Dan from DimFuture.Net found this little tidbit on Dark Horizons about an upcoming Philip K. Dick Biopic:

Bill Pullman is in talks to play science fiction author Philip K. Dick (”Blade Runner,” “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly”) in the independent film “Panasonic” reports Production Weekly.

The lines between reality and perception blur in this comic journey into the life and mind (literally!) of one of sci-fi’s most brilliant authors. Paranoid conspiracies of the highest order, drug-fueled interdimensional shifts, and 1970’s pop culture combine for the mind-bending adventure of the century.

Musician Matthew Wilder, best known for his 1983 hit “Break My Stride,” will direct starting next month.

I’m guessing there’s still quite a bit of pre-production to go on here. We’ll probably be lucky if we get to see this near the end of 2007, but Philip K. Dick’s life is interesting enough that this becomes something to look forward to seeing.

UPDATE: It looks like there’s contradictory information here. Dan (DimFuture.Net) also found an article on Scifi Wire:

Paul Giamatti is in negotiations to star as SF author Philip K. Dick in an untitled biographical movie that his newly launched production company Touchy Feely Films is producing with Anonymous Content, Variety reported.

The authorized biopic also is being produced by the Philip K. Dick estate through its Electric Shepherd Productions. Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) will write the screenplay.

Dick, who died in 1982, penned more than four dozen books and numerous short stories, with at least seven being adapted for the big screen, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly, which is currently in theaters.

The nontraditional biopic will interweave the prolific author’s life with his fiction and incorporate elements of his last unfinished novel, The Owl in Daylight.

Producers are Giamatti plus Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Lenny Bekerman. Giamatti can now been seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water, provides one of the voices in The Ant Bully and will soon be seen in The Illusionist.

Personally I think Giamatti would do a better job. Pullman may look the part more but Giamatti’s a better actor.

It appears as if Cyberpunk Review has reached another milestone - we’re now officially a minute cog in the massive Hollywood movie marketing machine! Yesterday, I was contacted by Jennifer, a Miramax representative who was eager to assist me with hyping Renaissance, a pretty innovative looking animated movie that was released in France back in March and is only now starting to make its way to the US. I’m hoping this change in status to machine cog is at least partially a good thing, in any event I’ll roll with it this time. Jennifer has given me a number of goodies including movie stills, trailers, and a jpeg of this really nifty large scale movie poster (1200×1778).

Also, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a detailed summary description of the plot:

In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Cut off from the world for its own protection, the city has nonetheless continued to expand. Now, 21st century skyscrapers overlay centuries-old architectural masterpieces. And below street level, a sophisticated network of streamlined plazas push up against the city’s ancient, deteriorating tunnel systems. Casting a shadow over everything is the city’s largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export – eternal youth and beauty.

When 22-year-old Ilona (Romola Garai), one of Avalon’s most promising scientists, is abruptly kidnapped, Avaloncalls on Barthélémy Karas (Daniel Craig), a Paris cop with a hard-fought reputation for finding anyone, no matterwhat sacrifices he has to make along the way. As the trail gets hot, Karas senses he’s not the only one looking for thebeautiful enigma, and every witness he digs up seems to turn up dead.

To find Ilona and unlock the secrets of her disappearance, Karas must plunge deep into the parallel worlds of corporate espionage, organized crime and genetic research – where the truth imprisons whoever finds it first and miracles can be bought but at a great price.

“Renaissance” is a bold never-before-seen vision of a stark near future drenched in hidden secrets and technological frontiers. Directed by Christian Volckman, Renaissance takes film noir to its most stylized edge, utilizing live actionmotion capture, animated in 3D and rendered in high contrast black and white to create a graphic novel come-to-life.

Limited Release on September 22? The sparse marketing sheet I have in my possession seems to indicate that the September 22 release is only for those blessed folks who live in New York and Los Angeles. Then again, considering the rest of the world saw this as long as six months ago, we’re all pretty much last place losers in the US as far as this production goes. Still, it appears that us truly unfortunate souls who aren’t in either NY or LA will have to wait at least a week or more to see Renaissance. I’ve got a query into Jennifer now about this. I’ll let you know any updates assuming she doesn’t comment directly on this.

EDIT: Just an update on the release date: the cities it will be shown in on the 29th will include Philadelphia, DC, Boston and San Francisco. The rest of the country comes after that.

Renaissance Trailers in English: Here’s the Renaissance trailer in English at 480×272 pixels (the largest size I was given). Pick your favorite format:

• Windows Renaissance Trailer (WMV)
• Quicktime Renaissance Trailer (MOV)
• Real Renaissance Trailer (RM)

As much as I’d like to Review A Scanner Darkly today, I’m afraid my area (the Washington, D.C. area) did not make the cinematic cut - again. Apparently the DC area is a cinematic wasteland that is destined to get limited releases later in the cycle. If you happen to be from one of the cinematically blessed cities - Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin, perhaps you wouldn’t mind posting your thoughts here on Scanner Darkly until us poor unfortunate souls are finally able to see it. Depending on how they slice things, I still have a week or two to wait on this movie. It better be worth the wait…

Considering I’ve already been screwed on Renaissance for quite some time, lets hope I get better luck with Gene Generation (Renaissance was released in March - who knows if the September 22 release date is for everyone or only the chosen few locations).

I really can’t wait to see this flick. The cast includes:

• Daniel Craig
• Catherine McCormack
• Romola Garai
• Jonathan Pryce
• Ian Holm
• Kevork Malikyan

The trailers look terrific, as do the stills. Here’s the Renaissance Trailer in English.

While Renaissance’s release date in the US is September 22, it appears that the UK will be getting their hands on this on July 6th. Perhaps one the regulars here from the UK can give us a review then.

The science channel is premiering a new show called “Robosapien” this Sunday. While the listing sounds interesting, but not all that motivating…

From the early days of Dr. Jose Delgado to the ground breaking work of Dr. Phil Kennedy, this film will closely examine the technologies that give hope to the disabled, allowing them to push beyond their limits and realize their potential.

The hyped trailer looks a lot more interesting. They have Kevin Warwick as the guy hyping this up. If you aren’t familiar with him, Kevin Warwick is a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, in Reading, UK. He also makes the claim that he’s the world’s first cyborg, and has conducted his cybernetics research on himself. He has a book titled “I, Cyborg,” which details his journey to becoming a cyborg. He has received quite a few critics over the years as well. The ad on TV reads:

“Is the line between man and machine blurring?”
{Kevin Warwick is shown}”Though I may have been born a human, I will die a cyborg.”
~Robosapien: The secret (r)evolution~

Robosapien is premiering in the US this Sunday at 9:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Case passed along this interesting little tidbit from Twitch (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites) about a Matrix inspired nine minute Film Short from France. The synopsis is briefly given as follows:

Ram and Greg are two survivors living in a post apocalyptic world ruled by the Machines. Greg has successfully created a virus program named “Resistant” that can exterminate the Matrix Agents.

WE Productions, the French group producing this new short, also produced a counter-strike short a while back has a flash-enabled website for this new short which includes a trailer, screencaps and a forum (click the flag for English). The trailer looks like it has decent production values and seems to mimic the Matrix universe pretty well, but the trailer doesn’t give us enough to indicate whether the plot of short itself will be interesting (the trailer for Cost of Living effectively did this I thought).

No word yet on when this will be released, and unfortunately the forum appears to be in French only. Perhaps one of my non-linguistically challenged European visitors can post a message there and ask when this will be released.

Neuromancer posted in the meatspace that Scifi.com is reporting that all the legal issues have been cleared up for Ridley Scott to finalize his work on a definitive version of Blade Runner.

Warner Home Video will issue a new remastered director’s cut of the classic SF movie Blade Runner in September now that it has cleared up rights issues, followed by a theatrical release of a version promised to be truly director Ridley Scott’s final cut, Variety reported. Warner’s rights to Blade Runner lapsed a year ago, but the studio has since negotiated a long-term license.

The movie has a troubled history. When Scott ran over budget, completion bond guarantors took control of it and made substantial changes before its 1982 theatrical release, adding a voice-over and a happy ending. That version was replaced by the much better-received director’s cut in 1992, but Scott has long been unhappy with it, complaining that he was rushed and unable to give it proper attention.

Scott started working on the final cut version in 2000, but that project was shelved by Warner soon after, apparently because the studio couldn’t come to terms with Jerry Perenchio over rights issues.

The restored “director’s cut” will debut on home video in September and will remain on sale for only four months, after which time it will be placed on moratorium. Blade Runner: Final Cut will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th-anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special-edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing. Besides the original theatrical version and director’s cut, the expanded international theatrical cut will be included. The set will also contain additional bonus materials.

We’ve had so many stops and starts with this that it almost seems too good to be true. I doubt I’ll be able to wait on the remastered version of the Directors’ Cut either, as the current Blade Runner DVD quality is far from good. Personally though, I’m really hoping for a nice featurette in the 2007 version detailing Blade Runner’s enormous influence on the genre.

Good news for those in the UK - Vicky Chowney, a publicist representing OMG PLC, the company who did the motion capture for the French cyberpunk movie, Renaissance (directed by Christian Volckman), stopped by and mentioned that Renaissance opens in the UK on August the 4th. In bad news for the US, she confirms that the US release will follow later.

IMDB currently has the US release date for Renaissance listed as September 22. Hopefully they at least stick to that. But honestly, I don’t really understand the incremental release approach. I understand keeping a foreign SciFi flick away from the summer blockbusters, but the initial March 15th release date would have worked well for that purpose. Perhaps someone can shed light on this decision. Also, hopefully Vikki can line us up with an interview with OMG!

Scanner Darkly was screened at a a few locations recently, including Brandeis University. AICN had a few user reviews from this event. Interestingly, the movie appears to take Philip K. Dick’s dialogue verbatim:

A Scanner Darkly bucks that trend entirely, preserving the plot and even most of the dialogue practically verbatim from the original text, perfectly creating the air of paranoia and psychological breakdown that suffuses every page of the novel. The rotoscope animation also helped greatly in this regard, with the constantly moving visual landscape complementing and supporting the slow dissolution of Bob Arctor’s (Reeves) world. The film also conveys the message and themes of Dick’s novel very effectively, from the destructive effects of drugs to the consequences of living in a world where government surveillance is a constant. It was amazing to see this story on screen and realize that Dick wrote the novel over thirty years ago; the man’s prescience was remarkable.

On the whole, the reviews seemed pretty positive, but with some mixed thoughts.:

To sum it up, Linklater has made a great film here…. it certainly wont appeal to everyone, and a number of people are going to walk out not quite sure what they just watched. But if nothing else, audiences can rest assured that A Scanner Darkly is a faithful and captivating adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s novel (in fact, the movie closes with a list of people close to Dick that succumbed to addiction, which adds a very personal touch to the film as a whole).

New Trailer: The new trailer for Scanner Darkly is interesting as well. It doesn’t give away much of the plot, and only touches on the paranoia, but it does give a good sense of what to expect from the very interesting animation style. Here are a few more screen captures:
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Simon from CyberpunkCafe posted a news item in the meatspace about this. Now Playing Magazine is reporting that William Gibson’s novel, Idoru, is going to be coming to anime. Alex Steyermark, a relative unknown has been given the reigns. Apparently, there was some discussion of turning this into a live-action movie but it was cost-prohibitive:

“The studio people that were reading the script all loved it,” Steyermark says. “They said, ‘This is a $150 million movie.’ One of them came back and said, ‘How would you feel about doing this as an anime film?’ I thought that is really cool, really creative. It’s exciting, it’s a great way to do it on a smaller budget. At the same time, [it] could set up a live action version of it.”

I am a bit concerned about this paragraph though. Apparently the entire story is not being implemented, and worse, they are planning for a sequel:

Steyermark’s script had to consolidate some of Gibson’s work, but don’t worry. He saved the rest for the sequel. “I played with the structure of the novel. The novel is done as two parallel stories and I focused on one. I actually am starting to work on the sequel which would sort of focus on the other. That’s how I thought I would approach it. People who were reading the initial drafts of the script said, ‘Look, you have to decide who it’s about. Is it the one or the other?’ So I did that kind of adaptation thing where you just shape it around one of the characters. But in my mind, everything that’s not in this one from the book, there are so many great things that will be from the book in the sequel.”

Hopefully, this will be handled well, but given the track record of Gibson book adaptations, there is certainly reason for concern. Pre-production may be getting underway as early as May, which still probably puts the movie to 2007 or 2008 at the latest.