Now that Michel Gondry is done popping his mainstream cherry, having recently directed The Green Hornet, he can once again focus again on bringing the world some more mind-blending flicks, a la Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004). Fans of the French visionary's more cerebral side should appreciate this news: Gondry is set to direct an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel Ubik, according to the French site AlloCiné.
Ubik is the latest in a long line of Dick adaptations with the most notable examples being Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and next month's Matt Damon flick The Adjustment Bureau. There's also a Colin Farrell-starring remake of Total Recall on the horizon, not to mention a BBC miniseries adaptation of Man in the High Castle that's gaining momentum. And Stephen King thought his catalog has been ransacked.
Ubik is one of Dick’s most unique and complicated novels as it contains just as much humor as it does hard sci-fi theories. It's also one of Dick’s most acclaimed works, landing on TIME’s “All Time 100 Novels” list. It's never easy to briefly explain the plots of Dick's stories, but we'll give this one a shot: Ubik's main character, Joe Chip, works for a security firm that specializes in preventing supernatural phenomenon such as telepathic spying, and his world is turned upside down (in more ways than one) after he's sent to the Moon on an assignment. Rest assured, the actual story goes much deeper than that.
Gondry is certainly qualified for this gig. Both Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and its 2006 follow-up, The Science Of Sleep, contain the same type of humor, charm, and lofty concepts that'll be necessary for a Ubik film.
Ubik is the latest in a long line of Dick adaptations with the most notable examples being Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and next month's Matt Damon flick The Adjustment Bureau. There's also a Colin Farrell-starring remake of Total Recall on the horizon, not to mention a BBC miniseries adaptation of Man in the High Castle that's gaining momentum. And Stephen King thought his catalog has been ransacked.
Ubik is one of Dick’s most unique and complicated novels as it contains just as much humor as it does hard sci-fi theories. It's also one of Dick’s most acclaimed works, landing on TIME’s “All Time 100 Novels” list. It's never easy to briefly explain the plots of Dick's stories, but we'll give this one a shot: Ubik's main character, Joe Chip, works for a security firm that specializes in preventing supernatural phenomenon such as telepathic spying, and his world is turned upside down (in more ways than one) after he's sent to the Moon on an assignment. Rest assured, the actual story goes much deeper than that.
Gondry is certainly qualified for this gig. Both Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and its 2006 follow-up, The Science Of Sleep, contain the same type of humor, charm, and lofty concepts that'll be necessary for a Ubik film.
