essays & effluvia: Next

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Most relationships in Hollywood fizzle after a couple months; Hollywood has been going steady with Philip K. Dick for 25 years. Tinseltown's appetite for his trademark paranoid-futuristic vibe is bottomless, and there seems to be no end to the number of his works that get the big-screen treatment.

The streak began with 1982's "Blade Runner" and included "Total Recall" (1990), "Screamers" (1996), "Minority Report" (2002), "Paycheck" (2003) and last year's "A Scanner Darkly." His work has also served as the basis for a play, an opera and a video game.

This Firday's release of "Next," (starring Nicolas Cage) is about a man who can glimpse the future.

"Adjustment Team"

Published: 1954

Riffing on Dick's favorite theme, the fungible nature of reality, real estate salesman Ed Fletcher discovers that the world is nothing more than a giant soundstage controlled by mysterious guardians. Hmm, perhaps Jim Carrey will star.

"Time Out of Joint"

Published: 1959

Ragle Gumm believes he's living in an idyllic town in 1959, but comes to realize he actually lives in the future and that his reality is a fake, created to shield citizens from the truth: that the Earth is engaged in a nuclear war with colonists on the moon.

"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said"

Published: 1974

Jason Taverner, who lives in a futuristic police state, awakes in a hotel room to find his ID missing. After a few inquiries, he discovers that his entire identity has been erased and even his closest friends don't recognize him.

"Valis"

Published: 1981

After receiving communion in the form of a blast of laser light, Horselover Fat goes on a quest for God, and finds Him in the form of a 2-year-old named Sophia, who confirms that God is actually a reality-controlling satellite orbiting the Earth.

"Radio Free Albermuth"

Published: 1985

In an America ruled by a corrupt president, record executive Nicholas Brady begins receiving transmissions from a mysterious, all-powerful satellite that orders him to organize a movement to overthrow the government.