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sadatx · 12-05-2003, 01:15 AM

First of all, Great Thread! I love PKD's short stories and recognized Paycheck as soon as I saw the title.

However, I disagree that Paycheck is Dick's best short story. He did write it when he was in his "man being chased" mode so it is a little action oriented, hence I understand why they chose to adapt it. I do agree that Woo will pump up the action and play down the whole "can one manipulate the future and control his own fate" thing which is what the whole story is about, but Hollywood never cares what the story is really about anyway.

If it were me I'd adapt "Faith our Fathers", "Precious Artifact", or "A Little Something for us Tempunauts" a few of my favorites. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to do so.....yet.

About the other adaptations: I actually liked Total Recall AND "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale". The story and movie were different enough in my opinion to like them both.

Minority Report was quite good in some parts, but in general Spielberg and his screenwriter(s) completely ignored Dick's idea of fate(Spielberg, of course, goes for the cliched Hollywood optimism that we can all control our own destiny we just have to choose), "precogs"(yes they're in the movie but they bare little resemblance to Dick's precogs), and the belief that such a system would imprison those living in it. I guess you could argue that this last idea is still in the movie, but, in my opion, Spielberg just settles for the having a cliche bad guy in the end.

I haven't seen Screamers ("Second Variety"). And I liked Blade Runner, but I have yet to read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".

12-05-2003, 01:15 AM	#6 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	First of all, Great Thread! I love PKD's short stories and recognized Paycheck as soon as I saw the title. However, I disagree that Paycheck is Dick's best short story. He did write it when he was in his "man being chased" mode so it is a little action oriented, hence I understand why they chose to adapt it. I do agree that Woo will pump up the action and play down the whole "can one manipulate the future and control his own fate" thing which is what the whole story is about, but Hollywood never cares what the story is really about anyway. If it were me I'd adapt "Faith our Fathers", "Precious Artifact", or "A Little Something for us Tempunauts" a few of my favorites. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to do so.....yet. About the other adaptations: I actually liked Total Recall AND "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale". The story and movie were different enough in my opinion to like them both. Minority Report was quite good in some parts, but in general Spielberg and his screenwriter(s) completely ignored Dick's idea of fate(Spielberg, of course, goes for the cliched Hollywood optimism that we can all control our own destiny we just have to choose), "precogs"(yes they're in the movie but they bare little resemblance to Dick's precogs), and the belief that such a system would imprison those living in it. I guess you could argue that this last idea is still in the movie, but, in my opion, Spielberg just settles for the having a cliche bad guy in the end. I haven't seen Screamers ("Second Variety"). And I liked Blade Runner, but I have yet to read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Last edited by sadatx; 12-05-2003 at 01:21 AM..