A Scanner Darkly: An Animated Illusion

Marisa Materna chats with director Richard Linklater on the production of A Scanner Darkly, which utilizes interpolated rotoscoping to bring live-action footage into an animated dream world.
Truth or fiction? Are we being watched? Who is in control? Are my friends really my friends? Is this an illusion?
These are just some of themes in the Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly hitting theaters on July 7, 2006. Starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochrane, this film, inspired by Dick’s real life drug addiction and his experiences, is a dark and caustic journey into the lives of five friends who have been seduced by a drug referred to as Substance D or “Death.”

A Scanner Darkly was written and directed by Richard Linklater who is taking a departure from recent mainstream films such as School of Rock and Bad News Bears back to a more surreal project using the same animation technology he used in his 2001 film Waking Life, called interpolated rotoscoping developed by fellow Austenite and pal, Bob Sabiston.
"The technology really triggered something in me when I first saw the software at work. And I thought it would work well for this type of film. But making this movie was a lot of work, I think we spent more than 500 hours just for one minute of animation,” says Linklater.

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