Research thefilms that have been adapted from Philip K. Dick novels or short
stories. Which have generally been acclaimed as the most successful? Why?
A lot of films are adapted from Philip’s novel or short stories. There is a list:
Completed movies
Blade Runner (1982) based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968 novel)
Total Recall (1990) based on We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966 short story)
Confessions D’un Barjo (French, 1992) based on Confessions of Crap Artist (1975 non-SF novel)
Screamers (1995) based on Second Variety (1953 short story)
Impostor (2001) based on Impostor (1953 short story)
Minority Report (2002), based on The Minority Report (1956 short story)
Paycheck (2003) based on Paycheck (1952 short story)
A Scanner Darkly (2006) based on A Scanner Darkly (1977 novel)
Next (2007) based on The Golden Man (1954 novel)
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) based on Adjustment Team (1954 short story)
In production
Total Recall (2012) second adaptation of We Can Remember It for You Wholesal (1953 short story)
Blade Runner is the most successful film adapted from PKD in general ideas. The small number thought A Scanner Darkly is the best one. In broadly speaking, the style from the 40’s, the soundtrack and the special effects of the film Blade Runner are some reasons of success. However the script wrote by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples and Director’s Cut are crucial reasons in my opinion. I think it is hard to make a film based on well-known science fiction. People have already known it and the imagination which novel gave is extremely incredible. After all these existing, the movie still quite succeeds. These owe to the script. It gives the most audience the second time interesting and it is not too hard to make the new audience puzzled.
Wikipedia. (2011) Philip K. Dick. retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick
Nerve(2011) Ranked: Philip K. Dick Adaptations from Worst to Best retrieved from http://www.nerve.com/entertainment/ranked/ranked-philip-k-dick-adaptations-from-worst-to-best
I like Blade Runner too! I agree your ideal “it is hard to make a film based on well-known science fiction.” But I also think it can be a good point to attract audience. There is tens of thousands fans of Dick and Blade Runner out there were dying to watch the movie. This provides the movie a large market that market. Also make sure the movie won’t lose money.
ReplyDeleteActually, I would say the process of making a movie adaptation for a famous fiction is difficult because we can't include everything in there, the director need to choose which to show and which don't to either making it interesting and let the audiences do their imagine works. This is also a reason why there are stereotype on adapted movies as being boring, degrade the value of the fiction and 'half-@ss'. An easy example would be the Harry Porter sequel (well they get better from the fourth adaptation I guess). Nonetheless, there are others directors that success in intertextual area like Peter Jackson with the world famous Lords of the Rings. In the end what makes the fiction fans accept the movie adaptation isn't because it was made out of the aim for money but the value of the movie itself.
ReplyDeleteInteresting response and some good comments by Andrea and Simon.
ReplyDelete