Scanner Aims For Laughs

Richard Linklater, who is directing a film adaptation of SF author Philip K. Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly, told SCI FI Wire that he's mining the unexpected comedic�potential of the late writer's work. "Philip K. Dick is very funny," Linklater said in an interview. "You wouldn't know it necessarily from the movies that have been filmed on his stories and books, but I've always thought Dick was hilarious. It's very dark comedy, a funny sensibility in so much of his stuff. So I'm going for that. And it's a good, creepy, timely story."

Dick's novel tells the story of a future in which America has lost the war on drugs. Keanu Reeves plays a narcotics officer seeking a drug dealer who turns out to be a alternate version of himself. Since Scanner was a novel, Linklater feels the film will be more faithful than those based on Dick's short stories.

"I thought that my character, as drawn, was really at the front of the investigation and would be interacting with these people who had just returned to Earth, having disappeared for a long time," McKenzie said. "They're now integrating back into society. I felt the human stories of these people, the impact of returning to Earth on their lives and on them as people, were really interesting to me."

"I'm trying to tell the story he told," Linklater said. "No one else has really tried to do that too much, because what they致e usually done is taken an idea, like the core idea, and then they usually put it into a genre and make it work in a more genre-typical sense. Some really great movies have been made from that stuff. But that wasn't my take on this movie, because it's not really an action film. It's primarily a character piece." Warner Independent Pictures will release A Scanner Darkly in the fall of 2005.

Wachowskis to write Burlyman comic book

MATRIX directors sign up for DOC FRANKENSTEIN
Dateline: Monday, June 28, 2004

By: PATRICK SAURIOL
By: News Editor
Source: UGO

The comics portal at UGO has published an interview with Spencer Lamm, editor of Burlyman Entertainment's forthcoming line of comic books. If the Burlyman name rings a bell, that's probably because it was the codename used by the Wachowski brothers for their two sequels to THE MATRIX, and the name continues on as the moniker of their comic book publishing company.

Burlyman's first two titles will be SHAOLIN COWBOY, by Geof Darrow (BIG GUY AND RUSTY THE BOY ROBOT) and DOC FRANKENSTEIN by Steve Skroce (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, the two conceptual designers and storyboarders that worked with the Wachowskis on all three MATRIX films.

In the UGO interview, Lamm reveals that the Wachowkskis will be writing DOC FRANKENSTEIN, with Skroce providing the artwork as well as co-plotting the book. SHAOLIN COWBOY will be handled completely by Darrow.

Lamm and the Wachowskis started their company to serve as an outlet for the stories that Skroce and Darrow wanted to tell. While everyone associated with Burlyman wants to see the company take root and grow, the team isn't interested in making comics solely for the sake of a quick buck. "No one involved in this is out to get rich from these books," Lamm tells in the interview. "We hope to continue to grow; it has to be self-sustaining. Happily, our goals are modest and hopefully realistic: we grandly aspire to break even."

The first issue of DOC FRANKENSTEIN will be released in November, followed by the premiere issue of SHAOLIN COWBOY in December.

Reality check for the next action star

June 28, 2004

BY BILL KEVENEY Advertisement

Reality shows create pop stars and business executives. Why not celluloid action heroes?

The young, beautiful and physically well-developed get yet another chance at fame with NBC's ''Next Action Star,'' which will reward its male and female winners with their own TV movie. ''To star in a movie is a fantasy of a lot of people their whole lives,'' says executive producer Joel Silver, whose screen credits include ''The Matrix,'' ''Die Hard'' and ''Lethal Weapon.'' ''If you win this show, you've got a DVD of a movie you starred in to put on your shelf.''

''Star,'' airing at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on WMAQ-Channel 5, mixes elements of ''American Idol'' and ''The Real World.'' Thirty hopefuls go to Hollywood, where the field is cut to seven men and seven women. The 14 finalists will live together in a Hollywood Hills mansion, with two departing after each week's screen test. The winning man and woman will star in a two-hour action movie, ''Bet Your Life,'' on NBC Aug. 11.

''You're looking for somebody who's got a physique that somebody wants to watch for two hours, the smile, the winningness and the acting ability,'' says casting director Victoria Burrows, who has worked on ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''Cast Away.'' Burrows led experts who narrowed the field. ''Star'' chose not to give viewers a vote because that live component would have made it impossible to have the movie ready the week after the competition ended. The film, shot for about $5 million in Cleveland, is set in Las Vegas, with Billy Zane as the villain.

''Star'' shows the finalists training for a variety of action-movie segments, from a precision commando raid, complete with exploding buildings, to the more intimate challenge of a love scene.

Silver says finalists must develop the same technical skills that such actors as Keanu Reeves and Mel Gibson had to master for action roles. Gannett News Service

Report on the First Constantine Screening Source: Superhero Hype! Monday, June 28, 2004

'Patrick "Realdeal" O'Neal' got a chance to check out the first screening of Warner Bros.' Constantine, which opens February 11 and stars Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz...

I just got back tonight from a special movie preview and to my pleasant surprise it happened to be Constantine. The story was absolutely fabulous, it was great. I have only read Hellblazer a couple of times and they tweaked the character I know only slightly. He isn't British but he is a chain smoker, with a huge chip on his shoulder. The story dragged a little bit in the middle but we were asked our opinions so it is possible that they may change it still. They did say that we were the first ones to see it.

Stay tuned, we may have some more reviews coming up!

Will Smith Interview

Will Smith raps about busting bot outlaws, his secret geek past, and the future of thinking Machines.

Will Smith is science fiction's leading man. He kicked extraterrestrial ass in Men in Black and Men in Black, dodged satellite surveillance in Enemy of the State, and crushed a giant mecha-tarantula in Wild Wild West. In July, the high tech bad boy goes back to the future in I, Robot as a police detective investigating a murder allegedly committed by a bot. Driving through Manhattan's West Village in his black SUV, the former Fresh Prince admits he's all about getting geeky with it.

turned down the part of Neo in The Matrix - any regrets?You know, The Matrix is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didn't see it. I watched Keanu's performance - and very rarely do I say this - but I would have messed it up. I would have absolutely messed up The Matrix. At that point I wasn't smart enough as an actor to let the movie be. Whereas Keanu was smart enough to just let it be. Let the movie and the director tell the story, and don't try and perform every moment.

Keanu caught in grocery store robbery

Keanu Reeves ducked for his life when he was nearly killed in a Los Angeles grocery store shooting. The actor was shopping when gunfire ripped through the place, shattering windows and food shelves. Keanu and other screaming customers hit the floor until the teenage shooters fled and the police arrived.

PREDICTION: Danger continues to dog Keanu; a motorcycle accident leaves him limping.

Keanu Reeves deflects bullets in real life

Caught in a recent gunfire in a grocery store in Los Angeles, actor keanu Reeves proved that he is known as one of Hollywood's best stuntmen for good reason.

According to The National Enquirer, the actor was shopping in a neighborhood grocery store when unidentified teenagers started shooting from outside.

As the bullets shattered glass and food shelves, the "Speed" actor shouted, "get down," as people ducked for their lives. After the gunfire subsided, he peaked out of the store and asked the storeowner to call the police after ensuring that the goons had fled.

On going outside, the customers found that their cars had also been damaged in the attack. However, the police have not been able to identify the culprits. According to them it was just local lads trying to create havoc.

Keanu later made a quite exit after calming the shocked customers and collecting his groceries. (ANI)

Where the stars come out to play

Sarah Jones

IT’S the place everyone wants to be. Every year people risk life and limb just trying to get a peek at what has become the most glamorous patch of turf in Scotland. The T in the Park backstage artists’ area has built up such an air of celebrity kudos - through rumours ranging from Robbie Williams stripping to Gwyneth Paltrow landing in the middle via private helicopter - that it’s surprising we get to hear about it at all.

Come July 10, Jo Stewart will be one of the few non-performers found roaming the backstage area of the T in the Park site, among the spotless lawns and the specially decked out portable buildings. These were once described by Coldplay as "the poshest dressing rooms on tour".

"We’ve got 120 artists coming over the weekend," Stewart says, "so it’s a question of meeting their every need, even though they’re only here for a brief period." Head of sponsorship for DF Concerts, the organisers of T in the Park, she has worked on the festival for five years, with the enviable job of dressing the backstage area and looking after the needs of the great and the good.

Stewart works alongside Laura McInnes, artist area dresser, who produced a 15ft recreation of the Loch Ness Monster in 2001 as a centrepiece for the backstage area. But there will be no outsized papier maché beasties this year. The key element for 2004 is relaxation. Despite their rock’n’roll reputation, artists are, apparently, seeking an increasingly health-conscious set-up, even if it’s just a solid base from which to launch a wild weekend, drinking all the free Tennant’s which packs out the fridge in every dressing room.

"We’ve not really got a theme this year. It’s just a question of trying to soften the lights, and make them comfortable. We’re using lots of reds and pale pinks in fabrics like velvet."

Stewart and the team raid Ikea and Habitat for furniture, plants and candles, "especially lemon ones, to keep the midgies away". Each dressing room has a full length mirror and, for anyone who requests it, a dressing table with lights around it. "It’s all quite subdued this year," adds Stewart. "I’ve done more outrageous things before where we’ve had demands for leopard skin prints and acres of velvet, but the feeling now is that everyone wants a relaxing environment."

The cabins stand in their own picket-fenced patch of grass amid beautiful countryside. Each has a stack of outdoor chairs for the artists to sit out on, trousers rolled up if the weather’s nice, making the whole thing sound rather like a row of beach huts for the rich and famous.

But artists don’t have to stick with what Stewart and Co provide. They can, and most do, request modifications on what are known as "riders" to their contract, which is where things get interesting.

There are legion stories from the big festivals over the decades of artists asking for the impossible. Some of the tales are apocryphal, some aren’t. McInnes once dealt with Grace Jones, whose demands for champagne and oysters nearly drove her mad. So, I ask Stewart, what sort of thing is on the to-do list this year? Reluctant to divulge names, she tells me she’s already had requests this year for a water feature, a feng shui dressing room, and, most bizarrely, an altar with candles, incense and Buddhas. "I think they wanted a chilled-out theme. Some want their cabins to be carpeted, but really it’s just a case of wanting showers and clean towels. And the Americans always want Gatorade [like Lucozade], which makes the whole thing a bit of a challenge. But the thing that crops up the most on riders is white Y-fronts and white sports socks."

Is that some sort of rock star in-joke? In Stewart’s experience it’s more just a case of practicalities. "After all, if you can put something like that on your rider, you don’t have to worry about washing your underwear," she says. Who’d have thought clean pants were such a priority to the modern stars of rock’n’roll?

"We’ve even got an outdoor hot tub this year for the artists to relax in," she says. "Heated. Under a gazebo."

DF Concerts have also set up a Scalextrix set, table tennis and dancing machines - "the kind you get in arcades", explains Stewart, which may lead to dodgy choreography onstage later in the day.

But perhaps most popular of all is the Subbuteo table, first requested by Oasis a few years back. "We’ve had loads of requests for one this year," Stewart says. "We usually have something of a tournament going. In fact, Badly Drawn Boy has already put in an early request to be Manchester City."

Football is always quite popular backstage at T. In 1998, during the World Cup, Robbie Williams organised the artists into teams, each playing for a different country. "It was surreal watching all these famous people running about after a football," Stewart recalls.

The buzz backstage is electric, she says. "It’s like a rock star social club, everyone swapping touring stories and catching up with people they haven’t seen for ages. It’s a constant stream of limos and tour buses."

But not everyone arrives in rock star transport. "Keanu Reeves turned up a couple of years ago on the shuttle bus with all the festival goers. I had this call from the gate saying, ‘There’s a guy here says he’s one of the artists’. We went down, quite curious, and there was Keanu Reeves and his band, Dogstar." Apparently no one on the bus had recognised him - or they hadn’t let on. "He was quite content sitting on the bus, reading his paper and soaking up the atmosphere."

But it’s not just about enjoyment, despite the fact that each artist will find a games console free in their dressing rooms this year, courtesy of sponsor Nintendo. The health-conscious approach persists, with requests for a dentist on site from artists midway through hefty European tours. And after a heavy set, tired feet and minds can be calmed with a bit of hands-off healing from a Reiki practitioner, a massage, or reflexology.

So what about the the tour tales of bad-boy bands (or rather bad boy-bands) on the rampage? "The thing is, they’re often not here long enough. And it’s funny, but bands who have a reputation for being loud and rock’n’roll are usually the quiet ones and the ones you’ve thought were all quiet and well behaved can leave their dressing rooms in a real state."

Take Ian Brown. He, you’ll remember, is the former frontman of the Stone Roses who spent a brief spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure for inflight assault. Brown is the man who, according to the Stone Roses website, used to "ask for an extra long microphone lead so he could go out into the audience and wind them up".

"He was lovely. He was so excited one year when he played because we’d put flowers in his dressing room, and he came and thanked us all and then gave us a botany lesson on the flowers we’d picked. He obviously really loved flowers."

Late nights can involve nothing more than a few beers and a board game, according to Stewart, who once had to turf Badly Drawn Boy out of the artists’ area at 3am for playing Connect 4.

But there are some artists who prefer to get closer to the festival itself. A few years ago the late Joe Strummer, formerly of the Clash, slept in the campsite with 40,000 other festival-goers the night before his band, The Mescaleros, were due to play. "They put all their tents in one big circle and had a singalong with guitars through the night. No one really knew who they were, but I think that’s what makes it special," says Stewart.

"Artists are often asking to be moved in the schedule line-up so they can catch a particular band they want to see. Ash wanted to see The Darkness this year, which is why they’re further down the bill than they perhaps would have been. And Snow Patrol wanted to see the Pixies. I’ll never forget watching The Flaming Lips last year, who had a whole bunch of people dressed as penguins and midgies and so on onstage. When they took their heads off backstage, it turned out it was the band Alfie, who were massive fans."

It sounds like the spirit of Woodstock is alive and well, and coming to a field near you this summer.

Extra tickets for this year’s T in the Park go on sale tomorrow at 9am, priced £42.50 (subject to booking fee) from Ticketmaster Scotland on 0870 169 0100 or online at www.scotland.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.tinthepark.com. Tickets are limited to two per transaction

TEN YEARS OF SHOW-STEALERS

1994

Inaugural T in the Park. Rage Against the Machine, Bjork and Cypress Hill, Blur, The Manic Street Preachers, Pulp and Oasis lined up to perform as Britpop fever swept the nation. Robbie Williams turned up to hang out and play football and Oasis said this was their best ever performance. An unknown band called Glass Onion ­ who later changed their name to Travis - played the new talent stage.

1995

Paul Weller, M People, The Verve, The Charlatans, Tricky, The Beautiful South, Cast, Supergrass and Shed Seven were on stage, with a memorable appearance from Kylie Minogue who created the longest queues at the signing tent that weekend. Kermit from Black Grape performed a set sitting down on the stage after breaking his ankle earlier in the day and refusing to go to hospital.

1996

The final year at Strathclyde Country Park and Radiohead, Alanis Morissette, Prodigy, Foo Fighters, Beck, Leftfield and Black Grape performed. This was also the year Keanu Reeves arrived on the shuttle bus and Joe Strummer busked on the campsite.

1997

A move to Balado coincided with appearances from Texas, Travis and Fun Lovin Criminals. This was the Slam Tent’s first year featuring Daft Punk and Death In Vegas.

1998

Robbie Williams, below, stole the show with his first official appearance as a solo artist. Other names included Prodigy, Pulp, the Beastie Boys, Ian Brown, Portishead, Natalie Imbruglia, A Tribe Called Quest and Idlewild, as well as Travis again. Pulp’s Common People provided a rousing finale to the weekend, with one of the festival’s most spectacular light shows to date.

1999

The Manic Street Preachers made their memorable tribute to King Tut’s in Glasgow from the main stage, thanking it for being the first venue to give the band hot food on tour.

2000

A momentous occasion for Travis, who played the first T in the Park as an unsigned band and closed the main stage. Moby performed and Lulu set the heather on fire. The King Tut’s stage proved its knack for spotting future stars, with relative unknowns Coldplay performing.

2001

Noel Gallagher came just to hang out and ended up taking stage two by surprise when he joined Paul Weller for an impromptu acoustic set. A memorable set by The Proclaimers raised the roof and set their place in festival folklore.

2002

Then virtually unknown, the 18 members of Polyphonic Spree took to the stage dressed in their now trademark white smocks. Oasis returned to headline the main stage.

2003

Ten years of the festival celebrated with the addition of the X Tent and a chill-out area - the T Garden. The Darkness opened the main stage and in 2004 they act as a warm up for Bowie. REM’s appearance had 55,000 people singing along.

KEANU IN DRIVE-BY SHOOTING DRAMA Jun 12 2004

HOLLYWOOD star Keanu Reeves put his action hero training to good use when he was caught in a drive-by shooting.

The 39-year-old is used to playing heroic roles in films like The Matrix and Speed.

And Reeves reacted like he was starring in an action movie when gunfire ripped through a Los Angeles neighbourhood as he did his shopping.

The actor stayed calm as windows shattered and people screamed in terror inside the supermarket, according to a US tabloid.

And Reeves reacted like it was a real-life version of one of his films as he hit the ground, yelling at panicked customers: 'Get down.'

After the gunshots died away, Reeves crept to the front of the store to peak outside.

After scanning the empty street, he said to the store owner: 'Call the police.'

But when cops arrived and swarmed the streets the culprits were nowhere to be seen.

The shoppers then found many of their cars had been shot.

Police believe the shooting was a random attack by a gang member proving himself.