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BLADE RUNNER’s Ridley Scott To Tackle Another Phillip K. Dick Novel??
I am – Hercules
Britain’s Broadcast reports that director Ridley Scott, who turned the Phillip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” into “Blade Runner,” is producing a prospective four-part BBC miniseries that would adapt Dick’s novel “The Man In The High Castle.”
Set in 1962, the novel imagines that the Axis powers won World War II and that Germany and Japan now share control of North America.
No word on director, but Howard Brenton (“Spooks” a.k.a. “MI-5”) is penning the teleplay.
Find all of Broadcast’s story on the matter here.
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Readers Talkback
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Let's see if the casting ruins this. I better not see Will Smith in it.
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any word on The Owl In Daylight adaptation / Dick biopic with Paul Giamatti?
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Count me in as well. Dick's novels deserve first class talent.
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I've never heard of it before but it sounds like a really cool story. Fascinating cover too.
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...although it might not recuperate the budget necessary to make it interesting. It seems like a cross between RED DAWN, A.I. and WATCHMEN. None of these made much money -- even if they were pretty good.
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one of the best alternative reality novels ever written
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..so very interested to see how this is done on screen - BBC miniseries sounds a good way to go. I'd imagine it'll be some kind of co-production seeing as the novel is entirely set in North America and there are no British characters - Unless Scott et al are planning a huge departure from the novel...
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I read this book 10 years ago and since then thought it would make an awesome movie. A BBC miniseries might be just as good. It has 4 main stories that eventually link together. Highly recommend picking it up!
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It's a pretty good book. Very trippy read. It's important to remember the book was written in 1962 - so it is set about 15 years after the end of World War II and is mostly set in Japanese-occupied San Francisco. So it's a retro-alternate history. Also, it's not like Red Dawn at all really because the conceit is that the US never recovered from the depression and never became an actual superpower - so the US never really had a strong military organization to over resistance initially or to keep offering resistance post-conquest.
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THIS is what we want from you.
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Awesome book! Just the visual shocks alone make this a must-see, even if it's on the BBC (Boring Broadcast Company).
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Do a faithful adaptation of "Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep" as an HBO mini-series. There's so much great stuff that got taken out of the movie, that would totally lend itself to an HBO show; Empathy Boxes/Mercerism vs. Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends, Rachel and Pris being the same Andy model, Luba Luft, the fake police station filled with Androids and the much better use of Decker possibly being an Android as a red herring in that episode and not a stupid sophmoric plot twist that ruins the movie but strokes Ridley's ego. Rachel as the femme fatale instead of the damsel in distress. All the basic themes of androids not having empathy were never explored in Blade Runner. It's been almost 30 years. Blade Runner will always be a classic. There's nothing wrong with somebody else taking a real crack at this material.
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Count me in!
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I concur. That would be fun to see. If it were an HBO miniseries, then it wouldn't be stepping on Blade Runner's legacy. I also wouldn't mind seeing his VALIS trilogy done as a miniseries too. That would be challenging, to say the least, but possibly very rewarding. Maybe HBO or AMC could do these justice.<P>As for PKD material for films, I'd really like someone to take another crack at Second Variety. Screamers was a decent lower budget adaptation of the short story, but I think a more faithful big budget version would be awesome to see.<P>In a certain sense, a new film adaptation of Second Variety would fill the void left by not getting a proper Terminator future war trilogy. I've always suspected that Cameron was heavily influenced by Second Variety when he created The Terminator's post apocalyptic future war backstory.
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I'd watch this in a heartbeat.
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It would make a great series that could explore the religious themes as well.
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I don'r remember much of anything interesting happening in it. I remember a guy getting a piece of oragami or something. Didn't really make an impression I guess.
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i need me a copy of that book. also i though japan and germany won ww2? DAMN PUBLIC EFDUQATSHUN
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. . . cranking out more goodness as the end nears? Scott, Scorsese, Eastwood . . .
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Hope this is good.... (but it probably won't be.)
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That makes sense. ABC stands for "America's Broadcast".
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and his stories have been continuously raped by their big screen adaptations.... forgive me if im not excited.
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I love a good What If and Blade Runner is one of my favorite flicks. Hopefully, us Americans can get it as well.
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So get excited.
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Oct. 7, 2010, 4 p.m. CST
About time someone made a good movie about Counterfactual Histor
by Nautilus_nrm1
It could have been worse, he could be doing a Harry Turtledove movie.
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Please please please please
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I mean the book is really internal, character-driven and small scale. I feel like when people hear the story takes place in an alternate post-war America ruled by the Nazis and Imperial Japan, they're expecting a straightforward adventure story. But PKD deliberately skirts the obvious epic story implied by the premise. One of the major plotlines in the book involves a memorabilia salesman learning that a lot of the goods in his shop are counterfeit. One of my favorite novels ever, but I've had more than a few people come back underwhelmed after I highly recommended it. Curious to see how this would be received if given a heavy TV budget.
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'EG4190 nailed it, I don't think people understand what this book is. It's more philosophical than anything, dealing with the typical Dick theme of distrusting reality. Ubik would make a much more interesting movie. I agree with the previous comment that a more faithful adaptation of "Do Androids..." would be awesome too. Great book, extremely overrated movie. I'm sure someone will do it someday.
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You make some good points. Whoever writes the screenplay will need to amp up the espionage, and maybe turn the book, the story-within-the-story device, into something that lends itself to more action, a movie-within-a-movie perhaps?
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Liked most of it, but the ending just left me confused. Same thing happened with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which I loved until the last part which had me scratching my head.
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so long as the concepts in the book stay the same. If you can still fit PKD's ideas in-between the car chases, then this series might be worthwhile.
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I saw Blade Runner years ago and loathed it because I felt the film makers had contempt for the book. I hated it so much I divorced it from my memory. All I remember is a shot of an owl flying through a shaft of light. Of course many people have come to consider it a classic. A masterpiece even. I think it was last year that it was being shown in theaters for its 25th anniversary. I thought, well, maybe I should go see it, give it a second chance. But then I listened to an interview with Mr. Scott on Fresh Air in which he said he found the novel difficult to follow and at a certain point simply stopped reading. I would say that directing a movie based on a novel that you can't be bothered to read all the way through is the definition of contempt. I doubt I'll ever watch Blade Runner again.
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excellent book, should be awesome
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they keep any of the monkeys that made the recent Triffids abomination well away from it. I'm tentatively excited.
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What if this Axis-controlled America was in a 21st century conflict with radical elements from a less-developed part of the world?
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This is one of my favorite works of speculative fiction and deserving of a first-class adaptation. Given that the plot is largely an excuse to hang a series of philosophical conceits, it's imperative the Scott and his collaborators work to draw out the the emotional lives of the characters. It's how the characters react to their respective situations that's important--more so than the situations themselves.
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Sounds interesting... If anyone can pull off a really good adaptation of Phillip K Dick's Novel? Ridley is the one..so many other of Dicks Novels turned movies have been dreadful.
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Why it's a rainbow nazi in assless chaps ! Oh my !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Huge Ridley fan and huge history fan also. I'm well aware a lot of PKd's stuff is problematic when trying to translate it to the screen but I think the core concept is a strong one, it all depends on how they approach it. <p><p>I can see why Ridley would go for a project like this, an alternative '62 America living under Axis rule, the possibilities for off-kilter period detail are amazing... And we all know how much Ridley loves detail in his movies. If he took the same fanatical approach that he used on Blade Runner, to this...we could be in for something special.
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I don't think the subject matter will translate well to the screen. And sorry, but 'Blade Runner' took a rusty hacksaw to all the best parts of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. It was nice to look at (very, which is why we still look at it), but empty and plodding. Scott is just not the guy for subtle.
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And now, the Steven Spielberg's movie version dream casting, heh: <p><p> Nobusuke Tagomi - Ken Watabane<p> Frank Frink - Ethan Hawke<p> Juliana Frink - Uma Thurman<p> Joe the truck driver - Milo Ventimiglia<p> Hawthorne Abendsen - Philip Seymour Hoffman<p> Robert Childan - John Krasinski<p> Mr. Baynes - Michael Fassbender<p> Written by Damon Lindelof (must read the end of the book to understand this choice, heh)<p> <p> And agreed 100% with thecomedian about the other novel, could be awesome. Cheers.
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I think it was called Father land and it delt with a post war US where Germany won. Wasn't Rutger hower in it?<P>Am I thinking of the right thing?
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The premise is that Germany sued for peace with the US and stopped agression with Britain and France. They then focused 100% attention on Russia, crushing Stalin and taking over most of the western area of Russia, as well as keeping a permanent hold on Eastern Europe. Japan didn't fare too well, as we concentrated all of our efforts on them. The movie takes place in roughly the 1980's after these events, with Rutger Hauer essentially discovering evidence of the holocaust some 40 years after the fact. <p> Here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland_%28novel%29
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this will most likely get made.
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What happened with that movie Radio Free Albemuth?
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My favorite of Dick's novels. Though like some are saying of this project, it seems like it would be difficult to adapt.
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They already filmed the first book, way back in 2007...but it's taking forever to be released
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..Great news and a fascinating concept! (reminds me of HBO'S Fatherland.)Now all that's missing from this thread is RPLocke's further bashing of Blade Runner. Ah, the good ol' days.
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It was a darn good show.
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of quality. Didn't he co-produce the fairly recent TV adaptation of The Andromeda Strain? I only watched a bit of that because it was frankly fucking terrible.<p>As to the grumbles about Bladerunner - it is an undoubtable classic wether you like it or not. The original novel is classic Dick in that it has sections of brilliance combined with utter tedious wierdness. There are certainly parts of the book that I'd like to have seen on film, but Ridders didn't write the various versions of the screenplay anyway. A Scanner Darkly has been the best Dick conversion by far, but it had a slightly more straightforward book on which to base itself.
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Please elaborate
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Actually, the movie and the novel's alternate history differ quite a bit. This is an excerpt from the Wiki page: <p><p>"Although the basic plot remains the same, the 1994 film differs in many ways from the book. The film changes the historical time line divergence in the novel to the Germans successfully defeating the Allies during the D-Day invasion in June 1944. <p><p>Following the loss at D-Day, Churchill and Elizabeth flee to Canada, while Eisenhower resigned in disgrace. With defeating Nazism in Europe now seemingly hopeless, America turns its back on the war in Europe and focuses on Japan, thus allowing Germany to regroup and defeat the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. It also states that in 1964, the 85-year-old Joseph Stalin is still alive and leading a Soviet Union rump state similar to the version in the novel in an endless guerrilla war against Germany. Unlike the novel, no European Union is formed as Western and Southern Europe are annexed into the Reich, now known as "Germania". Unlike the novel the German Border with the Soviet Union is shown to be the same as it was in 1941 before Operation Barbarossa (apart from the Baltic States which are part of the Reich). This coincides with the film's story of the war ending in mid-1944, by which time German forces had been mostly pushed out of Soviet territory."
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How come people here are forgeting Ridley (& his brother Tony) were responsible for the 2 BBC/HBO Churchill dramas, "The Gathering Storm" & "Into the Storm"? Those were both excellent productions that won a number of Emmys between them.<p><p>Another HBO/BBC production with Ridley at the helm could be terrific as they already have a proven track record together.
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Technically it's based on the first draft of Valis, called Radio Free Albemuth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth_(film)
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It sounds retard like hell.
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I have heard of RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH but didn't know that was what it was about. Thanks for the info.
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I guess we're even.
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For Radio Free Albemuth and it sounds similar to the film Valis within the novel Valis.
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Did you type the opening credits to Total Recall?
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Dick at first wrote Radio Free, but the publishers wanted him to do extensive rewrites of the material. At the end, the product was totally different from the original, and that's what came to be Valis. Radio Free Albemuth was published after he died in it's original form.
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And it was not very interesting, other than the premise itself. Maybe they can loosely base it on Dick's novel like Blade Runner and Recall. I just hope it's not another turd-burger like their TV remake of Andromeda Strain.
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Now that would be an interesting film.
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But to this day, I've no clue what it was all about, pure acid trip.
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Oct. 8, 2010, 4:41 p.m. CST
"He always ends up making some crap movie with Russell Crowe."
by Kaitain
(Laughs.)
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"Although the basic plot remains the same, the 1994 film differs in many ways from the book. The film changes the historical time line divergence in the novel to the Germans successfully defeating the Allies during the D-Day invasion in June 1944." <p> Which makes no fucking sense at all. D-Day's success merely hastened the end of the war and (ultimately) helped secure western Europe from being part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Nazi Germany was already completely fucked by then. <p> So many people believe - wrongly - that D-Day was the turning point of the war that put Germany on the backfoot. It was just part of the endgame. After Stalingrad and Kursk, the Germans had no fucking chance. They had been in full retreat for a year by the summer of '44, their factories were shattered, their best troops gone, their munitions, fuel and vehicles no match for what the Soviets had available. <p> It was the Red Army that did the lion's share of defeating the Heer. D-Day failing would not have led to a German victory. Absolutely no way.
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...but unlike some, I didn't much care for "Pillars of the Earth," but I think it was the source material that was as much to blame - production values were good, but the character were very one-dimensional. I would expect this adaptation might go pretty far afield from the novel, much like "Blade Runner" did. The way the novel is told - a lot of internal stuff and really kind of "small" dramatic moments - is not conducive to what I'm sure they are planning will be a big budget extravaganza. As for other Dick novels/stories, I wonder if anyone has ever thought of tackling "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich?" Quite possibly the weirdest book I have ever read, and that includes Dick's other hype-weird novel, "UBIK," which I could easily see as a Charlie Kauffman/Spike Jonez or Michel Gondrey movie.
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I agree with you on the Movie's premise, it's not nearly as well thought out as the books. Premise in the book is:<p><p>"The earliest point of divergence mentioned is that Reinhard Heydrich survives the 1942 assassination attempt in Prague which historically killed him. Shortly afterward, Germany embarks on a series of decisive victories. The German armies on the Eastern Front are stopped at the gates of Moscow at the end of 1941, as in our history. Defeated in battle but not demoralised, they launch a second major offensive into the Caucasus in 1942, cutting the flow of oil to the Red Army. The first major divergence in the course of the war is that this second offensive is far more successful. With its armies immobilised for want of fuel, Joseph Stalin is forced to flee to the east, and a rump Soviet government surrenders in 1943.<p><p> The second major change in the war's campaigns is that around the same time, German intelligence (in a way never explained) learns the British have cracked the Enigma code, which is leading to the sinking of German submarines. They withdraw their submarines from the Atlantic temporarily and send false intelligence to lure the British fleet to destruction. The U-Boat campaign against the United Kingdom resumes, starving Britain into accepting a humiliating armistice in 1944. King George VI makes Canada his predominant country of residence and prominent British officials, such as Winston Churchill, follow him there in exile. Edward VIII regains the British throne at the helm of a pro-German puppet government and Wallis Simpson is his queen. Germany tests its first atom bomb in 1946, and fires a "V-3" missile that explodes above New York City, to demonstrate Germany's ability to attack the continental United States with long-range missiles. Following this demonstration of power, the United States signs a peace treaty with Germany. This results in the Third Reich being one of the two superpowers of the world, along with the US, which defeated Japan, reflecting the actual history of the war, though a year later than in actual history.<p><p> Having achieved victory in Europe, Germany annexes Eastern Europe and most of the western Soviet Union into the Greater German Reich. Following the signing of the Treaty of Rome, Western Europe and Scandinavia are corralled into a pro-German trading bloc, the European Community. The surviving areas of the Soviet Union, still led by Stalin, become engaged in an endless guerrilla war with German forces in the Ural Mountains. Mounting casualties (at least 100,000 since 1960 stated in the novel and that the bodies have to be shipped back to Germany in the dead of night), have sapped the German military despite Hitler's earlier statement (quoted in the novel) about a perpetual war to keep the German people on their toes, like in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. By 1964, the United States and the Greater German Reich are caught in a Cold War and an arms race to develop more sophisticated nuclear weapons and space technology."<p><p>While I would agree with you on most of your points, I would disagree that their vehicles were no match for the Soviets, particularly from 1943 onwards. Sure the Soviet tanks and equipment were improving steadily from 1942 onwards, the T34 was legendary but while the soviets had an enormous advantage in terms of quantity, the Germans possessed the technological edge that allowed them to stave off total collapse until 1945.
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Give this to Charlie Kaufman and make it a 4 hour long b&w film, THEN we'll talk.
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It's nothing remotely like Man in the High Castle. Same subject material -- that's it. And it's the "same subject material" in the broadest possible sense; like Requiem for a Dream and Dazed and Confused are the same subject material. Also, of course, Philip K. Dick's book was written long before Fatherland. <p> And also, Fatherland is awesome. (The book. Never saw the movie.)
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dont let the best SF book ever written to be directed by Michel Bay or Roland Emmerich, please!
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Except for the Passion of Christ.That sucked.Anyways a movie about Nazi controlled America will probably have less Jew hate.
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the "Britain's Broadcast" referred to in Herc's article is Broadcast magazine, the trade paper for TV and radio. Just to clear that up.
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Great post.
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This isn't a new gripe for me. It's something that drives me nuts. Science Fiction is almost always contemplative in nature. Meaning it's all about exploring and idea by placing in a context we aren't used to. This forces the reader to consider the idea without cultural baggage. And Hollywood just doesn't get it. They seem to do well with fantasy, I think because ultimately they're lazy. I don't mean many of the men and women working in HW don't put in long days. But it's a LOT harder to do on screen what most Sci-Fi does on paper. It's much simpler to throw in a chase scene of force a love interest into the script. The best example I can think of is I Am Legend. They actually cut out the part of the book where the title comes from. The entire novel builds to the one revelation. Instead we get some splosions, fast cars, and loud music. At that point why even keep the title or bother to pay for the rights to the novel.
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One of my favorite book series. Would work as a mini-series, but Hollywood would fuck it up big time.
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1. WTF is Britain's Broadcast? 2. Spooks the T.V show made by the BBC, and it's writers are , and have always been utter shite....Apart from that one episode in season 1 when they deep fried Lisa Faulkners arm and head in a chip shop deep fryer for shock value, it was all down hill from there... 3. If it's made by the BBC it'll have no budget at all (Although I'm not familiar with the novel , so that might not matter).
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Back in the early 90's there was a nearly done deal to do a mini-series adaptation, with a screenplay by Brian W. Aldiss (perhaps the greatest Brit sf writer since Wells and a huge Dick fan) that was at the very least completely outlined, with all the thorny adaptation problems solved to Aldiss' and others' satisfaction. I did hear a bit about why the project collapsed but have alas forgotten the details.<br><br> Cinemanimetal -- [SPOILER] at the end of TMITHC it's essentially discovered that the "real" world is a much nicer place than this one and that our reality is as false as the alternate history we've just read.<br><br> I've also dreamed about a faithful adaptation of Androids, especially to get the humor in.<br><br> John Alan Simon, writer / director of Radio Free Albemuth, has the rights to VALIS as well and will make it if the first film does well enough.<br><br> In 2004 David Cronenberg told PKD's last editor David G. Hartwell that he was re-reading all the novels in order to figure out which one he should adapt (folks may recall that Dino Di Laurentis pulled the plug on Cronenberg's version of TOTAL RECALL just before it was to start filming). We're still waiting for that one, too, but UBIK would be an incredibly obvious choice. I believe someone else currently has the rights, though.
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Not one of the 15 Dick novels I'd consider adapting off the top of my head but I'm sure the film will be a great improvement on the novel.
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I liked it, there may not be any action, but it's interesting, I think my favorite part may be *SPOILER* when the Japanese guy almost reaches enlightenment only to have it ruined by some random passer by
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