A Scanner Darkly Sneak Peek with Producer Tommy Pallotta
October 1, 2005, Hollywood, CA
By Jason Koornick
This past Saturday as part of Resfest 2005, Tommy Pallotta, the producer of the upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly presented a few scenes from the film and answered all sorts of questions. The event took place at the Spielberg Theater in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA. There were about 100 people there, mostly film geeks who asked some pretty interesting questions about Philip K. Dick, Waking Life and other hot topics.
As for A Scanner Darkly, first Pallotta showed us the newest trailer for the movie (which is coming out in March 2006 - the movie, not the trailer). Most readers are aware that the film is animated in the same style as Richard Linklater's Waking Life (he also directed this movie). The rotoscoping technique has come a long way since Waking Life, that's for sure. There is more consistency to the animation styles and it seems to serve the narrative well. The trailer conveys the paranoid feel of the Philip K. Dick novel. Lots of imagery of surveillance cameras, tracking devices, microphones, etc. It shows animated images Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane in various settings asking and pondering questions like "What if they come in through the bathroom window - like that Beatles song?" and Robert Downey Jr. reflects on the downfall of society.
There's footage of Keanu taking off the "scanner suit" which is actually the only real science fiction element in the film. It looks pretty cool. Keanu is sitting down with two doctors who explain to him that the two hemispheres of his brain are in conflict with each other. Near the end, Keanu's asks, "What does a scanner see? Does it see me clearly or darkly?" In general, the trailer conveys an impending sense of paranoia and doom without offering any answers. The cinematography looks very cool and the animation is certainly unique.
Based on the trailer and next two scenes that Pallotta showed, it seems that the animation style which is very psychedelic is well-suited for the material. Pallotta explained that A Scanner Darkly was the logical next step for the rotoscoping animation process after a short film he produced called "Snake and Drink" in 2000 (which was the first example of this style and was shown at the event) and "Waking Life." He and Linklater wanted to use the animation in a dramatic narrative which posed a whole new set of challenges, Pallotta said.
The first scene from the movie that he showed was one where Winona Ryder (as Donna) pleads with Keanu Reeves (as Bob Arctor) to stay with her. It takes place outside an apartment building at night. Pallotta said that the challenge in animating a scene that is much more typical of live action is to be able to capture the actors emoting. At first glance, they seemed to do a pretty good job. The facial expressions are pretty detailed and they were able to get some emotion out of how they animated the eyes. The actors share a sad and tender moment with Donna confessing to her drug use. In general, the scene worked pretty well and looked very cool. With the rotoscoping style, one's sense of perspective is skewed in a very trippy way. The backgrounds seem to pulsate and shift in ways that the human eye is not used to. (This is a good thing in a movie like Scanner because it puts you into the head of the characters).
The other Scanner scene was the best part of the movie I've seen so far. It has most of the actors (except Winona Ryder) hanging out in a driveway. There is a lot of banter and non-sensical drug talk going on. Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. have a great dynamic where Woody plays a burnt out stoner and Robert is a paranoid drug freak who taunts him. They chase each other around and almost get into a ridiculous fight. It's all very funny and right out of the Scanner Darkly novel. Rory Cochrane plays a wasted guy and the others mess with his head in a funny (and cruel) way. The animation works well and the actors personalities really shine through. Besides the animation, I was impressed by the great camera angles and smooth editing. It definitely made me excited for what's to come.
Tommy talked about the genesis of the project where he and Rick set out to make a faithful adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel. He did admit that they had to change a few things including some of the hipster-70s era dialogue from the book in order to not date the film but in general he said Linklater's script adhered very closely to the novel.
Although he didn't discuss it, I know for certain that they are hoping in a big way that this film will get nominated for an Academy Award in the Animated Film category. The technique is ground-breaking and they hope the film will demonstrate that animation isn't simply a medium for cartoon characters and comedy. They want to prove that narrative drama for adults can be successfully rendered in this form. We will have to wait and see if they are successful on both counts.
Among other things, Palotta also said that the film's budget was $8 million, all the actors worked for scale, there are 50 animators/illustrators working on the film right now in Austin, Texas, A Scanner Darkly will be rated R, and he would like to produce another Philip K. Dick movie - maybe The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (as a live action movie).
Here are some more A Scanner Darkly links:
