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For anyone that liked “Blade Runner”, it’s fascinating to go back and read PKD’s “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep”, which Blade Runner was based on. You can

For anyone that liked “Blade Runner”, it’s fascinating to go back and read PKD’s “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep”, which Blade Runner was based on. You can see the threads of similarity but it’s a way more surreal paranoid bad-acid-trip vibe. Can’t remember another adaptation with such a striking difference from the original.

OscarCunningham 4y ago
> Can’t remember another adaptation with such a striking difference from the original. How about 'Total Recall' as an adaption of 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale'?
- dllthomas 4y ago
  'Minority Report', in addition to throwing in a whole bunch of filler, flips the whole point of the thing into something deeply Hollywood.
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  Part of the problem with that adaptation is that We can Remember It for You Wholesale would be best adapted into an almost comedic Outer Limits episode, as written. Total Recall at least manages to keep a lot of PKD's general themes intact despite seriously diverging from the story, and brings in ideas from his other stories to an extent.
cmsefton 4y ago
Ridley Scott famously claimed that he “found the novel too difficult to read”. Dick was infuriated with the first draft of the film, and absolutely hated it, writing very sarcastic comments about it. However, after the script was reworked, and Dick read it, he said "you read the screenplay and then you go to the novel, and it’s like they’re two halves to one meta-artwork, one meta-artifact." This makes for some great reading delving into what Dick thought of the film. https://soothfairy.com/2022/09/16/what-did-philip-k-dick-think-of-blade-runner/ https://soothfairy.com/2022/09/16/what-did-philip-k-dick-thi... I especially like Special Effects Chief David Dryer's recollection of what Dick said after watching the first reels: > Dick looks me straight in the eye and says, ‘How is this possible? How can this be? Those are not the exact images, but the texture and tone of the images I saw in my head when I was writing the original book! The environment is exactly as how I’d imagined it! How’d you guys do that? How did you know what I was feeling and thinking?’ > “Let me tell you, that was one of the most successful moments of my career,” Dryer concludes. “Dick went away dazed.” I also particularly liked Dick's comments about what the film meant to him: > I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runer. Thank you … It will prove invincible.
pmoriarty 4y ago
Blade Runner is way better than DADOES, which is a minor Dick work. He's written much better books.
- WA 4y ago
  Exactly the other way around for me. I never liked Blade Runner, especially the last 20 minutes or so. I enjoyed the book. I like Blade Runner 2049 though.
Jedd 4y ago
> Can’t remember another adaptation with such a striking difference from the original. Are we talking in general, or just PKD? Next - with Nicholas Cage - was a film I actually enjoyed, but is a far cry from The Golden Man (short story). I read an anecdote after Ex Machina came out about the 'freaky alternative ending' that wasn't used, which felt like a nod to the Golden Man: "... So in that scene, what used to happen is you’d see her talking, and you wouldn’t hear, but all of a sudden it would cut to her point of view. And her point of view is completely alien to ours. There’s no actual sound; you’d just see pulses and recognitions, and all sorts of crazy stuff ..."

OscarCunningham 4y ago

> Can’t remember another adaptation with such a striking difference from the original. How about 'Total Recall' as an adaption of 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale'?

dllthomas 4y ago
'Minority Report', in addition to throwing in a whole bunch of filler, flips the whole point of the thing into something deeply Hollywood.
Jtsummers 4y ago
Part of the problem with that adaptation is that We can Remember It for You Wholesale would be best adapted into an almost comedic Outer Limits episode, as written. Total Recall at least manages to keep a lot of PKD's general themes intact despite seriously diverging from the story, and brings in ideas from his other stories to an extent.

cmsefton 4y ago

Ridley Scott famously claimed that he “found the novel too difficult to read”. Dick was infuriated with the first draft of the film, and absolutely hated it, writing very sarcastic comments about it. However, after the script was reworked, and Dick read it, he said "you read the screenplay and then you go to the novel, and it’s like they’re two halves to one meta-artwork, one meta-artifact." This makes for some great reading delving into what Dick thought of the film. https://soothfairy.com/2022/09/16/what-did-philip-k-dick-think-of-blade-runner/ https://soothfairy.com/2022/09/16/what-did-philip-k-dick-thi... I especially like Special Effects Chief David Dryer's recollection of what Dick said after watching the first reels: > Dick looks me straight in the eye and says, ‘How is this possible? How can this be? Those are not the exact images, but the texture and tone of the images I saw in my head when I was writing the original book! The environment is exactly as how I’d imagined it! How’d you guys do that? How did you know what I was feeling and thinking?’ > “Let me tell you, that was one of the most successful moments of my career,” Dryer concludes. “Dick went away dazed.” I also particularly liked Dick's comments about what the film meant to him: > I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runer. Thank you … It will prove invincible.

pmoriarty 4y ago

Blade Runner is way better than DADOES, which is a minor Dick work. He's written much better books.

WA 4y ago
Exactly the other way around for me. I never liked Blade Runner, especially the last 20 minutes or so. I enjoyed the book. I like Blade Runner 2049 though.

Jedd 4y ago

> Can’t remember another adaptation with such a striking difference from the original. Are we talking in general, or just PKD? Next - with Nicholas Cage - was a film I actually enjoyed, but is a far cry from The Golden Man (short story). I read an anecdote after Ex Machina came out about the 'freaky alternative ending' that wasn't used, which felt like a nod to the Golden Man: "... So in that scene, what used to happen is you’d see her talking, and you wouldn’t hear, but all of a sudden it would cut to her point of view. And her point of view is completely alien to ours. There’s no actual sound; you’d just see pulses and recognitions, and all sorts of crazy stuff ..."