The Ubik-uitous Philip K. Dick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For some film fans, Philip K. Dick is "that guy who wrote Blade Runner and Total Recall." Well, perhaps. Dick wrote stories called Do Androids Dream of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2011\/02\/the-ubik-uitous-philip-k-dick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ubik-uitous Philip K. Dick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For some film fans, Philip K. Dick is "that guy who wrote Blade Runner and Total Recall." Well, perhaps. 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{"id":80524,"date":"2011-02-16T12:27:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T19:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?p=80524"},"modified":"2012-10-02T21:04:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T03:04:36","slug":"the-ubik-uitous-philip-k-dick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2011\/02\/the-ubik-uitous-philip-k-dick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ubik-uitous Philip K. Dick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

For some film fans, Philip K. Dick is \u201cthat guy who wrote Blade Runner<\/em> and Total Recall<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Well, perhaps. Dick wrote stories called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?<\/em> and We Can Remember It For You Wholesale<\/em>, both of which differed in considerable ways from the films that increased the author\u2019s existing cult-status.<\/p>\n

And yet, we may have the filmmakers Ridley Scott and Paul Verhoeven to thank for the resurgence of interest in Dick\u2019s mind-bending science fiction stories. Blade Runner<\/em> remains one of the most celebrated science fiction films ever made, even thirty years after its release. Total Recall<\/em> is still popular, and is getting the remake treatment soon (with Colin Farrell, I\u2019m hearing).<\/p>\n

It seems to have become a badge of honor for an actor to add a Philip K. Dick property to their record. Keanu Reeves fell into an alternate, drug-induced reality in A Scanner Darkly<\/em>. Tom Cruise chased his own eyeballs down a corridor in Minority Report<\/em>. Ben Affleck gave it a try in Paycheck<\/em>. Nicolas Cage was Next<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These days, Matt Damon is trying to outrun angels in The Adjustment Bureau.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even Disney is in on the game, adapting Dick\u2019s short story King of the Elves<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And now, one of the most revered and respected novels of Philip K. Dick\u2019s career is reportedly being adapted by Michel Gondry,<\/a> director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em> and The Science of Sleep<\/em>, one of the most imaginative filmmakers working today. He\u2019s looking to make a movie of Ubik<\/em>. It might be just the thing for Gondry as his version of The Green Hornet<\/em> was blasted by critics and lacked much of his personality and style.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, I\u2019m excited. In a time when most fantasy and sci-fi films are about little more than swords and monsters and bloodshed, boasting only in the qualities they\u2019ve stripped from better books, I\u2019m happy to buy a ticket to anything that challenges us to contemplate what we\u2019re seeing. The best adaptations of this remarkable writer\u2019s work \u2013 Blade Runner<\/em> and A Scanner Darkly<\/em> \u2013 have had an inventive visual style to match the wildly imaginative narrative. Gondry and Philip K. Dick sound like a big-screen marriage made in heaven.<\/p>\n

And it will just perpetuate the author\u2019s, um\u2026 ubiquity.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"