On Wednesday night, The Austin Film Society hosted a little over one thousand friends to watch Austin's very own premiere of A Scanner Darkly at the Paramount Theatre, with a post-screen party down the street at The Austin Museum of Art. Originally written by Philip K. Dick in the late 1970’s and adapted to the screen by Austin's own Richard Linklater, A Scanner Darkly is an eerie, yet hilarious, film of drugs, paranoia and Big Brother.

Before the film, it was announced that the Runner-up and Audience Award winner of the RES Magazine: A Scanner Darkly Trailer Remix Contest were two Austinites. The Scramble Suit Remix by Dorian Ramirez grabbed second place, while Peter Butler’s A Civil War of the Mind was the overall crowd pleaser. Watch the original trailer in the Expand-O-Tron. After the film, Austin Film Society hosted a post-screen party featuring, among the gallery itself, a silent auction, fully-functioning children's interaction center and a performance by the film's composer and Austinite Graham Reynolds and The Golden Arm Trio. Those in attendance included director Richard Linklater, co-star Rory Cochrane, various editors and producers for the film, Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles, Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes author and UT professor John Pierson, Austin’s own conspiracy theorist poster boy (turned minor-role actor) Alex Jones and, perhaps a nomination for most out of place Austinite at the event goes to UT baseball head coach, Augie Garrido.

Filmed in less than 25 days, the film is truly a novel brought to life with awe-inspiring live action footage overlaid with “interpolated rotoscoping” (think a step above Waking Life) and took almost two years to complete. Keanu Reeves and his "cleverly" cast druggy sidekicks, none other than Woody Harrellson, Winona Ryder and Robert Downy, Jr. whose 'round-the-couch interactions play straight out of a stoner comedy, only a step above -- like George, Jerry, Elaine and Kramer after taking acid. What's more, just when you thought South Austin couldn't get any weirder, the majority of the film was shot in southeast Austin. Go see A Scanner Darkly if you like dark futuristic sci-fi; if you've ever been affected by drug abuse; if you like to watch Austin on film, and if you appreciate art in motion.

*Check this space next week for a full review of the film.*