# Philip K. Dick Fans, Take Note! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272 "2003-11-25T22:35:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/1 "2003-11-25T22:35:06Z")
[Wired magazine’s got a big piece on Dick and how Hollywood’s gobbling up his ideas.](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip.html) Dick’s _A Scanner Darkly_ has been optioned, and I hope that it gets filmed, though I’m **not** happy that it could be a George Clooney vehicle. (He’s as wrong for the role of the lead as he was for Batman.) ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/2 "2003-11-25T22:53:57Z")
Who _would_ be right for that role? Gary Sinise? ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/3 "2003-11-25T23:02:45Z")
I knew it!! I said it before! Don’t know where, don’t know when, but I said it! > [@](#): > > His influence is pervasive in The Matrix and its sequels, […] Vanilla Sky, with its dizzying shifts between fantasy and fact, likewise ventures into a Dickian warp zone, as does Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor, and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ. Memento reprises Dick’s memory obsession by focusing on a man whose attempts to avenge his wife’s murder are complicated by his inability to remember anything. In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey discovers the life he’s living is an illusion, an idea Dick developed in his 1959 novel Time Out of Joint. My friends didn’t believe me, but time is giving the _Master of Rebel Imagination_ his right place! I’m a huge PKD fan. And I will be very happy when someone in Hollywood discovers _Ubik_, IMHO, the most cinematographic novel of this wonderful madman. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/4 "2003-11-26T00:06:29Z")
I like Dick. If you’ve never seen Dick, now is a good time to get your hands on some Dick. Often times, though, Dick is misused. This makes uninformed people think that Dick is bad or somehow shameful. Let me be the one to say: DICK IS GOOD! Here’s hoping Dick will rise up to his rightful place, and all will see the true marvel that is Dick. All hail Dick! ;j * * * All uses of Dick in this post refer to Phillip K Dick, of course. ---
**Author:** ![A\_EVIL\_MONKEY\_LIVES\_IN\_MY\_HEAD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@A\_EVIL\_MONKEY\_LIVES\_IN\_MY\_HEAD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_EVIL_MONKEY_LIVES_IN_MY_HEAD)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/5 "2003-11-26T00:32:39Z")
Did he Every Write About Android Monkeys? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/6 "2003-11-26T00:36:52Z")
Somebody is monkeying around with the Dope! :eek: Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle… ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/7 "2003-11-26T00:38:26Z")
Do Not Feed the Monkey. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/8 "2003-11-26T00:43:44Z")
Ah, so someone else has noticed that we have a monkey on our back. Let’s get back to the subject at hand: Dick. ---
**Author:** ![\_possum\_stalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b77776/32.png) [@\_possum\_stalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_possum_stalker)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/9 "2003-11-26T01:19:45Z")
There are some Dick books that play so freely with time and shifts in reality that the movie could be better than the book. I am thinking of _Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said_ specifically, which would be a nice Vanilla Sky-type freakout-thriller. (Is that smell the monkey?) ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/10 "2003-11-26T02:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*All uses of Dick in this post refer to Phillip K Dick, of course. \*\* I hoped so since the first line. Come on, behave! This thread is good! Do you want them to close it? With the subject again, **NoClueBoy** make an interesting point (despite of the joke): PKD is often misused. The most of times they (movie makers) can’t catch the very esence of the stories, which Dick used more for transmitting exotic ideas rather than telling stories. Someone who sees _Screamers_ or _The Impostor_, may freely think that PKD was such an asshole. But it will be very difficult to translate works like _Valis_ or _The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch_ without losing something in the road. Actually, his first paperbacks were more cinematographically written, if you pardon me the expression. _The Cosmic Puppets_, _Eye in the Sky_, _A Maze of Death_ and again _Ubik_, are more visually worked, however they don’t lack of Dick’s classic metaphysical deepness. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/11 "2003-11-26T03:06:17Z")
Grousser writes: \> I said it before! Don’t know where, don’t know when, but I said \> it! Lots of us have said it. My film reviews are no longer online, so I’ll have to quote them. Here’s what I wrote in my review of _The Matrix_, which was written shortly after it came out: \> I suspect that the science fiction writer with the most influence \> on recent movies is Philip K. Dick, although he’s been dead for \> seventeen years now. I’m talking about not just the films made \> directly from his novels and stories, like _Blade Runner_, _Total \> Recall_, or _Screamers_, but also those that show some \> evidence of conscious or unconscious resemblance, like _The \> Terminator_, _They Live_, _Dark City_, or _The Truman Show_. \> Dick, who wrote dozens of novels and hundreds of short \> stories between the early 50’s and the early 80’s, had already \> thought of most of the paranoid ideas offered by today’s \> schizophrenics, amateur conspiracy theorists, and _X Files_ \> screenwriters. Whenever a film wonders what’s real, who’s \> manipulating us, and who’s really human, it’s asking questions \> that were treated in Dick’s works forty years ago. Here’s what I said in my review of _eXistenZ_, written shortly after that film came out: \> A friend told me, after hearing my review of _The Matrix_, that if \> I saw similarities in that film to the writings of Philip K. Dick, I \> should see _eXistenZ_, which is even more Phildickian. And he \> was right. Indeed, having seen _eXistenZ_ myself, I have to \> wonder why it’s been given such haphazard distribution, while \> _The Matrix_, which plays around with the same ideas in a \> boring and inept fashion, has been touted as one of the major \> films of the year. _eXistenZ_ even has the decency to \> acknowledge its debt to Dick by a throwaway shot of the fast \> food that the main characters are eating. It’s from “Perky \> Pat’s”, which is the name of a kind of virtual reality system in \> one of Philip K. Dick’s stories. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/12 "2003-11-26T03:40:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > **Dick’s _A Scanner Darkly_ has been optioned…** _Yikes._ How are they gonna film _that?_ ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/13 "2003-11-26T03:46:52Z")
I realise that stories have to be _adapted_ from his novels to make it the silver screen, but even an adaptation can remain true to the _intent_ of the author. This hasn’t happened in many of the adaptations of Dick to movies. Some might argue it hasn’t happened at all. How hard is it to keep an idea alive enough for a good movie? I hope they get this one right. Dick is one of my favourite authors. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/14 "2003-11-26T04:35:19Z")
I think that the idea of doing _A Scanner Darkly_ has been around for a while. How will Hollywood change the pervasive drug element in the book? How will they ‘action’ it up? Even though Dick has interesting ideas in his works, there still has to be some box office appeal. I agree with **'possum stalker** about _Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said_ as having good potential. I also think that _Valis_ could work now. It could even be set now, just replace Nixon, I mean Farris F. Freemont with Dubya and the story still works. ---
**Author:** ![Coil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/15 "2003-11-26T12:31:58Z")
I’m glad to hear that A Scanner Darkly may hit the silver screen. It will be interesting to see how they’ll handle it. I also didn’t know that Paycheck had been turned into a movie. I liked the story a lot and it should translate fairly well into a movie. I’ve been reading a lot of Dick lately (as well as some Heinlein) and I really recommend those who haven’t tried it to give Dick a chance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/16 "2003-11-26T16:42:35Z")
I had heard somewhere that Soderberg and Clooney were going to be the exectutive producers for _Through a Scanner Darkly_, and they were talking to Richard Linklater about directing it. That has possibilities. And while I like me some Dick myself, I really think _Flow My Tears…_ sucks. It starts out promising, but then the end reads more like the notes for a novel than an actual fleshed out piece. That’s just me, though. And I have mixed feelings about _Paycheck_. In the Big Assed Positive column we have Uma Thurman. In the Big Assed Negative column we have John Woo. Ole Dick himself sometimes had problems with continuity and coherence (which is part of his appeal on the written page, admittedly), but you take that and put Mr. _Mission Impossible II_ in the mix and that’s a recpie for a movie that doesn’t make any damned sense at all. And not in a good way. Still, I will reserve judgement until I see the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/17 "2003-11-26T18:06:44Z")
I would really like to see _Ubik_ made into a film. I think that it would be easier to adapt than _A Scanner Darkly_, and I just liked the story better. ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/18 "2003-11-26T22:49:34Z")
In fact, only _one_ Dick novel has been adapted to cinema: _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_, turned into _Blade Runner_, as we all know. Well, two, if we count [Confessions d’un Barjo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104003/). All others are short stories. I don’t know why they have ignored his other, stranger and deeper works, as the novels I mentioned before, and what about stories like _Pipers in the Woods_, and his scariest story, IMO: _Adjustment Team_. Well handled and enhanced, this would be a creepy movie. ---
**Author:** ![cletus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@cletus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cletus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/19 "2003-11-27T00:50:03Z")
I can’t help but wonder what Dick would have thought of his sudden popularity with the masses. Oh, and **vibrotronica** , I love that describition of John Woo. _Mr. Mission Impossible II_ indeed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272/20 "2003-11-27T01:05:32Z")
Wasn’t _Total Recall_ his? It certainly fits his style. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philip-k-dick-fans-take-note/215272.md?page=2)