A Scanner Darkly
Short description
Based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly is set in a near-future Orange County, California, where America's war on drugs has been lost. Robert Arctor is an undercover narcotics officer who has become a heavy user of Substance D, a drug that erodes the user's personality. His work requires him to surveil the friends he lives among, including Jim Barris, Ernie Luckman, Donna Hawthorne and Charles Freck, while his own grip on his identity steadily loosens.
Richard Linklater directed the film and wrote the screenplay, adapting Dick's novel with a rotoscoped animation style that overlays animated imagery on live-action footage. It is the tenth of the twenty-two films he has directed, following Bad News Bears in 2005 and preceding Fast Food Nation the same year. Keanu Reeves leads the cast as Arctor, alongside Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder and Rory Cochrane. Anne Walker-McBay, Erwin Stoff and Palmer West produced.
Released in July 2006, the film runs 100 minutes and carries an IMDb rating of 7 out of 10 from about 122,000 votes, with a TMDB rating of 6.8 from roughly 2,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7 from 185 reviews places it broadly in line with audience scores. Its reported budget and worldwide gross were both around 8 million dollars, indicating a modest commercial result.
What's left behind the scenes
- One version of the script was written by Charlie Kaufman. However, his script was rejected at one stage of the project's development.
- In the early 1990s, Terry Gilliam wanted to direct the film.
- When Fred goes to the liquor store, you can notice the "St. Ubik" brand. This is a reference to Philip K. Dick's novel "Ubik".
- Philip K. Dick dedicated the novel of the same name to deceased and seriously ill friends who were drug addicts, as evidenced by the credits at the end of the film.
- When Arcturus sits on stage awaiting the announcement of his performance, one of the guises the suit takes on is that of Philip K. Dick.
- The film is based on Philip K. Dick's novel "A Scanner Darkly" (1977).
- When Arctor undergoes the second stage of testing, the marking 'V K mk1' can be seen on a special machine. The letters 'V K' stand for Voight-Kampff. A test by the same name was used in Philip K. Dick's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where it was used to determine whether the subject being tested was a human or an android.
- While working on the book, Philip K. Dick drew upon his own experiences with drug use.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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