Halcyon Co. Likes Dick Stories

Perhaps a lucrative first look deal

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, October 8th 2007 at 2:41 AM

Halcyon Co. is the production company at the forefront of bringing the Terminator franchise back to life and is currently in pre-production on the first installment of a new Terminator trilogy, but it looks like they don't want to stop there as they have just inked a three-year first look deal for all the works by sci-fi scribe Philip K. Dick that have not previously been adapted.

Of course there have been nine films made based on Dick's works such as Blade Runner (based on "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), Total Recall (based on the short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"), Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly and most recently Next. However, there are 120 short stories and 45 novels in the author's collective works leaving a lot to be adapted should anyone be so inclined.

The Variety article doesn't report anything specific Halcyon is looking at beyond saying that the novel "Ubik" is a likely candidate for adaptation.

If "Ubik" was adapted you would be looking at a story described as a metaphysical comedy centering on Glen Runciter. The question is whether Glen is dead, or is everyone else? Someone died in an explosion orchestrated by Runciter's business competitors. And, indeed, it's the kingly Runciter whose funeral is scheduled in Des Moines. But in the meantime, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering — and sometimes scatological — messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping in ways that suggest that their own time is running out. Or already has.

Dick already wrote a screenplay of "Ubik" which you can purchase on Amazon right now.