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Ubik: The Screenplay

by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick’s unrealized cinematic version of Ubik

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Philip K. Dick’s unrealized cinematic version of Ubik

Written in 1974 after Philip K. Dick was commissioned to adapt his novel, this screenplay preserves a distinct branch of the Ubik project: the planned film was scrapped, while the script was later published in 1985. It begins in the aftermath of an explosion at a moon base, where uncertainty over who lived and died destabilizes Joe Chip’s reality. The script also includes scenes absent from the novel. Its premise combines space-age speculation with shifting perceptions, paranoia, humor, and philosophical questions, while the screenplay’s writing is described as moving backward in time alongside the dreamworld’s technology.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Fans of Philip K. Dick and the world of Ubik
  • Readers interested in unproduced screenplays and adaptation history
  • Science-fiction readers drawn to reality-bending premises and philosophical speculation

Themes

Uncertain realitySurvival and identityParanoiaTechnology and regressionAdaptation

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"An accident has occurred. Joe Chip and his colleagues--all but one of them--have narrowly escaped an explosion at a moon base. Or is it the other way round? Did Joe and the others die, and did the one fatality, Glen Runciter, actually survive? . . . From the stuff of space opera, Dick spins a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you'll never be sure you've woken up from."--Lev Grossman, Time

In 1974, Philip K. Dick was commissioned to write a screenplay based on his novel Ubik. The film was eventually scrapped, but the screenplay was saved and later published in 1985. Featuring scenes that are not in the book and a surreal playfulness--the style of the writing goes back in time just like the technology in the book's dreamworld--this screenplay is the only one Dick wrote and features his signature mix of paranoia, humor, and big-idea philosophy.
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