The legacy of Hollywood's favorite sci-fi writer

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Harrison Ford in 1982's "Blade Runner."

By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

PHILIP K. #######, the science-fiction author who struggled for years with personal demons, never saw "Blade Runner," the first Hollywood adaptation of his writing. He died of a stroke just four months shy of its release in 1982. His grieving daughter Isa, then 15, remembers going to see the film in a San Rafael theater hoping that it might, somehow, keep part of her father alive.

"I went with my mom and I remember that there were maybe two other people in the whole theater and that was the way it was everywhere -- the movie was a total failure," Isa ####### Hackett said. "I remember too that the lights came up before the dedication at the end, so I didn't even get to see that. It was like a double slap in the face."

After the bruising "Blade Runner" fiasco, #######'s family assumed that the late writer had "zero future in movies," as his daughter put it. That would have added another discouraging footnote to a pained life. ####### had five failed marriages, wrote most of his novels while gobbling amphetamines and, in the grips or paranoia or religious visions, he felt always the outsider.

But while Philip Kindred ####### was a disaffected loner in life, in death his ideas turned out to be pitch-perfect for a Digital Age that wanted science fiction not just about aliens but also about the alienated.

Posthumously, ####### became a one-man factory for Hollywood projects, with his fiction reaching the screen nine times. Among the films: Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," Paul Verhoeven's "Total Recall," John Woo's "Paycheck" and, earlier this year, the Nicolas Cage vehicle "Next," which arrives on DVD in stores on Sept. 25.

"Blade Runner," meanwhile, has bounced back from its early obscurity to become one of the most celebrated science-fiction films ever made. In October, it returns to theaters with "Blade Runner: The Final Cut," a 25th anniversary edition that, for the first time, realizes director Ridley Scott's vision with a meticulous reworking.

Resurgent imageAll of it makes for a staggering turnaround for the family of the troubled writer whose work presaged the cyberpunk movement; there is still debate about the quality of his actual prose versus the urgency of his concepts, but now, finally, he is at least mentioned as often as the familiar icons of the genre during his lifetime, the Asimovs, Bradburys, Clarkes and Heinleins. (Four of #######'s 1960s novels have just been reissued by the prestigious Library of America, giving the paperback writer some new hardcover cachet.)

Philip K. ####### in the early 1970s. He died in 1982.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...e-entertainment

Edited September 16, 2007 by Mister Fancypants

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

####### was a good writer - but he was batshit at the end. Read Valis - its a head-trip.

Edited September 16, 2007 by Number 6

[Jasman0717 9]

Never read any of his stuff so now will have to go get 'Blade Runner' at least.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Blade Runner is quite a bit different from PKD's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the whole noir angle was Ridley Scotts conception. Even the characterisation of Deckard (a squirrely bureaucrat rather than a hard-bitten bounty hunter) was changed for the movie.

[Mags 112]

One of my favourite adaptations of his books was Minority Report. Thought the movie was really good, despite having Tom Cruise in it.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

One of my favourite adaptations of his books was Minority Report. Thought the movie was really good, despite having Tom Cruise in it.

I haven't read The Minority Report - I think its a short story rather than a novel. I thought the movie was ok - didn't really grab me as anything special.

Total Recall is good - though its pretty interesting to compare the movie to the short story. Both are good but very different.

Thing I find is that #######'s humour doesn't come across too well in the movies. The most literal adaptation to date is "A Scanner Darkly", with Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Junior - but its so literal that if you haven't read the book you end up scratching your head for the entire movie wondering what the hell is going on.

There is a scene in it (a suicide attempt) that conveys exactly the sense of #######'s writing.

Edited September 16, 2007 by Number 6

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Blade Runner is quite a bit different from PKD's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the whole noir angle was Ridley Scotts conception. Even the characterisation of Deckard (a squirrely bureaucrat rather than a hard-bitten bounty hunter) was changed for the movie.

That is interesting and hats off to Ridley Scott for his masterpiece film - one of my all time favorite movies. I bit off topic but in the similar vain, The Shining. I think Stanley Kubrick's version was much better than the Stephen King 'approved' version that was made a few years ago.

[Caladan 19]

I really like Blade Runner but it bears almost no resemblance to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? except for the scene where he tests the girl to see if she's a replicant. The setting of the book is more burned out Bronx and nuclear fallout than it is neo-Tokyo. Almost no one is left on the planet. Deckard is just a guy doing a job, married, and dreams of making enough money to buy a real animal, which after the devastation of the planet are practically a sacred duty such that people who can't afford a real cat or sheep get an electronic one so the neighbors won't talk.

It's a book with a very lonely feel, every time one of the characters is just so hopeful because he thought, for a moment, that he'd seen a real spider or a real toad.

I wonder if the author of the article has read any of #######'s work, because I wouldn't describe DADoES at least as cyberpunk. Scott sort of lifted the aesthetic of Neuromancer and took one piece of the book (is or isn't one of the agents himself a replicant?) and re-invented the whole concept. It's a fantastic film, but doesn't really bear much resemblance to the original. Minority Report's the same way; it's a meditation on personal identity more than it is an action story.

Edited September 16, 2007 by Caladan

[Mags 112]

One of my favourite adaptations of his books was Minority Report. Thought the movie was really good, despite having Tom Cruise in it.

I haven't read The Minority Report - I think its a short story rather than a novel. I thought the movie was ok - didn't really grab me as anything special.

Yup, it's a novella.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I really like Blade Runner but it bears almost no resemblance to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? except for the scene where he tests the girl to see if she's a replicant. The setting of the book is more burned out Bronx and nuclear fallout than it is neo-Tokyo. Almost no one is left on the planet. Deckard is just a guy doing a job, married, and dreams of making enough money to buy a real animal, which after the devastation of the planet are practically a sacred duty such that people who can't afford a real cat or sheep get an electronic one so the neighbors won't talk.

It's a book with a very lonely feel, every time one of the characters is just so hopeful because he thought, for a moment, that he'd seen a real spider or a real toad.

I wonder if the author of the article has read any of #######'s work, because I wouldn't describe DADoES at least as cyberpunk. Scott sort of lifted the aesthetic of Neuromancer and took one piece of the book (is or isn't one of the agents himself a replicant?) and re-invented the whole concept. It's a fantastic film, but doesn't really bear much resemblance to the original. Minority Report's the same way; it's a meditation on personal identity more than it is an action story.

#######'s work as a whole set a lot of the groundwork for the Cyberpunk movement of the early 80's (though shouldn't omit a mention of George Orwell several decades earlier). ####### wasn't in tune with changing technology as such as bringing a new focus into science fiction. For example how technology could be used to subvert a person's identity and how it is determined by memory.

Of course ####### was a pretty variable writer - some of his novels (The Man in the High Castle, DADoES) are very good, but his short stories could be rather patchy. I read part of an anthology on vacation recently and some of the stories really weren't that great - specifically "Paycheck" (later made into a God-awful Ben Affleck action vehicle) and Second Variety (which ended up as a straight to video flick called Screamers, with Peter Weller).

Neuromancer I believe came out in 1984 (an appropriate year perhaps...) two years after Blade Runner was released, so it might be said that ####### came up with the ideas and Scott came up with the visualisation - which pretty much established the Cyberpunk genre. Gibson was the first to tie it all together with social changes resulting from new technologies. I did my final year undergraduate dissertation on Gibson's first three novels and the Burning Chrome short stories.

I haven't liked much that Gibson did after his first three novels - Virtual Light and Idoru were ok, but he's started making his stuff more contemporary and strangely I find that the least interesting.

There still hasn't been a really good cyberpunk movie yet made - the Matrix came close (as did another relatively obscure movie - Dark City which was released at the same time), but didn't really explore many of the ideas. Both films were more style over substance than anything - but still far and away better than Johnny Mnemonic (written by Gibson) which was absolutely atrocious.

Edited September 17, 2007 by Number 6

[almaty 19]

I like #######'s writings..a great talent..missed

[Jasman0717 9]

Its all going to have to wait until I get through all the Harry Potter books

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Its all going to have to wait until I get through all the Harry Potter books

If you've never read ####### before - you'll want to pick up some of his early work before you try to get into any of the later stuff. ####### literally went crazy later on - in Valis, he starts writing a story and abandons it halfway through with a rant about how a pink laser beam from space is transmitting the ideas into his brain, while at the same time speculating that he just might be going nuts.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Its all going to have to wait until I get through all the Harry Potter books

If you've never read ####### before - you'll want to pick up some of his early work before you try to get into any of the later stuff. ####### literally went crazy later on - in Valis, he starts writing a story and abandons it halfway through with a rant about how a pink laser beam from space is transmitting the ideas into his brain, while at the same time speculating that he just might be going nuts.

There's a fine line between brilliance and insanity.

[almaty 19]

Its all going to have to wait until I get through all the Harry Potter books

If you've never read ####### before - you'll want to pick up some of his early work before you try to get into any of the later stuff. ####### literally went crazy later on - in Valis, he starts writing a story and abandons it halfway through with a rant about how a pink laser beam from space is transmitting the ideas into his brain, while at the same time speculating that he just might be going nuts.

There's a fine line between brilliance and insanity.

total agreement