Next - Another Philip K. Dick Story Turned Movie
April 16, 2007 | 2 Comments
Philip K Dick is maybe the most significant Sci-Fi author in the second half of last century. His stories of often center around varying perceptions of reality. This may be due to drugs, mental illness, or a science fiction plot device. Examples of modern films that are heavily influenced by Dick would include: Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Stranger Than Fiction, etc.
Additionally, there are a number of films directly based off of Dick’s work: Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), Total Recall (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale), A Scanner Darkly (same title), Paycheck (same title), Minority Report (same title), etc. Most of these movies are not very good. Other than Blade Runner, none of them has garnered much critical acclaim. In most cases the director’s stray wildly away from Dick’s core plot points, merely retaining overall themes.
I would expect this new film, Next based off the short story “The Golden Man”, starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Beal to be similarly forgettable and poor. However, the fact that Dick’s name is attached to it, means I will pay it closer attention and certainly see it as soon as I have a chance. The trailer is certainly interesting. The movie is due out April 27th.
I hope someday Dick’s stories start to become amazing films. In the meantime, I highly recommend reading anything and everything Philip K. Dick wrote. I especially like his short stories, which in turn are often what become films.
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The Amazing Screw-On Head
August 28, 2006 | Leave a Comment
I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed the movie Hellboy. It was not overly well received, but was entirely entertaining from my perspective. Since then, I’ve been lightly following Mike Mignola’s work. Frankly I need to read more of his comics… but my attention was caught when Keith told me about Sci-Fi’s The Amazing Screw-On Head.
The pilot is available on their site for free. The story is around Lincoln’s top spy, Screw-On Head (yes, that Lincoln). The plot of the pilot is summarized on the site:
When arch-fiend Emperor Zombie steals an artifact that will enable him to threaten all life on Earth, the task of stopping him is assigned to Screw-on Head. Fortunately, Screw-On Head is not alone on this perilous quest. He is aided by his multitalented manservant, Mr. Groin, and by his talking canine cohort, Mr. Dog.
Can this unorthodox trio stop Emperor Zombie in time? Does Screw-On Head have a body awesome enough to stop the horrors that have been unleashed? Where can we get a talking dog?
My reaction to the pilot, flippin’ bizarre. The humor is witty and all over the place. The animation appears to be ripped straight out of any of Mignola’s work. This show is entirely unique. This is not a show for everyone, but I think I’d quickly grow to love it. If you are up for 20 minutes of funny, bizarre and shocking, go watch the pilot and keep an eye out for a regular series on Sci-Fi.
Tags: amazing screw-on head, bizarre, comic book, comics, hellboy, mignola, mike mignola, pilot, sci-fi, video
Who Wants To Be A Superhero?
July 9, 2006 | 3 Comments
Premiering July 27th on SCI FI Channel is Stan Lee’s new 6 episode reality series “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” at 9PM.
The basic premise is that a bunch of hopefuls will show up in self-made costumes and strut their stuff as a character of their creation. “Lucky” finalists will leave their “normal” lives and compete 24/7 to prove they have what it takes to be true super heroes. They’ll each be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness — all traits that every true superhero must possess.
In the end, one aspiring superhero will be declared the winner of this six-week competition. They will walk away with their character immortalized in a new comic book created by Stan Lee himself and the winning character will also appear in an original SCI FI Channel movie…
I’m a crazy rabid comics fan, but this seems a bit out there even for me. I poked around in the initial gallery of hopefuls and just like American Idol, the real entertainment here may be in seeing who shows up to compete. Everybody loves a train wreck…
Tags: charater, comic, comic book, comic character, comics, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, stan lee, super hero, superhero, television, tv, Who Wants To Be A Superhero
Philip K. Dick Robot
February 19, 2006 | Leave a Comment
What’s more interesting/ironic, that they created a robot in the likeness of Philip K. Dick, or that it is now missing?
About the robot:
The visual data will be fused with some of the best speech recognition software, advanced natural language processing, and speech synthesis in the world. All of this will run in sync with Hanson Robotics’ highly expressive robot face to emulate a full human-conversational system.
IIS will create the artificial intelligence personality of the robot by mathematically deriving it from Dick’s life and works in a manner very similar to that described by Dick himself in his book We Can Build You (published in 1964).
About the disappearing bot:
The fact the surrealist SF author’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (and Blade Runner, the film based n the book) involved the search for lifelike “replicants” on the lamb suggests to me that this heist is either a publicity stunt or a prank perpetrated by PKD fans.
[...]
Prilliman and others close to Phil baulked at giving too many details about his disappearance including the name of the airline that was transporting the robot when he went missing.
Tags: "artificial intelligence", "Philip K. Dick", AI, robot, sci-fi, science fiction