Ubik

the Screenplay

by Philip K. Dick

Hardcover, 150 pages

Published Aug. 25, 2008 by Subterranean, Brand: Subterranean.

ISBN:: 978-1-59606-169-9

(15 reviews)

Ubik, written in 1966 and published in 1969, is one of Philip K. Dick's masterpieces (The Three Stigmata of Plamer Eldritch is another one). Ubik is the first novel to introduce spiritual elements that will culminate in his last novels VALIS, the Divine Invasion and the Transmigration of Timothy Archer. According to movie industry rumor Ubik could be the next big PKD movie project. Philip K. Dick himself wrote a screenplay for Ubik in 1974 but it was never made into a movie. PKD was hoping that it would by sending "the novel to the agent of Victoria Principal- whom he revered - in hope that she'd wind up reading it."(Tim Powers in the introduction to Ubik: The Screenplay). Ubik was expanded and adapted from the short story "What the Dead Men Say" published in Worlds of Tomorrow in 1964. Ubik is one of the most published books of Philip …

31 editions

Freeman Crouch reviewed Ubik: the Screenplay by Philip K. Dick

Review of 'Ubik' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

First of all this isn't a screenplay in the ordinary sense. PKD was approached to write a screenplay for his novel Ubik, and he ended up writing a sort of revision of the novel, with a bunch of novelistic storytelling that wouldn't be there in a real screenplay. Think of this as basically a PKD novel with some screenwriting conventions tacked on.

There are plot differences between this and Ubik, significant enough that if you have read Ubik and liked it, you really, really, need to read this, and will find it a hoot.

Don't read this one first; read Ubik. It's one of the most strange and wonderful science-fiction novels in the world.