Michel Gondry Adapting Ubik

[Watchman]

Michel Gondry will bring Philip K. Dick's heady, reality altering novel to theaters.

After Eternal Sunshine, Gondry, in my opinion, is perfect for tackling Dick's work. Can't wait to hear more about it.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I read Ubik about 10-12 years ago. Gondry is perfect for a PKD adaptation, man, this is good news, just when i thought I couldn't feel happier tonight, really good news. It's about time more intelligent, philosophical, visionary directors like him were tackling PKD, rather than bozos taking the short stories and trying to make half assed action flicks out of them.

 

[redhawk23]

you beat me to it.

When I saw this headline earlier I was so excited. While watching Eternal Sunshine for the first time a few years ago, all I could think of was how awesome it'd be if Gondry made a film of Ubik. There were so many subtle things shifting and fading away in the background of that movie.

I wonder if they will look to Dick's own script for a Ubik film at all.


There was one thing from the end of that script that I always absolutely thought would be amazing, where along with everything getting old and or shifting into the past, towards the end of the film the film quality would degrade as if older and older tech was being used to make the movie as well as the story shifting back, eventually the film its self running out and the projector just shooting white light. I know that will most likely neverbe fully implemented but I always thought that was an awesome idea.

 

[darkseid26]

Awesome.

 

[Max J Power]

I've never read Ubik, but Gondry adapting Dick sounds like a huge win.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I wonder if they will look to Dick's own script for a Ubik film at all.


There was one thing from the end of that script that I always absolutely thought would be amazing, where along with everything getting old and or shifting into the past, towards the end of the film the film quality would degrade as if older and older tech was being used to make the movie as well as the story shifting back, eventually the film its self running out and the projector just shooting white light. I know that will most likely neverbe fully implemented but I always thought that was an awesome idea.

Oh yeah, i remember reading about that now, probably in the Lawrence Sutin bio on him, 'Divine Invasions'.
If anyone were to implement that idea it would be Gondry.

 

[dude stannis]

If The Matrix and Inception can work as films, the Ubik will do just fine.

John Cusack for Joe Chipp!

 

[Carmine Falcone]

Haven't read Ubik yet, but I'm excited about another PKD adaptation

 

[dude stannis]

It's amazing. Behind VALIS as my favourite PKD book. It's a huge influence on Inception and The Matrix.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Oh, that is just too awesome. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I don't even remember what Ubik was about, i read my flatmate's copy when I shared a flat with him back in about 98/99, and em, i probably would not have been sober when i read it, but i do recall it was one of his better ones, i have read my share of his books from average to great, Valis is a great one too, that's one of the few I still have. Don't know whether to re-read it b4 the film.

remember there was supposed to be a biopic of PKD made with Paul Giamatti, called' The Owl in Daylight' iirc(named after his last uncompleted novel)? i wonder what happened to that.

 

[Motown Marvel]

 

[Tron Bonne]

remember there was supposed to be a biopic of PKD made with Paul Giamatti, called' The Owl in Daylight' iirc(named after his last uncompleted novel)? i wonder what happened to that.

It's still in development, but no real progress is being made. Not quite sure if it's in 'development hell' territory but it won't be something we see soon most likely

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

It's still in development, but no real progress is being made. Not quite sure if it's in 'development hell' territory but it won't be something we see soon most likely

Ach well, these things can happen like that, the Doors/jim morrison biopic was in development for most of the eighties before Oliver Stone finally got it done. With many names attached, john Travolta wanted to play him, lol, Scorsese was even considering it.
I hope Paul Giamatti stays on for the role, he would be perfect in the role.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Hope this gets made. I haven't read Ubik yet but I've always wanted to read Philip K. Dick's books so this could be the first one I'm gonna read.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Hope this gets made. I haven't read Ubik yet but I've always wanted to read Philip K. Dick's books so this could be the first one I'm gonna read.

He used to churn out a lot of books just to make his rent and food, so some are supposed to be just outright crap, but you will see them in the bookstores with nice sci-fi covers, giving no indication as to the crapness. I have seen one called 'The Zap-Gun' like this, which got a 1/10 rating in Lawrence Sutin's bibliography at the back of his PKD biography.

Others i would reccomend apart from Ubik are

- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Elderitch
- A Scanner Darkly
- VALIS(although, do not read this one first, this is a bit different, like going into the deep end of PKD before getting used to what he is about from his more normal fiction, VALIS is a little sci-fi, a little auto-bio of a weird experience he had)
- Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep?

If you pick up any of his short story collections you are bound to enjoy them, he was always good at those. Whereas with the novels he would rush through them on an amphetamine binge sometimes, he once wrote 8 novels in one year in the late 60s.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I'll definitely keep those books in mind. His other books I'm interested in is The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Do you recommend any of this?

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I'll definitely keep those books in mind. His other books I'm interested in is The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Do you recommend any of this?

I did own TMITHC, but I sold it before I got round to reading it(I used to sell a lot of books when i was skint).
It might be a bit heavy going for you to start off with as well, it is about the Nazi's winning WWII, yeah, but it is not as striaghtfoward as something like 'Fatherland', lol. He used the 'I ching' when writing it, and that features in the book, so it might not be the best one to start off with.
It did win the hugo Award for best novel.

FMTTPS? I know someone who read it recently and enjoyed it, I don't recall what rating it got in that biography, but I watched a PKD speech in a sci- fi convention on youtube recently , and he cited the book during the talk, so I guess he rated it himself, so it could be a good one to start off with.

 

[Brick]

you beat me to it.

When I saw this headline earlier I was so excited. While watching Eternal Sunshine for the first time a few years ago, all I could think of was how awesome it'd be if Gondry made a film of Ubik. There were so many subtle things shifting and fading away in the background of that movie.

I wonder if they will look to Dick's own script for a Ubik film at all.


There was one thing from the end of that script that I always absolutely thought would be amazing, where along with everything getting old and or shifting into the past, towards the end of the film the film quality would degrade as if older and older tech was being used to make the movie as well as the story shifting back, eventually the film its self running out and the projector just shooting white light. I know that will most likely neverbe fully implemented but I always thought that was an awesome idea.

I love the sound of that. Have it start off in HD and then throughout the movie have it regress to older film formats.

 

[Brick]

I'll definitely keep those books in mind. His other books I'm interested in is The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Do you recommend any of this?

Flow my tears would be a good introduction to PKD.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I think 'The Penultimate Truth' or 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' would be pretty good starting points if you want to get into reading Philip K Dick. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is fantastic as well, but it's really hardcore PKD-stuff, for lack of a better term.

Damn, now I feel like reading more of his books. My favorite writer, hands down.

 

[Brick]

It's still in development, but no real progress is being made. Not quite sure if it's in 'development hell' territory but it won't be something we see soon most likely

This has also been/being made.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837802/

It's some kind of biopic/original story hybrid. IMDB is listing it as 2008, but i've heard nothing about it. It sounds really bad, which probably has a lot to do with it not seeing the light of day.

just found the trailer for it.

[YT]sKpNx8pksCo[/YT]



Also what happend to Radio Free Albemuth? That film was made like five years ago now.

 

[Dark Victory]

Just ordered the book. I need to check out more PKD; I've only read Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly.

 

[Motown Marvel]

three stigmata of palmer eldritch is my favorite PDK book that i've read thus far, and one my all time favorite books.

 

[Paroxysm]

I'm really looking forward to this.