Phillip K. Dick Biopic Planned
Those who read this blog probably need to introduction to science fiction writer Phillip Kindred Dick. His wildly original novels and stories went beyond the usual fare in the genre, dealing with futuristic philosophical questions and moral conundrums, as well as age-old struggles between good and evil, control and freedom.
Most of the public know his work from adaptations for film, such as futuristic dystopian epics like Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. A Scanner Darkly, based on his novel of the same title, was probably the truest representation of Dick’s philosophy ever to make it to the big screen, and was produced with the full cooperation of his estate (Dick died in 1982.) Even though it didn’t remain faithful to his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick apparently approved of the final version of Blade Runner, which was released two months before his death.
In 2006, Dick’s daughter Isa Dick Hackett approved a film script about the life and work of her father that would star actor/ director Paul Giamatti. The film is reportedly now in pre-production with Giamatti’s company.
The film is going to be a combination between a biography and adaptation of Dick’s unfinished final novel with the working title The Owl In Daylight.
Wikipedia provides this description:
The novel dealt with one Ed Firmley, a composer of scores for B-movie grade sci-fi films and a race of alien humanoids that had evolved without the development of sound as a basis of communication. The shamans of this alien race would on occasion have visions of Earth and its many sounds. Due to their unique evolution without sound the holy men were incapable of describing these experiences to the rest of their race. They just knew that the place they saw was their heaven. Meanwhile their race was modeled around sight and light, encompassing much more of the electromagnetic spectrum than the limited human vision. In fact, from their perspective, humans were capable of sight but nearly blind, such as a mole appears to a human. Their language involved the telepathic projection of color patterns in precise gradations and following mathematical formulas.
A spaceship carrying members of this race arrives on Earth and they mug Ed Firmley, a famous composer they quickly discover, as a cover-up for plugging a bio-chip into his head. This bio-chip is a digitized form of one of the aliens with a link back to the ship – essentially allowing everyone to experience Ed Firmley by proxy. The bio-chip is supposed to be passive, serving only as a means of relaying the mystic experience of sound to an entire race. Soon the alien presence in the bio-chip becomes bored of Firmley’s music, which is bland, schmaltzy schlock and the pop music that he constantly listens to. As a consequence of this boredom, the bio-chip turns from being passive to active, controlling what Firmley listens to as well as feeding him mathematical formulas that he begins to use as the basis of his compositions. His career, from a financial perspective, dwindles but he becomes a respected avant-garde artist. The active role the bio-chip takes in the relationship begins frying Firmley’s brain. At this point the aliens make themselves known and offer to remove the chip, but Firmley refuses. He sees himself as an artist where as before he was of no consequence, doing what he did simply for money. Firmley decides to give up his body to be transformed into a bio-chip which is in turn implanted into an alien brain. This will also lead to the eventual death of the alien host but it offers Firmley a chance of experiencing their world of lights, our heaven.
Author John Shirley notes that the script is written by Tony Grisoni, who also wrote the the screenplay for Terry Gilliam’s 1998 adaptation of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas.
It is fascinating that Dick would explore methods of communication that did not involve sound or language. Is this a fruitful area of inquiry for those interested in reported “alien” messages to the human race, and would it be meaningful if investigated further? Perhaps those who claim contact and conversation with extra-human consciousness are plugging their own ideas of message and language into an almost untranslatable presentation of some sentient “existence.” In other words, are they translating what they see as some sort of communication, but with faulty receivers and translators? How does this impact our views on the early contactees and the history of “alien abduction?”
Dick claimed contact with some sort of extra-human consciousness, which he called “Zebra,” “God” and “VALIS” (Vast Active Living Intelligence System.) He said of the initial encounter “I experienced an invasion of my mind by a transcendentally rational mind, as if I had been insane all my life and suddenly I had become sane.” This echoes other claims of mental contact with “the other,” such as Uri Geller’s SPECTRA.
Another interesting side note: According to the wiki biography, Dick and poet/ linguist Jack Spicer discussed ideas for a Martian language in the late 1940s. Does anyone know if this turned up in any of his work?
Update: PKD’s last wife, Tessa Dick, responded to my post today over at Leslie Gunter’s Beyond The Dial:
Your post about the PKD biopic won’t allow me to comment. I seriously doubt that the biopic will use the plot outlined in Wikipedia, as that is the work of Doris Sauter and Gwen Lee.
~~ Tessa Dick
Tessa Dick wrote a novel called The Owl In Daylight which was published in January of this year, of which she is quoted as saying “I attempted to express the spirit of Phil’s proposed novel, without using his plot or the one character that he had created. … Phil had written very little about this novel. … It was very sketchy and did not even name any characters. … The Owl in Daylight is my concept of what Phil’s novel should be.”
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Aug 08 2009 
August 9th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Dick’s “Eye in the Sky” was excellent. The concept of pure consciousness for communication is the end of goal of physics…contact with nothingness.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:06 am
Alien implants and faulty communication between to opposite ways to look at the world. Fascinating.
To me, Dick remains a cautionary tale of a man that, like a moth enamored with the flame of a candle, got his wings burned for coming too close of what he was seeking.
A biopic of his life is long overdue.
PS: I remember that Jaron Lanier used to speculate about octopi evolving to sentience after we blow ourselves to pieces, and developing a complex language through their natural ability to display different colors with their skin. Very close to the plot discussed in Wikipedia, IMO.