Philip K. Dick is undeniably my favorite Sci-Fi author. His stories have been turned into such great movies as Total Recall, Blade Runner, and Paycheck among others.

One of my least favorite books of his is about to be made into a movie. This book is called Ubik. Ubik is one of those stories that I consider to be daydream Sci-Fi. It begins in a really cool setting and then just starts going out of control. The story is set in 1992 where parapsychology is an accepted practice but it isn’t legal so there’s a company that goes around and blocks telepaths. This company goes to the moon and that’s where all hell breaks loose, and time begins to go the other way.

As with all of Dick’s stories, there are some really interesting aspects. For instance the main character has to pay to get out of his apartment, but he’s so broke he doesn’t have enough change for the door. Also, every chapter begins with an ad for a product called Ubik. Telling you what Ubik is would spoil the ending, but the products are everyday things that you’d recognize only the product name is Ubik. As time continues to roll backwards the products get more classic. This could be an interesting advertising mechanism for the movie, or even a nice diversion within the movie much in the way that Starship Troopers used the “Would you like to know more?” ads within the movie.

We’ll see what happens when it comes out. My bet is that it will make me appreciate the book more. In fact just writing this blog entry has made me think about going back to re-read the book.

More info about the movie can be found here:

Philip K. Dick’s ‘Ubik’ Is Heading to the Big Screen

EDIT - January 21, 2020 Editing this for my new style I realized this movie never materialized, but it seems to be listed as “In development” still.