Wired has a pretty cool interview with Richard Linklater, director of Scanner Darkly, a new movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel. Linklater describes a number of the production issues, primarily centered around animation, that have delayed this picture from its original September 2005 target release date. The Rotoscoping technique they are using involves artists hand drawing a significant amount of the details, whereupon a software program fills in the rest. Apparently they had some significant issues in getting consistency out of the animation artists. Not surprisingly, additional problems arose out of usability issues with a highly customized software product.

Still, this movie looks interesting. Check out the trailer for Scanner Darkly if you haven’t seen it yet. I can’t wait for its July 7th release date!

Also, Wired has a pretty fun top 10 list on why Keanu Reeves Rules for these kind of movies (like we didn’t already know that!).

Looks like the release date for Ultraviolet, starring Mila Jovovich, has been pushed back from February 24th to March 3rd. Joblo reports the shift, as has other sites such as countdown. I’m not sure why yet - hopefully this just just a position jockying thing due to more other movies opening on the 24th versus the 3rd.

In any event, it will also be interesting to see the extent to which the studio supports and markets Ultraviolet. I saw the trailer in Underworld: Evolution (which I generally liked), but haven’t seen a lot else on this. The question is especially pertinent considering the complete lack of support for Kurt Wimmer’s last directorial outing, Equilibruim (review forthcoming). Equilibrium was a pretty decent furturistic 1984-style movie oozing with cool, but got absolutely NO studio support. It has only been rediscovered by many on DVD.

~~~UPDATE: REVIEW FOR ULTRAVIOLET POSTED~~~

Yeah, OK, it appears pretty darn derivative (the trailer even has music from the original Matrix in it), but it definitely looks cool! What can I say? Hawt chicks in leathers kicking butt just work for me. Mila Jovovich looks like she fills the tough cyberpunk chick role well. If I’m guessing on how I rate this, I’m thinking it’ll garner high on the cyberpunk visuals and low on the cyberpunk themes scale.

Fangora has a description of the plot: Written and directed by Kurt (EQUILIBRIUM) Wimmer, ULTRAVIOLET takes place in the late 21st century, where a subculture of humans called Hemophages (i.e. blood drinkers) has emerged. The Hemophages have been genetically modified, giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence. To the government’s dismay, more and more of the population are being transformed, and, as a civil war looms, they have set out to rid the world of this new race that they now deem menaces to society. One rogue warrior is bent on protecting her people and seeking revenge on those who changed her life forever. With fierce martial-arts skills and chameleonic abilities, Violet (Jovovich) sets out to destroy a government-designed time bomb that will wipe out all Hemophages.

Check out the trailer for Ultraviolet in HD - definitely fun stuff!

And there’s a whole site of cool screencaps to check out. I’ll post more on this as we get closer to launch (March 3).

EDIT: Ultraviolet has been pushed back to March 3rd.