Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence?
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| High Concept Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence? |
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Tuesday, June 15, 2004 The Pitch: It's like Point Break meets Chinatown? (Or, Maybe, Hope meets Heartbreak?) So...they're doing a film adapatation of A Scanner Darkly. No, really. One of my three favorite Philip K. Dick books (I actually haven't read very many) is getting made into a film.This is particularly rough as A Scanner Darkly is one of those books I read and knew instantly how to make as a film. I just instantly saw how to make it work, how this heartbreaking and odd book would make a spectacularly off-kilter science fiction film. After all, it's a book about an undercover drug agent who narcs on himself, about a far-flung future that looks and sounds like 1970's Fullerton, about a narrative that, like its protagonist, buckles and breaks under the weight of its internal contradictions. If you've seen Boogie Nights, you've seen the look and the feel of the movie in my head. So I would've been sad no matter who adapted this book, because I have nobody but myself to blame for it not being me making it. And when I read that it was Richard Linklater making the movie, directing from his own script, I had hope. If you've seen Slacker and you've seen Dazed & Confused, you know Linklater gets fuck-ups and he gets the '70s (and I'm sure the reason he's being able to helm this is thanks to all of us loving School of Rock). But the cast...Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson? I can actually handle Downey & Harrelson because I think they're both capable of giving nuanced performances, but Keanu in the lead role of Bob Arctor makes me want to cry. And it's been a long, long time since I've seen Ryder give anything close to a decent performance, honestly. Doesn't anyone remember her and Reeves in Dracula, for God's sakes? Matching shoe trees have more chemistry than the King and Queen of the Frightened-Eyed Dullards. I'm sure this movie wouldn't be made if Keanu hadn't committed to the lead (although I wouldn't be surprised if Linklater wrote the movie with his buddy Ethan Hawke in mind for Arctor's role) because that's the way Hollywood rolls (even a hot director can't jumpstart his own movie, he can just attract enough acting heat to get it made). And I will say, I don't think it's coincidence that this darkly humorous movie about drugs and self-destruction has three actors highly associated with both topics. As someone pointed out in a related AICN talkback, it's like an episode of Inside the Actor's Rehab Clinic. That makes for easy publicity, but it may also make for some truly powerful and incisive performances. But, really, just...damn it. You know? Anyway, those interested in a few more grisly details can look here. posted by Jeff Lester | 8:59 AM | |
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