Another thread on A Scanner Darkly (spoilers)

Movies
#1

I just finished reading the novel tonight and so I decided to take a fresh look at the trailer. And wow, I really don’t get the negativity from the other threads. As far as characters and scenes and lines (including narration) go, it looks to be a very faithful adaptation. Here’s some stuff I picked out that made me excited (again, SPOILER warning):

The scramble suit. Sure, they toned it down quite a bit from the description in the book, but with this style they pretty much had to. Still looks neat and conveys the necessary sense of isolation from everyone else.

The eyeball-head guy. That was one of the most powerful scenes in the book, when Freck has enough of his junkie life and so tries to commit suicide by overdosing on downers, except the dealer had screwed him and given him hallucinogens. He then passes into a permanent trip where eyeballhead endlessly recounts his sins.

The motivation for the title, does the scanner see into me darkly. That passage is lifted from the book’s narration and placed in the trailer, calming any fears that narration-heavy sequences would have to be altered for the screen.

Being sacrificed without them ever knowing it. Donna’s line to Mike (the New-Path counselor guy) about Arctor’s fate calms any fears I may have had about them fundamentally altering the ending.

Barris saying “I could be MUR-DERED” (while in the station ratting out Arctor to Arctor) and Luckman saying “What if they come in through the back door or the bathroom window” (while on the way back from the trip that got them out of the house while the scanners were planted) and the aphids and the homemade silencer and the junkie chick changing into Donna while in Arctor’s bed and the two psychiatrists, all of these leave me very excited about the film’s potential.

#2

Whoa, I almost missed this thread. I just read the book recently as well and like you Bob, am really interested to see how they will make it work as a movie given that the book ends in a pretty depressing way. However, I think a director like Linklater definitely has the skills to do it and the trailer shows that the movie is certainly moving in the right direction.

Not to mention that the rotoscoping look of the movie is great and the cast is awesome. Whoever decided that Downey Jr. would make a good Barris should get a promotion and a large raise because that is just perfect casting right there.

#3

I actually could care less about the plot. I’m pretty much only interested in this movie because I really like Bob Sabiston’s technique and I’ve never been disappointed by Linklater (not counting his early shorts etc.)

#4

I’m on board too. I saw the original trailer, and it piqued my curiosity. So I grabbed the book and read it, then rewatched the trailer, and became even more excited. It really looks to nail everything. Time will tell, but it’s not so large a book that they couldn’t fit most of it on screen.

If you compare book size to movie adaptation, the fact that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas translated so well from a book of about the same size makes me really hopeful.