Dazed and Keanued

Phillip McCarthy
November 24, 2006

Page 1 of 2 | Single page Hollywood has had a line of heroes from Philip K. Dick's novels and short stories. They're action men such as Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Cruise, primal alpha-male types kicking butt in an uncertain world.

On the big screen, Dick's novels, short stories and wildly subversive propositions on drug use and government surveillance have taken about $900 million. The blockbusters Total Recall, Blade Runner and Minority Report have literary pedigrees that germinated in Dick's speed-fuelled head. Even his death 24 years ago hasn't slowed the pace.

Dick's latest story to hit the big screen is A Scanner Darkly, his 1977 saga of bad trips and drug-fuelled paranoia. It bills itself as the most faithful page-to-screen transfer of all.

Its protagonist, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), is a lot more dazed and confused than locked and loaded. As an undercover cop in a world having a collective bad trip, he is lucky no one at HQ is asking for a urine sample.

"A lot of [Dick's] stories ended up as a vehicle for a very macho hero when they got to the screen," says Scanner director Richard Linklater. "I think Philip K. Dick might be a bit surprised at that. We've got Keanu as our protagonist and I think we got it right."

A Scanner Darkly shares some chromosomes with Linklater's 2001 film, Waking Life. Both movies have an animated, cartoon-style look to which Linklater seems, well, addicted. The technique involved, rotoscoping, requires five hours of computer time for just one minute of screen time.

Scanner was supposed to come out a year ago, but Linklater has no regrets.

"It seems ideal for this project because Dick is always posing the question, 'What is reality?' " he says. "The rotoscoping technique, in which the action is readily identifiable, plays with reality."

If A Scanner Darkly was ever going to have its second wind, it was going to be now. Its themes could have been lifted straight out of George Bush's US.

The first is the polarising issue of surveillance of its citizens. There's a lot of surveillance going on in the movie and, since most of the characters are on a highly addictive amphetamine-like drug called Substance D, paranoia is rampant.

Substance D is like speed and its symptoms mimic those of America's crisis drug du jour, crystal methamphetamine. Dick had a speed problem of his own during the mid-1970s when he was writing the book.

"The behaviour patterns of people on crystal meth are very similar to the way people behaved in the book while under the influence of Substance D," Linklater says.

A Scanner Darkly kicks off with an eye-popping scene: a junkie (Rory Cochrane) is scratching himself like a man possessed. He thinks he's being attacked by a swarm of nasty little bugs, known in today's jargon as "meth mites".

He's one of the visitors at landlord and secret narc Bob Arctor's place. He shares the place with two other layabouts: motormouth Barris, played to the hilt by Robert Downey jnr, and Woody Harrelson's Luckman.

Arctor is dating a drug dealer, Donna (Winona Ryder), and is also hooked on Substance D.

When Reeves goes to headquarters he wears a "scramble suit", which randomises his facial features at 1000 times a second. That's probably tough for a man undergoing an identity crisis.

Linklater says Dick had his own crisis of confidence.

"He did think his phones were tapped. He thought the government was out to get him. When the Freedom of Information Act came along he thought for sure it would reveal how they'd been after him all these years.

"He got the file and it was kind of empty. He never really registered with the authorities as a threat; he was just some crackpot sci-fi writer. His little world, his thinking, never broke through to them."

A Scanner Darkly
Director Richard Linklater
Stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey jnr, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder
Rated M. Opens Thursday.

Lauren Shuler Donner on Wolverine, Constantine, Magneto and X-Men!

Lauren Shuler Donner on Wolverine, Constantine, Magneto and X-Men!

Written by Robert Sanchez
Saturday, 18 November 2006

During the press day for Warner Bros. Unaccompanied Minors, Lauren Shuler Donner sat down to talk with the press about the film. Of course, we couldn't resist asking her about the highly anticipated sequels and projects she has in the works!

So, although there were other journalists in the room, my job was to get as much information as possible on Wolverine, Constantine, X-Men, Cirque Du Freak and Magneto! You can check what she had to say below...you'll never guess who she says she still has in mind for Gambit!

IESB: Whats the superhero update?

LSD: Well, we're going to do Wolverine, I hope in the fall and we're out to a director, now, we have a good script. And I think we're going to do Young Magneto, we have a really great script, we have a director that is interested and he'll do a rewrite on the script. But, it's young Magneto and it's a young Xavier. Not "kid young," but you know, when Magneto got through the Holocaust and when he, Erik Lehnsherr, became "Magneto."

IESB: There's been talk and we recently asked Hugh about this, regarding Bryan Singer saying he had been offered to direct Wolverine, but I guess there is a schedule conflict regarding Man of Steel, is there still a possibility Bryan could still do Wolverine?

LSD: I would love it. We would love nothing more than to have Bryan do Wolverine, but Bryan is developing the sequel to Superman so I don't know, it depends on scheduling, but nothing would please all of us more.

IESB: Hugh also said that he was going to do Baz's [Lurhman] film, and then he wants four months to really bulk up and get in as best shape as possible. He was thinking January or February of 08...

LSD: Yes, I know, he is thinking that, we're thinking Fall. Sorry Hugh! [laughter]

IESB: Do you think there is a way that maybe for a whole year we could have several X-Men sequels or spin offs to carry us through?

LSD: Yes, we could, you know, yes we could and there's some other ideas that we are going to be delving into, but it's often availability of actor, availability of director and weather conditions, so you don't always have that luxury. And most importantly, the release date…what else is coming out…what other comic book movies are we going against? So we always set our release dates before we ever start filming those movies.

IESB: Going back to the original X-Men, what kind of life for the franchise did you envision?

LSD: In our wildest dreams we wanted it to be a franchise. We wanted it to be able to spin-off…there's 40 years of comics but I'lll tell you because we never previewed it, there was a day when Bryan [Singer], myself, our editor and, I think Tom Rothman was in the room, and we all looked at each other and said, “We'll never work again.” Because, we didn't know what we had.

IESB: Rothman recently said though The Last Stand was the last of that group of X-Men, I asked him, well we never saw Gambit, we never saw a lot of these great heroes, future ensemble films, young mutants or anything, what's in the pipeline for this franchise?

LSD: I can't say...[laughter]

IESB: Will we ever see Gambit?

LSD: Probably, you know, the reason we didn't use Gambit was because in a sense his persona is a bit like Wolverine in that he's got attitude and his power is not quite as exciting as the others. That's why we went to Nightcrawler on 2 because he looked different than everybody else and he had a great power. So yes, I think we would weave Gambit within our story, it wouldn't be “The Gambit Movie.” I mean, I love him and remember in “Lost” the guy, what's his name, there was a guy in there that was the perfect Gambit, the guy with the straight hair, good-looking, the bad boy, Sawyer, Sawyer [Josh Holloway]. (A lot of Lost forums have been buzzing about this casting rumor for some time).

IESB: What is Cirque Du Freak?

LSD: It's series of 12 books, in England, that are hugely popular, and they're in the vein of Harry Potter in that young boys and girls love them, but, it's about a kid who, Cirque Du Freak is a freak show that comes to town and through this series of events, he becomes a vampire's assistant. Which is sort of like a half vampire, so he has half the powers, half the speed and he'll age half as much and his best friend, it turns out, also becomes...there's a war between the good vampires and the bad vampires, his best friend becomes head of the bad vampires and ultimately the 12 books lead to a huge war between the two of them.

IESB: How far are you along on that?

LSD: We're in the first, we'll start the first one, Brian Helgeland wrote the script, and we brought in Paul Weitz to direct it, Paul is doing his rewrite, we used the first three books, there'll be four movies, each movie is a combination of three books.

IESB: Are you retaining the English setting?

LSD: No, we're going to set it in America. It works just as well.

IESB: What age is that appropriate for? It sounds like it's a bit more intense than Potter.

LSD: It is more intense than Potter, it'll still be PG-13 but you know, X-Men was PG-13 and we went pretty far. So, it'll go that far.

IESB: What studio?

LSD: Universal

IESB: Are we ever going to see a sequel to Constantine?

LSD: Yes, you might, you might.

IESB: WIth Keanu?

LSD: Yes, with Keanu [Reeves]. We have been working with a team of writers to come up with a story and yeah, you will.

IESB: When we interviewed Hugh Jackman, he talked about how the Wolverine script was out to directors. And, you can only go out to one A list director at a time.

LSD: Such a pain. [laughter]

IESB:Any, how long can you give, what's the window you give?

LSD: Interesting that you say that, because I am just about ready to say, here's the problem, our movie is out to a director that is filming. Understandably, he cannot take the time to read the script because he's filming, but he wants to, he has expressed a desire to make the movie and we very much want him to, so you tend to want to wait for that, you know.

Michael Aguilar (Unaccompanied Minors Producer): In my experience has been, if you are out to somebody exclusively, you can expect an answer within a couple weeks, you don't always have to go out exclusively, you know, we have projects that are out to several people that everyone would consider A list, and they're reading it, the agents often want it exclusive for them, but you can say no.

LSD: I am about to say to his agent, because of his circumstance, we are going to go out to other people. We hope he does it but...

IESB: How about Dick Donner? [laughter]

LSD: Listen, nothing would make me happier, I would then step back because I don't produce him anymore, but I don't think he, you know, he feels he's done his comic book movie. In fact, he's just recut Superman II which is unbelievable you guys must go out and get that DVD. It's really, really good. And then send ten dollars because he doesn't get any points on it. [laughter]

IESB: Obviously, Superman II was made before you got involved with him, what do you think of the new cut?

LSD: I am so excited, I saw it, he screened it, it's so good. I remember seeing Superman II and thinking it was really stupid. And then I saw his, and oh my God, it's just so good. Margot [Kidder] and Chris [Reeve} are so, so good. It's so much Dick's personality up there. It's just great.

IESB: What can we look forward to in the Constantine sequel?

LSD: We are really going to go for it this time. The area that we found is great...it's really scary, it's good…

IESB: Taking it to London?

LSD: No...another country though, you're right, it's outside of America.

IESB: Same director?

LSD: No, different director, but Francis [Lawrence] will produce it with us. We will try to maintain his vision.

IESB: He [Frances Lawrence] wouldn't be being asked for Wolverine?

LSD: Yes, we would love him for Wolverine but he won't be available.

So there you have it, straight from the proverbial horses mouth! And also, on a side note, we were talking to Gilbert Adler the other night, producer of Superman Returns, we asked him about the start date for prep on the sequel. He said they were looking at January or February of 2008 rather than September of '07 as previously reported. So, if Wolverine starts in the Fall will Bryan Singer be able to schedule it in? We can only hope!

Check back later today, we will be posting our exclusive one on one interview we had with Lauren Shuler Donner following the preceeding interview where we went more in depth on these topics. Plus, we will be posting our exclusive video interview with Superman Returns producer Gil Adler.

You can now read our second part of our interview with Lauren Shuler Donner!

Stay tuned!

Academy unveils animated film finalists

Sixteen full-length animated features have qualified to compete in the best animated feature film category at the 79th annual Academy Awards.

Under Academy rules, the full house of qualifiers means that the Academy could nominate as many as five films in the category when the nominees are announced Jan. 23. It's the first time since 2002 that that has been the case.

The list includes lots of movies with talking critters: Buena Vista's "The Wild," DreamWorks Animation's "Flushed Away" and "Over the Hedge," Paramount Pictures' "Barnyard," Sony Pictures' "Open Season," Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Ant Bully" and "Happy Feet" and 20th Century Fox's "Ice Age: The Meltdown."

Other titles that made the cut include Buena Vista and Pixar Animation's "Cars," Fox's "Everyone's Hero," Sony's "Monster House," and Universal's "Curious George," as well as Warner Independent Pictures' indie offering "A Scanner Darkly."

Several films from abroad also qualified: Director Luc Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles," set for release from the Weinstein Co. and MGM; Satoshi Kon's "Paprika," from Sony Pictures Classics; and Christian Volckman's "Renaissance," from Miramax Films.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I'll have the Keanu-Kabob with Some Ice-T

Star Sighting: Today, 3:30 EST, HT--friend of DUAS--saw Keanu Reeves walking on the north side of 14th street, midway between 5th and 6th Avenue. He was with a brunette-bobbed babe. Keanu wore a black turtleneck and a brown corduroy blazer with jeans (HT thinks they were jeans and doesn't want to be labeled a Star Whore for noticing). Furthermore, he thinks Keanu had his hands in his jeans pockets and was possibly breathing oxygen through his mouth and nose. Bottom line: Keanu was in Manhattan today.

The Matrix Meets Speed Racer!

By Patrick Sauriol

Speed Racer News The writing/directing brotherly duo of Larry and Andy Wachowski have committed to making a live-action Speed Racer movie for Warner Bros. Reuniting with their Matrix producer Joel Silver, executive producer Grant Hill and special visual effects supervisor John Gaeta, the plan is to start shooting the movie in the summer of 2007 for a summer '08 release. Unlike the more adult in tone Matrix trilogy, Speed Racer is being made for a family-friendly audience. According to Silver, the guys that made the "bullet time" FX look like the coolest thing in cinema back in 1999 have equally as cool ideas for the racing scenes in Speed Racer that will leave our jaws on the floor.

Based on a 1960s Japanese cartoon that became a North American cult craze for cartoon fanatics, Speed Racer follows the racing exploits of a young race car driver competing against a mysterious driver named Racer X. Sure, the Fast and the Furious franchise has made car racing films cool again, but undoubtedly the Wachowskis know that they will have to include meatier story elements in any big budget Speed Racer movie to make it stand out from the "Furious" crowd. Hey, here's a thought: Keanu Reeves as Racer X? Whoa.