Philip K. Dick's UBIK - directed by Michel Gondry

http://www.wordandfilm.com/2011/02/michel-gondry-takes-on-philip-k-dick-masterpiece-ubik

*excited*

awesome

though that article is a bit strange calling it "Widely considered Dick’s definitive masterpiece" since i've never seen anyone suggest it's his best book before now

Well, he wrote it before now.

I've read most of his novels and it's definitely one of my favourites. Not the easiest to turn into a movie that won't remind people of Inception/Matrix/13th Floor/Dark City/Truman Show/etc and other dream/real/illusion mixups, but then they stole it all from PKD in the first place, so whatever.

(or is ^ a spoiler? Sorry)

I'd say it's his best. It's in that top tier that always gets talked about - Flow My Tears, Valis, Ubik, Three Stigmata, High Castle and Do Androids Dream.

Tentatively excited by the idea of the film. Gondry could get it right but could also screw it up like nobody's business. Doesn't really need an adaptation though.

i think i might need to give Flow My Tears another try because that's easily my least favorite Dick i've read and everyone else seems to love it

I never thought of it as one of the best either, solidly second-tier Dick

Ubik or Flow My Tears?

this was def my favorite PKD when I was really into PKD - I reread it recently and it was okay.

Flow My Tears, Ubik is one of his 5 best imo

xpost

I just found out about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth_(film)

Simon said that the film may be titled VALIS upon release. He explained, "The script is based at this point almost entirely on Radio Free Albemuth. The financiers like the title VALIS better -- so that's the tentative title. Since Radio Free Albemuth is essentially the first draft of VALIS, we ended up with rights to both from the estate of Philip K. Dick." He further commented that "if Radio Free Albemuth is successful, VALIS the book would form the basis for the sequel to VALIS the movie. In other words, the story of VALIS would form the basis for VALIS 2."

They also have the rights to Flow My Tears.

whatever happened to that, I wonder?

I'd say it's his best. It's in that top tier that always gets talked about - Flow My Tears, Valis, Ubik, Three Stigmata, High Castle and Do Androids Dream.

list is missing Scanner Darkly...I'd say that Flow My Tears might be the bottom end of the best list, but this & Ubik are the only two on this list I haven't read; Flow My Tears won an award right?

who wrote the screenplay for the Ubik movie? too much to hope that it was Kaufman?

nope nevermind just read the linked article

I like Ubik a lot. I started having lucid dream while reading it.
Skeptical that this movie will be good, though.

*excited*

^^^^

holy shit!!!!!!!

seems like a reasonable place to put my Adjustment Bureau warning:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/the-adjustment-bureau/5300

warning you about this in advance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkTrG-gpIzE

gonna make a movie where a bitter film critic is forced to rewatch the same movie get remade over and over again

ha just from watching the trailer I thought Adjustment Bureau looked like a bottom-drawer PKD ripoff, didn't know it was actually "based" on something of his

I read Ubik over 10 years and thought it was brilliant but too disturbing to re-read. I'd love to see a film version though.

Really excited about this, though Gondry hasn't exactly been on a hot streak lately. It seems like without a Kaufman script (yes, I'm one of those people who loved Human Nature) or the time/narrative constraints of a music video he gets lost in warm fuzzy Let Us Explore Ze Childlike Whimsy mode, but Ubik is a nasty piece of work and I think it might help rein in some of the twee-ness.

I'd definitely consider it top-tier PKD- for a long time I was infatuated enough to consider getting a tattoo of the spray can from the cover of the first edition, though that plan fell through when I found Jonathan Lethem beat me to it.

antagonist in UBIK is an evil teenager iirc

Yeah, evil psychic coma kid.

I really like Flow My Tears, don't understand the lack of love for it. But a UBIK film? Really?

has anyone here read Dick's screenplay for Ubik?

Dick's screenplay differs from the source material, featuring numerous scenes that are not in the novel.[1] According to the foreword of Ubik: The Screenplay (by Tim Powers, a friend of Dick's and fellow science fiction writer), Dick had an idea for the film which involved "the film itself appearing to undergo a series of reversions: to black-and-white, then to the awkward jerkiness of very early movies, then to a crookedly jammed frame which proceeds to blacken, bubble and melt away, leaving only the white glare of the projection bulb, which in turn deteriorates to leave the theater in darkness, and might almost leave the moviegoer wondering what sort of dilapidated, antique jalopy he'll find his car-keys fitting when he goes outside."[6]

sounds like it might be interesting, though I doubt it would make a good film

I mean I could see the time-regression part playing out really cool-like on the screen. not sure how the audience would react if the big reveal was that everything was being caused by angry coma kid. feel like the screenwriters are gonna fuck w the script

Trailer for Radio Free Albemuth is out: http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2011/03/01/Trailer-debut-Philip-K-Dicks-RADIO-FREE-ALBEMUTH

uh, not very promising

Nothing distinguishes The Adjustment Bureau's adolescent contrivance except for its risible cry of warning: "He's got a hat!"

http://www.stonerforums.com/lounge/attachments/general-discussion/7291d1231782861-happy-birthday-me-futurama_nibbler_birthday.jpg

Oh this is seriously interesting news for me, I love Gondry and I love UBIK. OMG.

though that article is a bit strange calling it "Widely considered Dick’s definitive masterpiece" since i've never seen anyone suggest it's his best book before now

i've always thought that Ubik is commonly and definitely deemed one of people's favourite works of Dick alognside "Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch".

whoa, just saw this thread! i just finished Ubik tonight, loved it, and thought i'd see what ilx had said. very excited to see a film version, i guess it's not cool to admit that michel gondry kicks ass but i think he'll do a fine job.

satoshi kon's paranoia agent contains a plot arc at the very end that is completely and utterly ubik - paranoia agent as a whole is probably the most philip k dickian thing I've ever watched, including all adaptations of philip k dick novels into films

They've shown it on (lol) Adult Swim; I've seen stray episodes here & there but never the series as a whole.

Did anybody see the PKD biopic with Bill Pullman? The imdb rating is not kind. I'm wondering if it's at least worth seeing; it has the late Charles Napier, so I'm guessing so.

What happened to the Giamatti one? That actually sounded really interesting.

^^^

so this never happened either

not yet

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/ubik/30379/exclusive-michel-gondry-still-working-on-ubik-adaptation

i finished it late at night and it really really disturbed me. also, fuck Jory

is anybody following man in the high castle? seen first couple eps, never finished the book (not a great fan of PKD writing, but enjoy the adaptations) but it seems pretty interesting now. my gf who is a fan of PKD has taken issue w some of the way the plot has worked out thus far, but overall positive impressions. dunno if there's a better thread for this or not

what does the ghost of PKD think of this

http://gothamist.com/2015/11/23/nazi_mta_subway_castle.php