"A Scanner Darkly" Completes Production

Starring Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr.

June 30, 2004, Burbank, CA - Warner Independent Pictures completed production in Austin, Texas on "A Scanner Darkly," starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane. The picture is adapted and directed by Richard Linklater from the classic novel by Philip K. Dick. The film is a Section Eight/Detour Filmproduction.
Like a graphic novel come to life, "A Scanner Darkly" will use live action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process (interpolated rotoscoping) to create a haunting, highly stylized vision of the future. The technology, first employed in Linklater’s 2001 film "Waking Life," has evolved to produce even more emotional impact and detail.

"A Scanner Darkly" is set in suburban Orange County, California in a future where America has lost the war on drugs.

When one reluctant undercover cop (Reeves) is ordered to start spying on his friends, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode. It is a cautionary tale of drug use based on Dick’s own experiences.
The film is produced by Anne Walker-McBay, Tommy Pallotta, Jonah Smith, Palmer West and Erwin Stoff. Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, Jennifer Fox, Ben Cosgrove and John Sloss are executive producers. Jonah Smith and Palmer West’s Thousand Words is co-financing "A Scanner Darkly" with Warner Independent Pictures. Warner Independent plans to release the film in the Fall of 2005.

“There is a unique power to ‘Scanner,’ as there is to all of this author’s outstanding works,” said Linklater, an enthusiastic Philip K. Dick fan. “I was compelled to pursue my dream of getting this novel turned into a movie, no matter how long it took.”

Dick’s novel was first published in 1977 and is currently available from the Vintage division of Random House, Inc. in paperback. Never out of print in its 27-year existence, “A Scanner Darkly” is one of the three top-selling Dick novels.

"Five years ago, Philip K. Dick's vision of the future seemed at the very least a bit fanciful or paranoid, but now it seems like a highly plausible possibility," said Mark Gill, president of Warner Independent. "That topicality, combined with a stellar group of actors, blue chip producers and a director at the top of his career--introducing us to a new look at the art form of film--make 'A Scanner Darkly' irresistible."

The author’s work as a whole is in print in 25 different languages and has sold roughly 20 million copies around the world in the five decades since it first began to appear. The recently launched official site can be found at www.Philipkdick.com

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with this amazing team of filmmakers in what should be the first faithful film adaptation of our father's work,” said Dick’s daughters, Laura Leslie and Isa Hackett. “‘A Scanner Darkly’ is particularly close to our hearts because of its autobiographical elements, and we will continue to contribute to this project in any meaningful way that we can."

Philip K. Dick, by some measures the highest-paid writer in Hollywood history, has created futuristic worlds in many of his works, several of which have been adapted into feature films: “Blade Runner,” based on the short story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” “Total Recall,” based on the short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” “Screamers,” based on the short story “Second Variety,” the French film “Confessions d’un Barjo,” based on “Confessions of a Crap Artist,” and “Minority Report,” “Imposter” and “Paycheck,” based on works of the same name.

The first release from Warner Independent is Linklater's “Before Sunset,” starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, which opens July 2, 2004.

Warner Independent Pictures, founded in August 2003, finances, produces, acquires and will theatrically distribute up to 10 feature films per year largely budgeted under $20 million. It is a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company based on the Studio lot in Burbank.

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