# Movie Adaptations of Philip K. Dick stories **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337 "2003-06-07T20:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/21 "2003-06-09T06:11:22Z")
WRT to Dick’s amphetamine use, I think it’s a dead cert that his anecdote about the doctor telling him he “processed” it at an ungodly rate is pure imagination. In his correspondence, (as well as in _Radio Free Albemuth_,) he told people that he began having visual disturbances after taking _vitamin C_ in unusually high doses, “saturating” his system with it. Uh-huh. Up for four days straight, plugging away at the ol’ Remington. Vitamin C. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/22 "2003-06-09T14:44:52Z")
NoCoolUserName writes: \> Why is it that the only good SF films are from PKD stories? Because nearly all the other SF films aren’t made from any literary source at all. They’re just endless rehashing of the same small set of ideas that have been used in dozens of SF movies and TV shows. PKD has enough of a reputation in Hollywood now that it’s possible to get someone to greenlight a movie just based on the fact that it’s made from a Dick story. Even the movies that aren’t directly based on his works steal general attitudes from Dick. for instance, in so far as there are any coherent ideas in _The Matrix_ and its sequel, it’s warmed-over Dick. This is too bad in one way. I wish that Hollywood would look through the works of a lot of other SF authors to make some good movies. But that would require actual thought on the part of producers, something that they don’t like to do. They would rather greenlight films based on names. Actually having to read a script and evaluate the quality of the story is hard work. It’s so much easier to make deals using recognizable names. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/23 "2003-06-09T18:10:44Z")
I know that Outer Limits tends (tended?) to produce versions of Sci-Fi short stories. Have they done any PKD ones? ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/24 "2003-06-09T18:19:34Z")
Personally, I wish Hollywood would quit Dicking around and just come up with some original story ideas for a change… **Sorry, I just couldn’t resist…** 😉 Barry ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/25 "2003-06-10T02:31:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*This is too bad in one way. I wish that Hollywood would look through the works of a lot of other SF authors to make some good movies. But that would require actual thought on the part of producers, something that they don’t like to do. They would rather greenlight films based on names. Actually having to read a script and evaluate the quality of the story is hard work. It’s so much easier to make deals using recognizable names. \*\* You mean like the version of Asimov’s _I, Robot_ starring Will Smith? I think that we’d be better off if they _didn’t_ make that one! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/26 "2003-06-10T02:43:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SmackFu \* > \*\*I know that Outer Limits tends (tended?) to produce versions of Sci-Fi short stories. Have they done any PKD ones? \*\* Does _The Demon With the Glass Hand_ count? I think that’s Dick. (And we all know that TDWtGH was transmogrified into _Terminator_, but there’s honestly not much actual resemblence.) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/27 "2003-06-10T02:49:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*Does _The Demon With the Glass Hand_ count? I think that’s Dick. > > (And we all know that TDWtGH was transmogrified into _Terminator_, but there’s honestly not much actual resemblence.) \*\* Nope. It’s Harlan Ellison. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/28 "2003-06-10T03:28:48Z")
Tuckerfan writes: \> You mean like the version of Asimov’s I, Robot starring Will \> Smith? I think that we’d be better off if they didn’t make that \> one! So you’re psychic? The movie doesn’t come for a year yet. You’re already convinced it’s not going to be any good? Besides, doing an Asimov book is only slightly better than doing a Dick book in terms of showing any originality. The film probably got greenlighted because it was the only SF author some particular producer had ever heard of. It’s probably getting made not because someone has read the script and said, “Hey, this is a good story,” but because someone has read the title page to the script and said, “Hey, I’ve actually heard of this author.” ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/29 "2003-06-10T03:43:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*Tuckerfan writes: > > \> You mean like the version of Asimov’s I, Robot starring Will > \> Smith? I think that we’d be better off if they didn’t make that > \> one! > > So you’re psychic? The movie doesn’t come for a year yet. You’re already convinced it’s not going to be any good? > > Besides, doing an Asimov book is only slightly better than doing a Dick book in terms of showing any originality. The film probably got greenlighted because it was the only SF author some particular producer had ever heard of. It’s probably getting made not because someone has read the script and said, “Hey, this is a good story,” but because someone has read the title page to the script and said, “Hey, I’ve actually heard of this author.” \*\* Well, I’m not [alone](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148289) in thinking that it’s crap. And seeing as how it’s not going use Harlan Ellison’s script, I think that “crap” is an understatement. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/30 "2003-06-10T06:28:44Z")
Alright, a Phillip Dick thread! He is definitely one of my favorite authors. My favorite novel from him is _A Scanner Darkly_ but it seems I’m the only one here. Well, **finette6** and I at least. 🙂 There was also a reference to _The Fountainhead_ by Ayn Rand in that book I thought was hilarious. I’ve seen a few of the movies based on his books. While they did deviate from the original, I can’t really blame them. Like someone said earlier, it’s just Dick’s writing style. I mean, can you imagine someone trying to make a movie based on **Ubik**? Impossible! Plus, it takes a special type of twisted mind to enjoy his stories and Hollywood would rather appeal to as many people as possible with a movie. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*Supposedly Dick went to a doctor and after having some tests ran found out that his body processed speed so rapidly that it had no effect on him. Dick also recounted a story about being desperate for money and pawning his typewriter. No one but him and the pawnshop folks knew what he’d done, thus he was amazed a short time later when a parcel arrived on his doorstep containing a very nice typewriter, sent to him by Robert A. Heinlein, a man who’s writings Dick publicly admitted long before this that he didn’t care for. \*\* I also wanted to add that you can’t believe a word Dick says. He likes to tell people he lived on dog food for a year or takes vitamin c to trip. Lies! All Lies! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/31 "2003-06-10T06:38:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cletus \* > \*\*I also wanted to add that you can’t believe a word Dick says. He likes to tell people he lived on dog food for a year or takes vitamin c to trip. Lies! All Lies! 😉 \*\* Well, the account of him getting the typewriter I took from Spider Robinson’s salute to R.A.H. ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/32 "2003-06-10T07:36:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ravi \* > **I was reading a short story by him about a computer keeping a mans mind active during a long space flight and he threw in a paragraph about THE FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS and it just destroyed the story to me. I could see him smoking up a storm with weed wetting his pants with laughter as he put that paragraph in.** I presume the story that you mention is **I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon**. This is an example of the issues that Dick was always worried about. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by cletus_ > **I mean, can you imagine someone trying to make a movie based on Ubik? Impossible! Plus, it takes a special type of twisted mind to enjoy his stories and Hollywood would rather appeal to as many people as possible with a movie.** I don’t think so. Why has to be difficult enjoy a PKD story? I’ve always thought that **Ubik** is one of the greatest Dick novels, the first I read and it seemed to me it would be a great movie. He also wrote the screenplay, indeed. I think the problem is really this: not any director is able to capture the essence of a Dick story. That’s why **Blade Runner** and **Minority Report** are great movies, because Scott and Spielberg are intelligent filmmakers, despite how many changes they make to the original writings. If I could make Ubik for Hollywood, I probably would do some changes, specially in the denouement, just to reach the “Hollywood appealing standards”. But I would be trying to keep the very core of the basic idea. I’m pretty sure that Dick would approve that. He was always longing to write for the mainstream media, unsuccesfully. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/33 "2003-06-10T08:00:18Z")
**cletus** , I think _A Scanner Darkly_ is my favourite Dick novel, too. A film treatment has been perpetually in the works, (in three different incarnations) for as long as I can remember. Last I heard, Emma-Kate Croghan was working on it. I’ve also heard Steven Soderbergh’s name attached to it, which would be another thing altogether. At this point I’d be happy enough if just _one_ scene was produced-- the “bug collection” scene. With CGI bugs, (or maybe even some sort of practical crawlies) the more improbable, the better. I have a can of Ubik on my desk. Actually, it’s an empty can of air-freshener to which I’ve fixed a label I made in Photoshop, (or was it Photostyler back then?) and printed up on a colour laser printer. Yeah, I’m a nerd. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/34 "2003-06-10T08:12:02Z")
Say, something I posted in [alt.books.phil-k-dick](http://groups.google.ca/groups?q=%22larry+mudd%22+group:alt.books.phil-k-dick&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=alt.books.phil-k-dick&safe=off&start=10&sa=N) a few years ago fits right in here: > [@](#): > > I’d like to see Cronenberg do dick as well-- It’s right up his alley. Or maybe Tarkovski, Lynch or Jadorowski. The problem is, the movie-going & producing crowd being the illiterate boobs that they are, a faithful interpretation of any of PKD’s mature work would almost certainly be criticized as derivative of Dark City, Existenz, The Matrix, The Truman Show, et all. There’s been a number of popular treatments of existential and ontological crisis lately. Keep 'em coming, I say, but Hollywood folks are averse to things becoming stale in new, exciting ways. They prefer their product to be -really- -really- stale. Slightly stale is bad for box-office. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/35 "2003-06-10T11:52:58Z")
Larry Mudd writes: \> The problem is, the movie-going & producing crowd being the \> illiterate boobs that they are, a faithful interpretation of any of \> PKD’s mature work would almost certainly be criticized as \> derivative of Dark City, Existenz, The Matrix, The Truman Show, \> et all. It’s interesting that I made the same point in my reviews of _The Matrix_: [http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/rv\_matr2.htm](http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/rv_matr2.htm) and of _eXistenZ_: [http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/rv\_exist.htm](http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/rv_exist.htm) A number of recent films have Phildickian themes. Mostly they handle those themes superficially. (I should note that _eXistenZ_ at least has the decency to acknowledge its debt to Dick by throwing in a visual reference to “Perky Pat.”) In particular, Dick didn’t have standard two-fisted Hollywood heroes who saved the world and won the cute babe. Dick’s protagonists were little people who did their best and returned to their ordinary lives at the end of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/36 "2003-06-14T21:53:51Z")
Just watching _Total Recall_ now - astonishing, really, how the subtext of the movie is genuinely Dickian, with the ambiguity about whether the whole thing is real or not. And yet it’s an Arnold Schwarzenegger action feature, too. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Tambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr\_Tambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Tambo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/37 "2003-06-14T23:02:17Z")
I think people are underestimating how successful ‘unconventional’ films can be. There seems to be a tendency to say ‘Oh well, evil greedy Hollywood filmmakers will only feed audiences rehashed crap and stupid sheep audiences only want rehashed crap anyway’. Consider. The film _Memento_, a complex arthouse noir with an atypical structure and arguably, by the end, no sympathetic characters at all, did remarkably well by sheer word of mouth at the box-office. _Donnie Darko_, a dark film shot on a shoestring budget by a first time director dealing with schizophrenia is well-known and (I believe) successful. Filmmakers like David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and Terry Gilliam have directed many dark, disturbing and confusing pieces to popular success. I’m not saying that the ‘rehashed crap’ school of thought is entirely wrong, just that there is room for thought-provoking and intelligence stuff like Philip K. Dick’s within the film-market. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Tambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr\_Tambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Tambo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/38 "2003-06-14T23:04:40Z")
Just a small note of clarification, on reading through my post. The _film_ ‘Donnie Darko’ deals with schrizophrenia. As far as I know, the director himself does not suffer from any such problems. Poorly worded sentence there. ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/39 "2003-06-18T21:12:02Z")
Unfortunately, from all issues that PKD used to deal with, only two have been well attended from Hollywood filmmakers: 1. _What is human_ ( **Impostor** , **Screamers** , **Blade Runner** ) and 2. _Time paradoxes_ ( **Minority Report** and the upcoming **Paycheck** ) The third, 1. _What is reality_ was lightly handed by **Total Recall** , but lacks of its deepness, as done by **Ubik** , **Eye in the Sky** or **A Maze of Death** , among many others. Those ones are exciting _tour de force_s in consensual hallucinations and deal with nature of what we perceive by our senses and if it is real or not. Quite interesting stuff, if you use the _suspension of disbelief_ wisely. Dick’s best cards were the ideas behind his odd stories. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337/40 "2003-06-18T23:40:11Z")
Grousser, you left out I think the best of Dick’s themes: 1. _Man am I fucked up_ - **Valis** , **Radio Free Albermuth** , and a few others, which I can’t remember right now. There’s been an opera based on Valis, which I think is his best book, although in reality only the first half is any good. But it’s very good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-adaptations-of-philip-k-dick-stories/180337.md?page=3)