Streaming Can Save This Sci-Fi Classic That Hollywood Keeps Failing

Streaming can save one science fiction classic that Hollywood has repeatedly failed. Streaming services such as Netflix and Apple TV+ have had great luck adapting great science fiction novels such as The Three Body Problem and Foundation, but can they work their magic on a 1969 staple that has eluded Hollywood ever since?

Ubik, by Philip K. Dick, is one of the author’s best-known novels. It begins as a story of corporate espionage, and grows into a meditation on the nature of God and reality. Ubik is loaded with mind-bending concepts, and never once is the reader on safe ground, as reality shifts around protagonist Joe Chip.

Ubik is today regarded as one of Philip K. Dick’s best novels. While it was not nominated for any of the major science fiction awards during its day, such as The Hugo or the Nebula, Ubik has received honors outside the field: Time placed the book on its 100 best novels since 1923.

A Movie Version of Ubik Has Been a Long Time Coming

Philip K Dick Even Wrote the First Ubik Screenplay

Attempts to get a film adaptation of Ubik off the ground began just a few years after the book’s publication. French experimental director Jean-Pierre Gorin was the first to take a crack at the novel, going so far as to commission Dick himself to write the screenplay. Gorin never made the movie, however.

Dick’s screenplay for Ubik changed up some of the book’s details, and had new scenes and a different ending. According to legend, Dick wrote the screenplay in record time. Even though Gorin did not make Ubik, the script was released in book format, and it can be found in bookstores.

Dick wanted to infuse his version with camera trickery that would enhance the book’s themes. Throughout Ubik, its characters watch as the surrounding environment, right down to their tools, seemingly devolves into earlier states. Dick envisioned a film that became more retro-looking as it went on, ultimately resembling a silent movie before it ends.

Ubik Has Eluded Many Filmmakers Since 1969

Some Philip K. Dick Fans Feel Ubik May Be "Unfilmable."

No one put effort into making an Ubik movie for many years after Gorin and Dick first set out to adapt it. Since then, Dick’s stature as a writer has grown significantly. While lauded by the science fiction establishment of his time, the mainstream was much slower to notice. Today, Dick is taught in colleges and universities.

Dick’s burgeoning reputation brought with it renewed interest in his best works, including Ubik. In the mid-2000s, producer Tommy Pallotta, who worked with director Richard Linklater on the adaptation of Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, optioned the film rights to Ubik. According to some, Linklater himself tried to adapt Ubik, but was unable to crack it, so he made Scanner Darkly instead.

After Pallotta’s hold on the rights expired a few years later, French production company Celluloid Dreams acquired them, and intended to make the movie. Celluloid Dreams, like Gorin and Pallotta before, failed to bring Ubik to a wider audience. Another attempt, in the mid-2010s by director Michel Gondry, also did not materialize.

Gondy, who is known for surreal, Dick-inspired movies, was the last to try and adapt Ubik. Gondry was quoted in interviews as saying he had a script, but was not happy with it. Why Gondry was dissatisfied with the screenplay was never revealed, and for many Dick fans, it proved what they already suspected: Ubik just might be “unfilmmable.”

Streaming Has Done Philip K. Dick's Works Justice

Netflix Will Soon Debut Their Own PKD Adapation

The solution to the problem of crafting a big-screen version of Ubik is to take it to streaming. Several services have already brought Dick’s worlds to television audiences: Amazon had great success with The Man in the High Castle and Electric Dreams, an anthology show adapting his many short stories.

Now other streaming channels are jumping into the Philip K. Dick game. Netflix recently optioned The World Jones Made, a minor Dick classic from the 1950s, for an adaptation. Beyond the streaming sphere, there are other filmed versions of Dick’s material on the way as well. Philip K. Dick is as popular as ever.

If Netflix or another service wishes to adapt Ubik, its best bet is to make it into a limited-run series, as opposed to a movie. Ubik is a philosophically dense novel, chock-full of mind-expanding concepts. A two-hour movie may not be adequate to cover all of Ubik’s bases, but an eight or nine-episode series could possibly pull it off.

One of Ubik’s wildest ideas is Ubik itself. The novel is peppered with advertisements for “Ubik.” Marketed as an aerosol-type spray, Ubik, when applied, causes objects to revert to an earlier, more primitive form. For example, a high-tech rifle becomes progressively simpler as more Ubik is used. The book contains many more such examples.

Achieving a version of the Ubik spray would be no problem with today’s special effects, but the trick is to make it believable. Ubik’s onslaught of ideas is a lot for any moviegoer, but the spray may be the nuttiest. A good special effects department could bring this to life, and maybe even realize Dick’s retro vision for the movie.

Can Netflix Or Another Streaming Service "Crack" Ubik?

Ubik, If Done Right, Will Be as Big a Success as the Novel

Philip K. Dick has a mixed record when it comes to film adaptations of his work. Some movies, such as Blade Runner and A Scanner Darkly, are highly regarded by fans and critics. Yet for every Total Recall or The Minority Report, there are plenty of Dick adaptations that miss the mark.

With this in mind, it is imperative that whoever adapts Ubik put their best foot forward. Ubik has acquired a reputation among fans for being difficult to adapt, eluding some of the genre’s most talented auteurs. Any streaming service that takes on Ubik will gain credit for doing so, assuming they actually do the novel justice.