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Philip K. Dick's 'Ubik' To Be Filmed
bowman9991 writes "Could this be the new Blade Runner? SFFMedia reports that Celluloid Dreams has obtained the movie rights to Philip K. Dick's science fiction masterpiece 'Ubik.' First published in 1969, Ubik's central character is Joe Chip, a technician for a telepathic organization that employs people with the ability to block certain psychic powers so they can secure other people's privacy. In the novel, the dead are kept in 'half-life,' a form of cryogenic suspension, with limited consciousness and communication ability. A mystical substance called Ubik, available in spray-can form, is the only thing stopping reality from disintegrating before Joe's eyes. It'll be hard to film, but fantastic if they get it right!"
From The Summary: "A mystical substance called Ubik, available in spray-can form, is the only thing stopping reality from disintegrating before Joe's eyes"
From Wikipedia: "This substance, whose name is derived from the word "ubiquity", has the property of preserving people who are in half-life."
Draw your own conclusions about what chemical properties it may have.
Flamebait. Total Recall was totally relevant. Where else would you find a 3-boobed chick? Kuato Lives.
Why does everyone slam on "Total Recall"? No, it wasn't "Blade Runner" quality but it certainly was thought-provoking. Meanwhile, "A Scanner Darkly" was thoroughly annoying--I could not stand to look at it for more than a couple minutes. I wish the inventor of that posterizing technique had never come up with it.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
....they need: 1) A good actor as they had in Harrison Ford. 2) Faith that their audience is intelligent, so they don't have to go all "Summer blockbuster" on us. 3) A director who is willing to give the film the atmosphere it needs. Let's cross our fingers we get all of these.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
Did anyone else read Philip's Dick to be filmed? I Think it is time to goto bed.
I hope a gifted director comes along and makes a GOOD science fiction adaptation of Asimov's Foundation series.
There's no way that Ubik could be filmed for a mainstream audience. The plot features telepaths and anti-telepaths, communication with the dead, time travel, coin-operated apartment front doors, people who suddenly turn into dust, a bomb blast that may or may not have killed all of the characters, and the usual questions about the nature of reality. Just figuring out a way to explain what the hell is going on will be a pretty big challenge. During the whole course of the plot, time is flowing backwards, so the filmmakers would have to build not just a static version of New York City, but one where all the artifacts are gradually transforming into their more primitive forms. If they can pull this off, it will be amazing, but its hard to imagine anyone tackling it without a big budget, and the eccentricities of the plot seem to preclude that. Its a wildly imaginative and thought-provoking book, and I hope someone makes it into an amazing film, I just don't expect it to ever happen. The one Dick book that I'm surprised hasn't been filmed is The Man in the High Castle, which has a much more conventional plot (by comparison) and would be more accessible to a mass audience.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is largely set in a potentially realistic dark future setting, some things more advanced, others decaying. Most of the environment is easy to make real without making it look silly, not to downplay the great work done by Ridley Scott and everyone else involved. The one aspect of the novel that would be difficult to reasonably translate to the silver screen is Mercerism, the animal worshiping cult/religion of the future. So, they dropped it from the film, which takes a slightly different view anyway. (The only reason it would be difficult is because the way in which one tries to become one with Mercer is very abstractly represented throughout the novel.)
Ubik on the other hand is almost entirely abstract stuff. In fact, it is more abstract than the Mercerism stuff. There is some great imagery in Ubik that would be easy to translate, but by and large, making the novel come to life without making it look ridiculous would be very difficult. The way I picture Ubik, the scenes would have to appear incomplete for most of the novel, from the standpoint of anyone in cold-pac, and that would be much harder to pull off. I doubt anyone that the current Hollywood industry is likely to pull it off. The best they could hope to do is to make something reminiscent of The Thirteenth Floor.
Insert self-referential sig here.
I hated it the first time too. Wait a few months, and watch it again. Then maybe a few months after that. It's a very subtle movie, which is why it did terribly at the time but is now a cult classic.
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Let us hope the adaptation of Ubik doesn't repeat the mistakes of the adaptation of Fight Club.
I never read any of Palahniuk's work, but if the movie turns out to be half as good Fight Club, we're in for a treat.
Interestingly enough, the director of "A Scanner Darkly" (Richard Linklater) initially wanted to do "Ubik", but there was some issue with the rights with respect to Dick's estate, and Linklater thought that "A Scanner..." might make a better film anyway.
I admit I don't know "Ubik", but I enjoyed Bladerunner (based on Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", for anyone who may not know) immensely, and I really liked Linklater's adaptation of "A Scanner Darkly", so I'd definitely check this out.
Everyone slams Total Recall because they don't actually comprehend what actually was going on. So they hate the movie because what they think was actually going on was not what was going on at all.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I watched Blade Runner in the theatre. Came out thinking "WTF did I just see?" (and that was with Ford's voiceover explaining everything!) I was confused yet knew there was something there. Bought the widescreen VHS a while later and it really grew with each viewing.
Now I'm a diehard fan and just love it. My gut feeling hints that most big fans weren't until they had a few viewings.
Trolling is a art,
This, of course, is totally distorting the scene to make it sound more shocking than it actually was. When you phrase it accurately, "shooting the enemy agent who was pretending to be his wife", it sounds a lot less shocking.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
It helps to watch Blade Runner with an above average IQ. It's the opposite of Tron, which, I'm told, is only watchable while stoned.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I guess I'd better buy the book now, before they all have Will Smith on the cover.
One of his books has a character called "Horselover Fat", which is apparently a translation of his name. Philip is derived from Philoppos - a greek name meaning lover of horses, and Dick is German for Fat. I think he was probably okay with his name.
I loved the effect in Waking Life because they used it more as a base, then hand animated on top of it and actually made good use of the fact that it was no longer live action. Best example I could think of being when the girl was explaining love and they animated what she was saying as if you could see her thoughts.
Fit the premise of the movie perfectly.
It also seemed to help guide you towards what was important as most scenes seemed to be just as detailed as they needed to be, with some things shining through more.
OTOH, A Scanner Darkley used it more as just a form of special effects, a filter to be left on to make the movie pretty. I didn't dislike it as much as some of the posters here did, but it was much more of a gimmick than an artistic tool for sure.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
You all know that Dick already wrote a script, don't you?
From wikipedia:
"Attempts to produce an Ubik film
In 1974, French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin commissioned Dick to write a screenplay for an Ubik film. Dick completed the screenplay, turning it in within a month, but Gorin never filmed the project. The screenplay was published in 1985 as Ubik: The Screenplay (ISBN-13: 978-0911169065)."
I have. I have not read it. Anyone knows if it is any good or do i have to have my own judgement -.-
from Wikipedia:
"filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin commissioned Dick to write a screenplay for an Ubik film. Dick completed the screenplay, turning it in within a month, but Gorin never filmed the project. The screenplay was published in 1985 as Ubik: The Screenplay (ISBN-13: 978-0911169065)."
I've read interviews with Dick where he described how he envisioned the film. The book describes modern technology devolving into more primitive forms. He said that he wanted the film to be shot on the highest quality media of the time and then progressively worse media like 16mm film and then black and white 8mm. I'm doubting that this film will be shot this way. Amazing book though.
Just because someone acquired the movie rights to a book doesn't mean it will ever see the light of day. It's not uncommon for rights to be bought and then for the project to languish indefinitely.
Purchasing rights != filming movie
I got much more upset about the lame physics.
Yes, we'd agree that 'inspired by' would be closer to the mark, but as an adaptation of a short story to a film, it wasn't too bad.
Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
:wq!
I don't mean to flame here, but Total Recall is a great film and totally blows away "A Scanner Darkly". You should give it another shot!
The great thing about the movie is that it isn't just a visual retelling of the short story. It is a tirade against the dominance of sex and violence in the entertainment industry (our collective fantasies). The director might be somewhat tongue-in-cheek for communicating this using such a violent film, but even if the hypocrisy rubs you the wrong way the focus on fantasies of violence is a brilliant treatment of the original story since it works so well in conjunction with it: the resolution of Dick's paradox (is it a dream?) ends up irrelevant to the central message of the film. Under-emphasized elements of the book (Mars = God of War) also gain new salience.
Total Recall is a great film because it takes good material, does it's own thing with it, and puts the viewer in a paradox much like the one it shows us. As long as we enjoyed the movie, the film has us pinned. How much of our enjoyment was because of the sex and violence the film revels in even as it critiques it?
In contrast, "A Scanner Darkly" paid homage to the high noes of the book (and it was sweet that they included the epilogue too), but there wasn't anything really original and exceptional about the execution save the style of the animation. Worth watching, but not worth watching more than once.
You can have a look at their portfolio of which I recognise only two (Son of Rambow and The Magic Flute) and both were determined art-house flicks. Perhaps there is a cinephile on /. who can give us a quick overview of the quality of their portfolio?
Anyway, go ahead and put a tick in the box for "Art House/European production company".
Probably the most important group will be the team comprising the scriptwriters, director, reps from the PKD estate and the prinicipal storyboard artists. They will literally have to make the most amazing comic ever created before a single frame has been filmed.
[SPOILER]
To those who couldn't understand Ubik, it helps if you've read VALIS first and alot about PKD himself, particularly the period of time right after he recovered from being certified insane.
VALIS mixes fictional elements with real life experiences of his own becoming a bizarre self-referential story with one theme being how we take reality, particularly the model we hold of 'reality' in our heads, for granted. PKD noted that while he was apparently insane, he recalled that he never once stopped in mid-thought and assessed that what he was perceiving or thinking was crazy or mad. His perception and thoughts while "mad" were indistinguishable from when he was "sane". He could not point out a boundary separating the period of insanity from sanity. It just didn't exist. There is no built-in internal yardstick despite what a lot of us may believe. Its something you model during the process of living and it gains 'rigidity' upon adulthood. When you've apparently fallen off the edge and broken that yardstick, someone else has to tell you its broken. Someone else has to give you a new yardstick. Someone else has to 'reset it/re-model' for you. In his case it was his doctors. But then, who is checking the doctors' yardsticks aren't broken either? What if they are mad too and no one knows better? The mad healing the mad? This revelation profoundly affected him.
To the gentleman earlier who seemed to have the definitive opinion that Ubik was just a dying man's hallucinations, I can assure you I never felt sure about the ending as it seemed perfectly within PKD's twisted sense of humour for the ending to be just another misleading lie, further compounding that you just can't take what's presented to you for granted. I see Ubik as partly an attempt to share what it was like being insane. Imagine that you are directly involved in the events of the book and that when the book ends - right when you close the back cover - that you are suddenly looking into the kind blue eyes of a distinguished looking man in a white coat congratulating you on your recovery.
But that's just my 2 cents.
[END SPOILER]
I don't think Blade Runner kept any of the spirit of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The only resemblance it had to the book was a few lines here and there. Other than that, they were completely different.
One was practically and action movie about a bounty hunter, while the other was more themed around the apocalypse, and how at the end of the world humans will hold life above all other possessions.
The book is inspiring, while the movie is just odd.
...unless the light is emitted by a ball of gas boiling away in space at a safe distance from me.
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
If I understand you right, you're implying that the movie Fight Club had a vapid ending. I would like to note that Chuck Palahniuk said that he liked the movie ending better that the one he wrote.
For my part, the Pixies have never sounded better or more appropriate than in that final scene. Also, I believe that in terms of the film's intended message (rejection of the values of T. Durden), having something positive happen to the narrator as a result of the rejection is almost necessary.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
To be honest I think Totall Recall is about the truest PKD film adaption there is. Yes, including Blade Runner.
The spirit of "We can remember it for you wholesale" was basically "guy has his memories messed with to think he went to Mars - or maybe it was that he did go to Mars and memories were messed with to think he didnt - etc". The film just made it longer and stacked more 'rug-pulled-from-your-under-your-feet' twists on top of each other.
Also, although it's schlocky, so was PKD. Seriously, if you think PKD was a literary master with elegant dialogue and profound characterisation... er... read more widely? And to be clear, I'm a massive PKD fan. The value of PKD is in the brainfucking ideas, but the actual "texture" of them is fairly pulp. Like Total Recall.
Blade Runner OTOH was verging on Hollywoodisation at it's worst. The spirit of "...Electric Sheep" was not "catch the replicant", it was far more broadly philosophical: hence all the stuff about android pets, social class, Mercerism, etc, which basically vanished from the film. Instead we got a simplified Cop Chases Bad Guy affair, with the MTV-esque depth you'd expect from an ex-advertisement director.
So, yeah, for my money Total Recall is a way more PKDish film than Blade Runner, which I consider perhaps the most overrated sci-fi film going...
Really? I thought it was far more primitive (and thus eye-irritating) in Waking Life. On top of that, Waking life played out like an extremely pretentious introduction to philosophy 101. I fast-forwarded through large portions of it.
The style worked perfectly when you consider the people in Scanner were all psychedelic drug users. They got drug use down 100%, even going so far as to hire only drug-using A-list actors. Maybe you have to have done them to appreciate...
Jeremy
I don't think this is fair at all. The spirit of Blade Runner is not "catch the replicant" at all. The spirit is "what makes us human?" The genius of Blade Runner (and this seems to fly over the heads of the average) is that it manages to imply a great deal, leaving questions for the viewer to answer, rather than beating one about the head and neck with them, in the way -- for example -- that the Matrix sequels did.
Certainly the novel explored the themes more deeply, but movies aren't novels. You have to pick something and go with that. The movie focuses on Deckard and the replicants, as the replicants seek the realization of the dream to live, Deckard seeks them out and destroys them. Yet of the cast, only Rutger Hauer's replicant Batty has anything to say about "humanity." It is in my opinion one of the more meaningful, and moving, monologues in any movie.
Yeah...uh...anyway, I love Ubik and I really hope they make a good engaging movie out of it and not some hackjob made just to market toys.
If you actually read Ubik, you'll find that it's an exceedingly minor Philip K. Dick novel -- to my eye, it looks as though it was written really rapidly, with an ending tacked on at random when he had enough pages. Call Dick a great writer if you like, but every single work of a great writer is not deserving of the label "masterpiece". Not that this has anything to do with what kind of film they're going to make (if any -- most film deals flop without producing anything, you guys know that, right?) because as with all the other Dick novels that have been "filmed" the screen-writers will do whatever they want to movie-up the material. The metaphysical joke that Dick had in mind (the answer to everything is everywhere) isn't going to survive the process. Essentially, they paid for the rights to a Philip K. Dick novel, just so they could say that they did.
While we're on the subject, can I point out that Philip K. Dick is not the only science fiction writer in the world? Like I said, call him a great writer if you like, but if so there are other great writers whose material could be raided help get the screenwriters off of the dime. You could film Brunner's "Stand on Zanibar", or Sturgeon's "More than Human", or Aldis' "Barefoot in the Head", or Delany's "Babel-17", or Fritz Leiber's "The Big Time", or Sterling's "Holy Fire"...