Kudama

According to the new Wired magazine Warner Bros. Is supposedly launching a “A Scanner Darkly” movie. This is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read and no info popped up on IMDB. They also mentioned that Cronenberg was slated to direct “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” and declined because he was told that the treatment he was prepared to go through with was (and I quote) “ You know what you’ve done? You’ve done the Philip K. Dick version.”
i.e. the suits were too fascinated with eating their boogers to give a damn. And we got Total Recall.

This story (Darkly) deserves the full attention of people who respect writer and the story.

This story CANNOT sell after the gestalt mind that followes 9/11 and I’m very afraid that it will be completely raped and reshaped to fit our masters’ needs, but one can hope, neh?

I guess my point was...Cronenberg should jump on this!

Numanoid

Please Don't Post While Drunk!

Jay G.

It's been in the works for a looong time.

Terry Gilliam at one point tried to get this made, writing a script with Richard LaGravense (Fisher King). Unofrtunately, they couldn't find a studio that was interested. This was back in 1991

Charlie Kaufman wrote a screenplay adaptation of the book for another failed attempt to get this film made. The story on that version can be found here:
http://www.beingcharliekaufman.com/i...r-darkly.htm&2

Last I heard, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's production company, Section 8, had the rights, and Richard Linklater (School of Rock) was set to direct it as an animated film, similar to Linklater's Waking Life.

However, I just found this link, which discusses the film as possibly being made as a B&W CGI affair:
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/squib/21.html

Nick Danger

Good book. Probably unfilmable.

Seriously, where's the market for a movie about a narc hanging out with a bunch of junkies?

Kudama

Not post while drunk!?!?! Does that mean I'm kicked out of the forum?

As far as being unfilmable, that's what I meant by Cronenberg being the man. His rep is unfilmable books lately.

Could you imagine how cool the scramblersuits would look on film? And what an easy effect to implement.

I guess we'll see this movie on the day after my wake. The same day they release The Krays and Colossus: The Forbin Project on DVD (Criterion no less). Oh well.

Groucho

I don't understand why people who love a book demand a slavish adaptation. If you love the book, read the book. Film is a completely different medium than the written word, and compromises always have to be made when adapting for the silver screen.

Kudama

Some compromise.

I mean look at Lawnmower Man and The Running Man. How hard could it be to come up with a different title as opposed to optioning the rights to a book and ditching everything past the top of the cover?

Groucho

In the cases of those films, they wanted to keep Steven King's name in order to sell more tickets. And The Running Man had the same basic idea as the book.

Kudama

Basic is a big word. That movie could have been called Smash TV just as easily.

I see your point about King's name and amend my statement to "ditching everything after the whole cover".

It's the kind of respect that LOTR is getting (despite the ommision of Tom Bombadil) that makes me look to the same treatment for books I've actually read and would like to see made into flicks. (My intro to LOTR was strictly animated, sorry to say.)

fumanstan

Total Recall rocked the casbah!

Jay G.

Here's a link to Rustmonkey's trailer/audition for A Scanner Darkly
http://www.rustmonkey.com/iframes/po...nnerDarkly.htm

Also, here's an interesting article from Wired about Philip K Dick and the movies based on his stories. It confirms the story about Cronenberg that Kudama mentioned:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip.html

Aphex Twin

Dude forget A Scanner Darkly film. I think the best PKD book that should be made into a film is Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?. No ifs, ands, or butts about tit.

garolo

Where's the smilie?

Aphex Twin

Blade Runner was very loosely based on DADOES. A adaptation that more closely resembles it would be dope. Bring back all the people responsible for BR's look and have Chris Cunningham direct.

porieux

A Scanner Darkly would be incredibly awesome if done right!

These things are so seldom done right however

Kudama

Oh man!!! You know he was slated to direct Neuromancer, right? Something else that will never see the light of day

Saxofonix

Brian Aldiss wrote in "The Trillion Year Spree" something to the effect that Blade Runner stripped the surface elements off Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, and left it impossible for anyone to make a decent movie of the book now.

I still cringe when I see anyone list Blade Runner as one of their Top 10 best Sci-Fi movies, because for me, the director trashed PKD's masterpiece to the point where it has little resemblance to the actual story.

Saxofonix

Anyway .. A Scanner Darkly is my favourite PKD book, and if done well, it could be a stunning movie. But so far, the track record goes against this happening, for there have only been one good film version of a PKD story .. Minority Report.

Jay G.

Minority Report was awful, not just as an adaptation, but as a movie in and of itself. Blade Runner might not have been that faithful to the novel, but at least it's a good film.

tasha99

I saw a poster at the movie theater for Paycheck, another PKD short story. I was pretty excited till I saw it stars Ben Affleck.

tasha

fnordboy

You can get the Kray's on R2 DVD. An "OK" DVD nothing to write home about, but I have always loved this movie so I will take anything.

Anyways, I would love to see A Scanner Darkly as a film. I would prefer live-action, but if it was only animated I would definitely check it out. It is one of his best books...though I don't think I would call it my favorite.

Cunningham directing Neuromancer ...

Kudama

It used to be a go. I tried to pull up neuromancer.com where they talked at length about where the project was at and what not (I still have one of the scripts for it that i printed out) but that site is GONE!

Here's a pre-production pic by Juan Gimenez, though.

beefjerky

from Dark Horizons:

Variety reports that the novel "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick ("Minority Report", "Blade Runner") is finally going ahead. "School of Rock" Director Richard Linklater is in negotiations to helm the feature which will star Keanu Reeves and be produced by the Clooney/Soderbergh production company Section 8.

.............

Keanu Reeves pulling off multiple personalities......excellent?

Anyone have the link to the graphics house that did the all CG Scanner Darkly demo?

jaeufraser

Linklater is an interesting choice. Keanu is...not really an interesting choice. But Keanu to me is always acceptable, never extraordinary. I'm lookin forward to it...

Drop

I guess I'm looking forward to it, but I can't quite picture Keanu in the role. I'm hoping his acting chops have improved.