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Michel Gondry Directing Adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Novel 'Ubik'

by Ethan Anderton
February 16, 2011
Source: The Playlist

Last time we heard from Michel Gondry, he opened up about his next project, The We & The I, as well as an animated documentary about Noam Chomsky. Now the innovative filmmaker has revealed yet another project in his future. Allocine reports (via The Playlist) that while launching his exhibit The Factory Movie Lovers at the Centre Pompidou, Gondry revealed that he will next be adapting Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel Ubik. In the tradition of Dick's tales, the story is engaging, futuristic and full of intrigue. Time Magazine even named the novel as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels of our time. More details below!

Here's the official synopsis of the highly regarded novel (which you can pick up on Amazon for $11):

Chip works for Glen Runciter's anti-psi security agency, which hires out its talents to block telepathic snooping and paranormal dirty tricks. When its special team tackles a big job on the Moon, something goes terribly wrong. Runciter is killed, it seems--but messages from him now appear on toilet walls, traffic tickets, or product labels. Meanwhile, fragments of reality are timeslipping into past versions: Joe Chip's beloved stereo system reverts to a hand-cranked 78 player with bamboo needles. Why does Runciter's face appear on U.S. coins? Why the repeated ads for a hard-to-find universal panacea called Ubik ("safe when taken as directed")? The true, chilling state of affairs slowly becomes clear, though the villain isn't who Joe Chip thinks.

However, it's unclear how soon Gondry will be getting around to this project, as he's got plenty on his plate lined up on top of this. In addition, The Playlist points out an old Variety article from 2008 which reported that Celluloid Dreams had optioned the rights to the book for a project that never came together anyway. So it's unclear whether the rights still lie with that company, if Gondry is working with them, or if he's merely doing the project on spec separately. Either way, the prospect of Gondry venturing deep into science fiction, especially with a Philip K. Dick novel as his source material, sounds great to me. Anyone else agree?

Related categories: Development, Movie News, Rumors

http://twitter.com/A5J4DX A5J4DX

holy shit i hope this gets made sounds very intriguing!
http://natecsz.blogspot.com Nate

I would go see that for sure!!
Loser

More and more news that gets me to believe that cinema of past greatness are slowly coming back with a bang
Interested

I approve.
Fox

Great news! Most books of Philip Kendrid Dick are about, among others themes (such as the distrust of authorities or other powers, paranoia), the perception of reality, and since Michel Gondry already made a movie among those lines (Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind), I think it's a great choice for such a movie! Plus, Ubik is a great book, which id like to revisit soon!
Anonymous

Ubik is my favourite book ever! Having said that, I don't like Gondry's overall work. Science of sleep was the only movie I stopped watching in the middle. The source material sure is amazing. We'll see...
Devon Shaw

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Gondry SUCKS and should never be given a project this monumental. If anything, Ubik should stay in the archives until Chris Nolan is able and willing.