A Scanner Darkly (movie)

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 film by Richard Linklater starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey Jr., and Rory Cochrane. It is based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are among the executive producers. The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater. It is scheduled to be released in March, 2006.

Plot summary

In the near future, America has lost the "war on drugs". Undercover cop Fred (Keanu Reeves) is addicted to Substance D, a drug which causes addicts to develop a split personality. In this case, Fred is also Bob, a drug dealer. With the help of his department, Fred sets up a sting operation to catch himself.

Rotoscoping

The movie uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscoping. Used previously in Linklater's film Waking Life and Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings, the process originally involved tracing over film, frame-by-frame. In an unexpected move, Linklater chose to hire graphic novel artists to illustrate the film rather than animators. Equally significant is Linklater's employment of technology as an artistic aid. A Scanner Darkly was filmed digitally and rotoscoped and animated using proprietary graphics editing software.

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