "Dazed and Confused" captured the essence of High School life during that time. Barron out.
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It was heartbreaking to read the announcement in the trades a few weeks ago that this project was building momentum, and that video/short film helmer Chris Cunningham had "long been courted" to make SCANNER DARKLY his directorial debut. I have been dying to see what this guy can do with a feature film, and we were THAT close. Once he does, I'm sure he will be HUGE. Apparently the guy is asked to direct features all the time, but he's picky as all hell and is in no hurry to pick the right feature to direct. I don't know about Richard Linklater -- he's never done anything like this before, but he's a pretty good filmmaker. It would only be this film geek's dream to see Cunningham make this the terrifying and visually stunning movie it could be. He or Fincher would be ideal. (or hey, why not try to get Cunningham to direct PASSENGERS?)
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Mar 08, 2002 9:30:36 PM CST
Why is Charlie Kaufman the most dissed man in Hollywood?
by heywood jablomie
Not only did Kaufman's SCANNER DARKLY script get thrown out, but now his CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND is being rewritten by...George Clooney? If this guy is really the nebbish he depicts himself as being, he better start standing up for himself before he becomes the Aram Avakian of 2002.
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My existential philosophy prof. is in Waking Life. He gave one of the coolest speeches of my life the last day of class(actually the literal last class I had of college). I would say one of maybe the only relevant hours I had my entire time on UT. Also, my buddy met Clooney in a bar. And honestly he IS the guy you think he is. Who else would spend a half hour talking to some kid he just met about movies and strip clubs? My bro met Ed Norton the same week and he just blew him off when he tried to ask him about upcoming projects. Anyway, Clooney told him Kaufman's scripts lack a 3rd act. *spoiler* Of course Adaptation has one with a vengeance. *end spoiler* but anyway Clooney and Soderbergh rewrote Mind's ending and frankly all 3 of those guys sounds like a killer script to me! But Linklater and Scanner sounds sweet too!
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For those of you who haven't read the book, Scanner Darkly was written in the 70's and supposedly takes place in 97. what little invented tech was there can be easily discarded. With the right direction, this could easily be a new Fight Club or Trainspotting - somewhat speculative, but other than that a movie aimed at the mainstream audience. Who the hell thought of making this a Sci-fi CGI movie? These Hollywood people are CRAZY.
Next thing you know they'll be asking Verhoven to do romantic comedies. -
Mar 09, 2002 9:56:40 AM CST
This is the most idiotic thing I have heard in quite some time.
by virkku
Those of you who have read Dick's brilliant book know that the story needs effects only in a couple of scenes, and even then they are pretty low-key. And even those SFX ideas could be easily removed from the storyline, they could be replaced with technical vehicles that are already available. The book is essentially a character driven drama and making it in CGI is the same thing as making Reservoir Dogs in CGI. It makes no sense.
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It's called Slacker.
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PHILIP K. DICK stories have never been easy to translate to cinema. The best science fiction rarely is. Sometimes I think the ideal way to translate most sci-fi to film is through TV miniseries, and preferably British-made. That's how I could see Philip Jose Farmer's RIVERWORLD being done. Or Larry Niven's RINGWORLD. Didn't Ursula K. LeGuin's LATHE OF HEAVEN end up as a TV miniseries some years ago? I have only a vague memory of it. An exception would be Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEVOUS WITH RAMA. That novel would be perfect as a big-budget, all-star theatrical event. Ben Affleck (yikes!) and Sam Neil could star. Oh, wait -- Neil already had his shot at this type of story, in EVENT HORIZON, and he and it sucked. Better make Jeff Goldblum the co-star. Isaac Asimov's robot novels, on the other hand, could go either way. Ditto Robert Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Maybe someone should take a shot at Dick's MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE as a TV miniseries. Shifting to the horror genre for a second, it strikes me that some of the best Stephen King filmed efforts have been TV productions, including IT and SALEM'S LOT, although there is certainly something to be said for such movies as MISERY, STAND BY ME and CARRIE. In King's case, there are available comparisons to be made, since both theatrical and TV versions exist of THE SHINING and the tale about mechanical devices coming to life.
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I couldn't agree more with trashing the idea of doing this as an animated or all-CGI feature (as I said the last time this subject was raised). But I *could* see the drug hallucinations specifically being done that way -- as *obvious* CGI -- within a conventioanl flick. But the scramble suit -- you want people to think that's real, not CGI, and therefore you *don't* want the SFX calling attention to themselves. ______________ Le Guin's THE LATHE OF HEAVEN was simply a made-for-PBS movie, not a mini-series. Brian W. Aldiss put a lot of work into adapting Dick's MARTIAN TIME-SLIP for a 5-part BBC mini-series and was once very hopeful about the project coming to fruition; I haven't heard the details about what kiled it. ______________ Of course BLADE RUNNER is a great movie and of course DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? is an even better book. It's such a great book, of course, that four-fifths of what it was about thematically was cut and what was left (with the story appropriately transformed) was a great movie. __________ How well known PKD is depends on who you talk to. He's not as well known to the average citizen as Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke, even though he's next in the alphabet, but he's probably pulled even with Heinlein, Herbert, et al. In other circles he's better regarded than all of these people put together. Hollywood is obviouly crazy about him (and if Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT is a hit, the trend will only increase). Mainstream writers get compared to PKD by mainstream critics and the publishers put the quote on dust jackets. He's taught at colleges as serious literature, and a small but vocal chunk of academics and critics would rank him as the top American author of the second half of the 20th century. In academia, he and Le Guin far outdistance everyone else as writers who are taken seriously (a wonderful irony, since they were in the same gradutaing class at Berkely High School but didn't know each other, since Le Guin was accelerated a grade and Dick often stayed home with agoraphobia. As adults they did become friends and Le Guin not only championed his work but wrote THE LATHE OF HEAVEN as an admitted Dick pastiche).
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Ever notice how most Linklater movies start in the daytime, follow the characters through a night, then end the next day. This was true of Slackers, then of Dazed and Confused, and finally Before Sunrise, which actually noticed it in the title. After that cowboy studio film (not being dismissive, I just can't remember what it was called now), Waking Life returns to the same form. Artistic Signature, or Rut? Just pointing it out. Guess it's a better directorial signature than James -if I could have found a way to put a nuclear bomb in Titantic I would have - Cameron has.
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Gah! Recent tripe insinuates itself into my brain, erasing the memory of all that is good.
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Bad and unwarranted idea! Other directors that would be better than this Linklatter fellow?
How about Gilliam, Soderbergh, Fincher, Cronenberg, Lynch or Arronofsky? Methinks this project is headed towards mediocrity. At best. Sorry. -
I've just been browsing the net looking for stuff on Linklater and came accross this debate. I registered solely to add a message in support of this great man.
Yes, his films follow a pattern of taking place in a 24 period...so what, there nowt wrong with that? Its his 'thing'. Also, just because his films have this in common, does not mean that they are all the same. It works and his films are brilliant.
Dazed and confused is my favourite film of all time (and you don't have to have been there in '76, I'm only 20 and I love it), and Waking life was the most interesting and thought provoking film I have ever seen. If he does this PKD film, he will do it well, however he does it.
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