Ubik Screenplay Out Now

The ultra-rare, and until now difficult-to-find screenplay PKD wrote for a cinematic adaptation of his novel Ubik, is now available as a hardcover from Subterranean Press.

I have yet to read this, as I was reluctant to shell out well over $100 bucks to read the previous edition and just yesterday discovered this new edition was out.

According to Subterranean's website:

"The screenplay features an ending that differs markedly from that of the novel."

What else does the screenplay feature?:

"Dick included far more parenthetical description and interpretation than can be standard for screenplays, and so we have here his considered, after-the-fact portraits of Glen Runciter, Ella Runciter, Joe Chip, Pat Conley, and Ubik itself. And too, with a facility that's scarce among novelists, he smoothly adapts his story to the wider, deeper ranges of the film medium. The Ubik 'ads' are much more effective as actual intrusions than as chapter headings, the soundtrack becomes a central element (and makes us wonder what music Dick would have chosen to complement some of his other novels), and he presents the dysfunctions in time and perception even more effectively when he imagines them enacted on a movie screen. In some ways, in fact, it almost seems as though we're getting a purer version of UBIK—something closer to the original conception than the text of the novel." - From Tim Powers' new Forward to the screenplay.

Sounds good. Interesting to note that Dick seemed to both enjoy writing the screenplay but also benefited from it by learning something about his process as a writer.

In an interview with Paul Williams on Halloween 1974, PKD said: ""When I was doing the [Ubik] screenplay, I realized I've got a little screen in my head, and the people walk around on it"

Williams says: "They're real" [unclear if this is a question or a statement]

PKD responds: "They're little, Paul, they're about that big - [laughter] - Yeah, they move around, you know, I was going like this, looking up, talking and saying, 'there goes Joe out the door, slam.'...I didn't realize it until I did the screenplay [for Ubik] where I had to visualize, and I realized I didn't have to 'cause that was -- I didn't know any other way to do it. And I got to going -- I was literally looking up, type type type and look up" (Only Apparently Real 76)

PKD was originally asked by Jean-Pierre Gorin to write an adaption of Ubik, with hopes that Francis Ford Coppola might finance production, alas, funding fell throuh and the Ubik adaptation was scrapped, that is until recently when a production company called Celluloid Dreams optioned the novel. It's unclear whether or not the production will be using PKD's screenplay. I seem to remember a Hollywood friend of mine saying that PKD's script was on the long side and contained so many directions that many filmmakers might balk at trying to shoot it.

The screenplay is still on the expensive side: hardcover editions are listed $35 and the Wub-fur bound 'lettered' editions, signed by Powers and Tad Williams (who wrote the Afterward), are $150. So the screenplay went from expensive and difficult to find, to expensive and easier to find. At least we seem to be moving in the right direction, though I wonder, perhaps it'll be cheaper when (and where) we're all dead.

Buy it new at Amazon for $25.15

Jump Into The Urinal! Ubik To Become Film!

Yesterday Variety magazine announced that the film rights to PKD's 1969 novel Ubik have been optioned by a production company called Celluloid Dreams. The film, scheduled to enter production next year, will be produced by Hengameh Panahi who was the executive producer of the rather Dickian Bob Dylan bio-pic I'm Not There and Isa Dick-Hackett whose previous results with A Scanner Darkly bode well for this one.

From Variety:

"Celluloid Dreams has optioned the rights to Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel Ubik.

A metaphysical comic nightmare on death and salvation, Ubik was heralded as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels by Time magazine.

The film will be produced by Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams and Isa Dick Hackett, the author's daughter, of Electric Shepherd Prods. It is skedded to go into production in early 2009.

Dick's works have yielded some memorable adaptations, such as "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Minority Report" and "A Scanner Darkly."

"Our dad very much wanted this novel to be reimagined in this way and we are happy to be partnering with Celluloid Dreams, whose overall vision and appreciation of the material is consistent with our own," said Dick Hackett."

I wonder if they plan to use the script PKD penned for Ubik. How about a super devious marketing campaign for aerosol spray can tie ins?

Hold onto your brightly colored engineer's hats Dick-heads. Can you imagine the deluge of PKD articles that will spew forth from the MSM's (mainstream media's) PKD-article machine when Ubik drops?

Update: The estate has posted a press release (which is obviously where the Variety article was cribbed from) and therein lies some additional info on Celluloid Dreams:

"Celluloid Dreams was founded by its President, Hengameh Panahi in 1993. The organization is a totally independent production company and international sales agent based in Paris and London, specializing in finding, nurturing, promoting and distributing award-winning films created by first class talented directors from all over the world. Recent Celluloid productions include; Garth Jennings’ Son Of Rambow, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games US, and is currently in production with Julie Delpy’s The Countess, Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer’s Hello Darkness and Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere among others."

Two Long-Out-Of-Print Titles Return!

Subterranean Press recently announced they will be publishing two PKD titles that that have long been beyond the means of Dick-heads in the higher numbered conapts. PKD's young adult SF book Nick and the Glimmung and Ubik: The Screenplay are due to hit the market sometime in the future. Subterranean is still selecting an artist to do the cover art for Nick and the Glimmung, so it's bound to be awhile before we get to see these two.

Currently, copies of Nick and the Glimmung are going for 55$ on amazon. Ubik: The Screenplay starts at about $175.

In Pink Beam, Lord RC describes the story as SF and gives Glimmung four stars, calling it a "charming and sometimes funny story about a boy and his cat..." Interesting to note: SMLA received Dick's manuscript for Glimmung, the same day they received his manuscript for Ubik.