May 20, 2008 11:15 AM
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Philip K. Dick's paranoid novels have spawned a ton of action movies, from Blade Runner to Paycheck, but they've only recently started to be seen as fodder for art films like Scanner Darkly. And now one of Dick's weirdest books, Ubik, has just been optioned by Celluloid Dreams, a European company better known for producing or distributing movies like Son Of Rambow, Persepolis and I'm Not There. Dick's daughter, Isa Dick-Hackett, will co-produce the movie and says that Celluloid Dreams' vision is close to her own.
Ubik takes place in an alternate 1992, where you can travel to the moon, and telepathy is real. A company run by a man named Glen Runciter can block telepathy for clients who don't want their minds read. His adversary is Ray Hollis, who runs an organization of psychics. Our protagonist, Joe Chip, is a technician with Runciter's company and is crushed out on Pat Conley, one of the psychic-blocking people. They all head to the moon on behalf of a client who wants his mind shielded, but then everything goes to hell and Chip finds himself stuck in a disorienting world where everything is falling apart and he seems to be drifting back to a werid version of 1939.
Ubik was named one of the best 100 novels since 1923, by Time Magazine.[Variety, via Cinematical]
Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.
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