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Philip K. Dick's 'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said' Being Adapted

by Alex Billington
May 12, 2009

In addition to picking up the Terminator rights, The Halcyon Co. also bought the entire Philip K. Dick estate in 2007, meaning they can develop any adaptation of any of his work they want. Announced today at Cannes, co-founders and co-CEOs Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson will next adapt PKD's 1974 novel "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said." Set in a futuristic, dystopian America following a second civil war that left the country in a police state, "Tears" is the story of a celebrity who wakes up after an assassination attempt to find no one has ever heard of him. No word on who will write or direct this yet.

Unlike the Nic Cage film Next, which was unfortunately based on a Philip K. Dick story, this will definitely not be butchered by Hollywood. The Halcyon Co. guys are very smart and they know how to handle a good story and take care of a franchise. Just look at what they've done with Terminator Salvation - I'm sure most people will love the new movie, which is crazy considering how lackluster Terminator 3 was. If they can do that with Terminator, just imagine what they can do with Philip K. Dick - whose stories have been the inspiration for such sci-fi classics as Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly.

If anyone is interested, you can still pick up copies of "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" over on Amazon for around $10. I'd love to read more of Philip K. Dick's books, but he's got so many that I don't know where I'd find the time. We'll keep you updated on this and let you know when they hire a writer and/or director.

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Christopher M

wow, sounds amazing considering what they've been able to do with Terminator....while Blade Runner and Total Recall were great everything else was awful...I'm hoping to see remakes of Screamers and Impostor
jsd

I'm a huge PKD fan and have read most of his books. They're all very quick reads compared to most of today's SF books. "Flow My Tears" is pretty great. I would love to see someone do a good version of "Ubik." "A Scanner Darkly" was very well done. I felt it captured the mood of the book better than any other PKD screen adaptation.
Cat

Sounds like a cool idea.
xerxex

Careful with this one Flow My Tears is a great story and extremely possible to adapt into a film, I'd call on Linklater due to his geat work on A Scanner Darkly, or someone who will at least stay true to the actual plot. Now all we need is Ubik, and we're good!
Perplexed

Halcyon done great things for Terminator Salvation? What's that then? PG-13? Continuity issues? Glaring plot-holes? A boring story? No actual war scenes? Connor is a machine ending? Live organ transplants? Mel Gibson fighting Tranformers? An actor trashing lights? Sounds like a recipe for success! LETS JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON KIDS!!!!
xerxex

I just wonder whats gonna happen with cop and his sister if you've read it then you know what I mean. Key word "BARNEY" need I say more?
zubzwank

THANKS, #5 PERPLEXED, FOR THE SPOILER!!!@*%$ What an a_ _ hole! Perplexed is right. I'm perplexed as to why you didn't consider that others might not want to know the ending.
zubzwank

Re: Philip K Dick- While some great movies have been made "based" on his works, and one-Vanilla Sky-that may as well have been, none of them have quite captured the PKD effect. Some of the greatest directors--Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven--have tried. Some have had real PKD moments, but none has captured the shifting reality/disassociated consciousness gestalt of his best work. I read FMTTPS almost 35 years ago, and remember it as a great story. Here's hoping somebody "gets" PKD at last. #4, I agree, we need Ubik!
avoidz

It's possible the books are not good material to translate directly to the screen, but they make good material to base movies on.
http://movies.iconocritic.com/ peloquin

Yea, wow #5, you really are an ass to post a spoiler so close to a films release date. So upsetting...I hope that's not the real ending because I heard they reshot it.
Garagehero

When I was a kid, I read much science fiction, (and I still do), and one of my favs from the get-go was PKD. When Terminator came out, I couldnt help but think that I had either seen or read at least some of the scenes or premises before. Weird feeling. And then it hit me....two PKD stories came to mind, "Second Variety" and "Autofac". Since then I have always thought that these two stories were the basis for the original Terminator. I wonder why the PKD estate never sued cameron? In any case, does anyone feel the same? BTW....any and all Terminator movies after the original, including Salvation, were a waste of special effects on mediocre films.
come on

salvation was absolutely awful, how can you say they know how to handle a good story. They took an amazing (at first) franchise once handled by the great james cameron, and gave it to 'mcG' a guy with charlie's angels to his name. You couldn't be surprised watching that turn into the failure it was... absolutely terrible story telling, 2-d characters and plot holes up the a... On top of that, I guess I'm the only one that didn't really like flow my tears (or at least the final act). such an abruptly thrown together cop-out. And that tacked on happy ending epilogue... It was a good story w/ good characters for at least the first 2/3, and he wrote his characters extremely well.. but there was a lot that seemed was abandoned when it could have given the story more depth, and a less easy way out ending. I especially don't see how it would work as a movie... without changing it for a mainstream audience, I don't see that working too well... I personally have to go with Ubik for my taste. I I could see that a little better as a movie with fewer changes, but I think it would still take some to get the non sci-fi geek audience to sit through it
LeftMushroom

I can't wait for Ubik. It's always been my favorite Dick novel and it looks like they have a cast and crew with lots of creative integrity." Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" was the first Dick novel I read and I can't wait to see it brought to life, for better or worse....