Warner confirms Radiohead to score A Scanner Darkly?

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Is this why Thom was going crazy on DAS this week?

Warner confirms: Radiohead scores 'A Scanner Darkly'

In earlier reports, Radiohead were rumoured to do the score for the film 'A Scanner Darkly'. Later on these rumours were denied again. But now film distributor Warner Independent Pictures confirms that Radiohead is doing the score for Richard Linklater's upcoming film version of the Philip K. Dick novel. Keanu Reeves stars in the futuristic story of government espionage, which will be rendered in the rotoscope-animated style of Linklater's Waking Life. Originally slated for a fall 2005 release, the film is now due out in limited release July 7. [source: Entertainment Weekly]

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=10693

― MitchellStirling (MitchellStirling), Saturday, 18 March 2006 03:11 (twenty years ago)

Keanu might be actually good in a futuristic movie.

― gritty sanskrit (sanskrit), Saturday, 18 March 2006 03:16 (twenty years ago)

Keanu might be actually good in a futuristic movie.

As a certified PKD fanatic (I loves the Dick, oh yeah), the trailer makes it look utterly fantastic. And casting Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder as the central group of junkies is a stroke of genius.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 18 March 2006 03:31 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, and the use of M83's "Teen Angst" in the trailer is quite promising too.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 18 March 2006 03:33 (twenty years ago)

i really can't imagine what a radiohead/beck show will be like

― darryl mac, Saturday, 18 March 2006 04:29 (twenty years ago)

That's even better than the first trailer. I'm really excited for this movie and have been since I saw the first trailer last year.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 04:46 (twenty years ago)

And this is not a music question, of course, but does anyone have PKD recs for me to serve as an introduction, whether short stories or novels? I have spring break next week and could use the reading.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 04:47 (twenty years ago)

'a scanner darkly', 'ubik', 'the man in the high castle', 'flow my tears the policeman said' and if yr feeling very brave, 'valis'.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Saturday, 18 March 2006 04:51 (twenty years ago)

Is flow my tears the one Linklater (in character) talks about in "Waking Life" where the book of Romans gets reenacted?

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 05:26 (twenty years ago)

yeah, that one's "flow my tears..."

"do androids dream of electric sheep?" is also good

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Saturday, 18 March 2006 05:34 (twenty years ago)

er.. Acts. sorry.

does "flow my tears" have lots of plot holes or something? amazon seems to think so.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 05:54 (twenty years ago)

yesyes, and "Dr. Bloodmoney" is another great one. Don't read the Valis books first.

― erklie (erklie), Saturday, 18 March 2006 05:57 (twenty years ago)

shit. so which one do i start with? i'm leaning towards scanner/high castle/androids.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:00 (twenty years ago)

i am now officially worried that this will turn out to be a potentially amazing film ruined by the presence of keanu and winona.

― erklie (erklie), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:02 (twenty years ago)

of course it won't. keanu is a bit underrated.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:03 (twenty years ago)

androids and high castle are both realy quick reads, perfect for limited time of spring break. scanner asks a little more of the reader.

― erklie (erklie), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:04 (twenty years ago)

no, it will be ruined by fucking ham robert downey jr. and retarded elf winona. although there was HORRIBLE casting with waking life as well and it was pretty great. the animation somehow saves it, maybe.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:06 (twenty years ago)

and i hope they animate her voice which has the impact of centering me amongst 40 dumb rich whores shoe shopping.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:07 (twenty years ago)

well, keanu is fine when the role doesn't require much work, like in the first Matrix. when he tries too hard i can't handle him at all, like in Much Ado About Nothing.

Winona Rydeer's track record in sorta artsy films is not good; her performance in "Night on Earth" is devestatingly bad.

still, i usually enjoy linklater's flicks so i'm not entirely pessimistic.

― erklie (erklie), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:10 (twenty years ago)

i read that last sentence about 20 times and still don't understand it, xpost. Susan, are you talking about Ethan Hawke, xxpost? (i like him).

thanks, erklie, xxxpost. i think i might do androids, just to have the pleasure of watching bladerunner after it (which i've never seen).

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:12 (twenty years ago)

I wonder if radiohead will bring the rock, or if it will be all jonny greenwood-y. ha, woody.

― erklie (erklie), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:13 (twenty years ago)

i'm guessing the latter, but hopefully they can pull some "everything in it's right place"-style moodiness as opposed to just being ambient.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:18 (twenty years ago)

so which one do i start with? i'm leaning towards scanner/high castle/androids.

You've got a good list to start with. After you've read stirmonster's recommendations I'd add Radio Free Albemuth- it's sort of a dry run for his VALIS trilogy (VALIS, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (well known as the basis for Blade Runner, but extremely different in tone, themes and even basic plot), and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (utterly fucking bizarre, probably closest to Ubik if you like that one). His work varies wildly in quality, but there's really no such thing as a truly bad Dick novel- and even so, there are so damn many of them that there's something for everybody.

Also: if there are any good used bookstores in your area, check them out- if you're not picky about condition, Dick paperbacks from the 60's and 70's are surprisingly easy to find, and often have awesome covers, like this copy of Palmer Eldritch I found a couple years ago:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/PKD-The-Three-Stigmata-of-P.png

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:19 (twenty years ago)

...except that one's obviously from the 80's, as the Blade Runner blurb makes clear. HOORAY FOR PROOFREADING.

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:21 (twenty years ago)

xpost, yeah ethan and the blondish woman ...can't remember her name. i've been fairly ok with ethan in a number of movies, but not someone i'd be too excited about. linklater seems to cast for L.A. flavor and pretty looks.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:26 (twenty years ago)

julie delpy. you must have hated the "Before ..." series (just two I guess)! i think i might have outgrown them actually. it's weird how, the older/more educated you get, the more you start to see some of your previous tastes as cliched/pretentious, which is kind of a pretentious thing in itself. or does this only happen to me?

xpost: thanks ryan. i've been looking at covers, and the old ones are KICK ASS! so much more than the new Vintage editions.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:36 (twenty years ago)

yep, delpy. yes, i avoided that series. no you're not the only one.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 18 March 2006 06:53 (twenty years ago)

good.

speaking of radiohead in movies, harry and the potters is playing the university of chicago on something like march 29th. totally different than the band in the movie, but it's supposed to actually be a lot of fun. any chicagoans, hit me up if you want to go together.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Saturday, 18 March 2006 07:16 (twenty years ago)

holy crap .... when i first heard about this movie I was, uh, cautiously pessimistic (love PKD, hated Waking Life, but like Linklater in general). But that trailer looks great.

― Renard (Renard), Saturday, 18 March 2006 07:29 (twenty years ago)

'Ubik'

Presumably to be scored by Timo Maas?

― James.Cobo (jamescobo), Saturday, 18 March 2006 07:48 (twenty years ago)

does this mean the new Radiohead album is in the can?

― erv (Abe Froman), Saturday, 18 March 2006 14:04 (twenty years ago)

I second Ubik and Three Stigmata; Valis was the first Dick I read and even though it's a tough read, I loved it. The more mindblowing, the better I say. I'd like to see someone like Alex Proyas or the Wachowskis tackle one of these over the top books.

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Saturday, 18 March 2006 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Funnily enough a few of us were talking about Valis last night. Remy to thread! And the Equator Lounge!

I'll add in recommendations for Ubik (which predicts the Lord of the Rings films, sorta) and Three Stigmata as starting points. But yeah, Valis. I need to go back and try and make sense of it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 18 March 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

most of what stir recommends seconded (in order, i read High Castle, Scanner, Flow, Valis trilogy). i think Electric Sheep is just too churning, straight up forgetting of prev. ideas, characters, and plot as he goes.
but once addicted to PKD's speed (of ideas, which really is a rush, a burst of energy radiating off each page) i found the selected writings and excerpts from his exegesis just endlessly fascinating. there's also a Crumb comic about the valis period. this stuff is less sci-fi, more gnostic text.
even though i recollected the Slacker-era of Austin (the walk of the conspiracy-theorist was my exact route home during college) and recreated Dazed & Confused too, i'm not so hot on Linklater. Waking Life was too solipsistic and stoned. having just seen Before Sunset tho, i was gobstruck by the subtlety and simplicity revealing sudden depths.

― imbidimts, Saturday, 18 March 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

there's also a Crumb comic about the valis period.
Indeed.

― Øystein (Øystein), Saturday, 18 March 2006 17:33 (twenty years ago)

Winona, Downey and Keanu all look passable to me. I'm worried about Woody Harrelson.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Saturday, 18 March 2006 17:34 (twenty years ago)

after reading this thread I feel like going out to find Ubik and Valis, like, today

out of the ones I've read so far (Scanner, Three Stigmata, High Castle, Flow My Tears), A Scanner Darkly was definitely my favorite ....

― Renard (Renard), Saturday, 18 March 2006 18:05 (twenty years ago)

After you've read a few of PKD's books, check out Michael Bishop's "The Secret Ascension" aka "Philip K. Dick is dead, alas." A fun read in which Phil's ghost returns to a dystopian alternate earth ruled by Richard Nixon.

― Wub-Fur Internet Radio (wubfur), Saturday, 18 March 2006 21:50 (twenty years ago)

"Is this why Thom was going crazy on DAS this week?"

whats DAS ?

― grapple (grapple), Sunday, 19 March 2006 04:48 (twenty years ago)

I've also decided to read Gene Wolf's quatrology. Highly recommended from my roommates.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Sunday, 19 March 2006 05:05 (twenty years ago)

For me, the trailer's high point is Harrelson's delivery of the "...like in that infamous Beatles song?" line which is just PERFECT to me for no real reason. Low point is "the two halves...of my brain...are competing???" said in the classic Keanu "dur-HUR?" voice that makes me die a little inside. erklie is right, though, Keanu is fine when you do not ask too much of him--particularly in roles that required him to be mostly confused, such as the first Matrix.

Also some strange part of me insists upon liking Robert Downey Jr. Send help.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Sunday, 19 March 2006 06:28 (twenty years ago)

Everybody likes Downey. He'd be great at a party - talkative, friendly, he'd entertain everyone with the frog-jumping thing he did in his '92 election documentary (where he may or may not have been tripping balls for most of the film), he knows all the best dealers.

― Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Sunday, 19 March 2006 06:30 (twenty years ago)

if you don't feel like seeing this, you can rent one of these good movies-

The Holy Girl
Wigstock: The Movie
Last Summer in the Hamptons
The Best Intentions

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 19 March 2006 06:56 (twenty years ago)

And his character, Barris, is kind of a coked-up manic anyway. And Harrelson plays Luckman, a slightly dim stoner type. Perfect!

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 19 March 2006 07:00 (twenty years ago)

er, xpost

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 19 March 2006 07:00 (twenty years ago)

http://www.ateaseweb.com/news/archive/2006/03/no_scanner_dark.php

So, no score. And solo album? I don't know. It's the first I've heard of such a thing.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Sunday, 19 March 2006 09:08 (twenty years ago)

I want offical word from the Radiohead camp on this one, but yes this is interesting news.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 19 March 2006 11:40 (twenty years ago)

that Crumb strip was great. thanks Øystein!

― JB Young (JB Young), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:07 (twenty years ago)

why are people singling out valis as more hard going than the rest ? i find all pdk difficult in some sense (either it's crushingly depressing, brutal, too many ideas), and valis is just a terrific book.

i would say: unless you start with electric sheep/high castle don't bother with them. they don't stand up the rest, imo. maybe im just being a snob.

― steviespitfire (steviespitfire), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:28 (twenty years ago)

i don't think the valis books are more difficult than the other 70s stuff, but having read a fair amount of other PKD makes it a more interesting read, IMO, just because he revisits many of his themes in a new way.

― erklie (erklie), Monday, 20 March 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

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