Begun September 2022 | 8,200 words | Contents | They say…
Digest: He hated the first screenplay but loved the second one – and the special effects he saw.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Contents
Dick’s notes for proposed Sheep film, 1968
More options: from Berman to Blade Runner
SelecTV Guide article: early screenplay
Interview: Hollywood, novelisation, screenplays
Dick’s letter praises production
Dick enthuses after seeing shots at studio
A personal opinion
Footnote
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Preamble
Why I wrote this post
In the 70s – I’m now in my 70s – I read one of Dick’s sci-fi books and was hooked. I avidly read them all, in no particular order. (Or most of them, anyway.)
As novels – as stories – Dick’s books are probably flawed, but I love the humour, humanity and genius imagination in his writing.
After my 70s binge, I continued to be – casually – fascinated by the man and his ideas. Then in a local charity bookshop I came across and bought an excellent book: The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (1) compiled by Lawrence Sutin.
I’ve since also discovered Sutin’s excellent authorised biography, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (2). I read the whole of Shifting Realities and skimmed the biography. (I find biographies hard going.) They were both very useful sources for this post.
Reading Shifting Realities, I was struck by an article Dick had written for a magazine, SelecTV Guide, about the Blade Runner screenplay he’d read. As a fan of the film, I was intrigued by his anger at Ridley Scott.
I posted about it on Facebook, then started this post. I hope it’s a useful contribution to the huge amount of stuff out there about the fascinating Philip K Dick.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Introduction
We want to know
Genius sci-fi writer Philip K Dick sadly died young(ish) in 1982 (aged 53, from strokes and heart failure) shortly before the release of Ridley Scott‘s film Blade Runner, adapted from Dick’s book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (hereon abbreviated as Sheep).
Fans, like me, of the book and the film, aware of the great differences between the two, may anxiously wonder what the famously obsessive Dick knew about the film-in-progress – and what he thought of it.
This post reports what I’ve found out about Dick’s views on:
- Pre-Blade Runner options for Sheep
- An early screenplay for Blade Runner
- Hollywood – good and bad
- The screenplay rewrite
- The pre-release shots he saw.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Dick’s notes for proposed Sheep film, 1968
Grace Slick as Rachael!
In 1968, Dick’s recently published Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was optioned by film producer Bertram Berman. Dick sent Berman some notes (3) on how the book might be made into a film.
In his notes to Berman, Dick analysed the possibilities with enthusiasm. He discussed changing the story and ditching parts of it. He analysed the characters and how their characteristics and relationships might be altered.
He wanted Deckard’s darkness and violence to be emphasised. He examined at length the philosophy of sex with an android.
He made casting suggestions: Gregory Peck as Deckard – and Grace Slick as Rachael!
Berman apparently didn’t respond, and his option expired in the 1970s. His indifference poignantly mismatched Dick’s confident eagerness.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
More options: from Berman to Blade Runner
‘Shall I beat you up here or at my apartment?’
After Berman’s option (see above) lapsed, Sheep was optioned by Herb Jaffe, and then by Hampton Fancher. Fancher’s screenplay was optioned by producer Michael Deeley and eventually filmed as Blade Runner.
Herb Jaffe
In the early 70s, film producer Herb Jaffe optioned Sheep. Wikipedia says Dick was unimpressed with the screenplay by Jaffe’s son, Robert. Dick said:
‘Jaffe’s screenplay was so terribly done … Robert flew down to Santa Ana to speak with me about the project. And the first thing I said to him when he got off the plane was, ‘Shall I beat you up here at the airport, or shall I beat you up back at my apartment?’
Wiki ref: Future Noir by Paul Sammon (10)
Dick’s bark was evidently worse than his bite. In an interview (14), he said of Robert and his screenplay:
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It was really bad news, but we remained very close friends after that and they finally let their option drop.
Hampton Fancher – background
Before getting the rights to Sheep and working on Blade Runner, Hampton Fancher was a film actor and would-be filmmaker.
In a 2017 interview to promote Blade Runner 2049 (which he co-wrote), Fancher spoke about writing Blade Runner.
He said that in 1975, after some unsuccessful attempts at filmmaking, he wanted to make a commercial film. He thought SF was the next big thing, and was advised by a friend to read Sheep.
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‘I went out, got it, read it, and I didn’t like it that much but I saw the through-line [*]: detective, bureaucrat, chasing after androids.’
[My bolding]
[* Through-line: North American; a connecting theme, plot, or characteristic in a film, television series, book, etc.]
Fancher’s astonishingly crass misreading of Sheep – unapologetically recalled some 40 years later – would cause Dick much anguish. (It’s also the through-line of this post.)
Anyway, Fancher sought out Dick and asked for the rights to Sheep. Dick told him the rights weren’t available. (Jaffe still held the option.)
Dick said (in the same interview as above) he and Fancher became good friends. But see below for Fancher’s less rosy recollection of their association.
Fancher gets the rights – kind of
Some time later, apparently, Fancher – possibly feeling rebuffed by Dick – asked his friend, the actor Brian Kelly – who’d got a big payout after a serious accident ended his acting career – to negotiate with Dick for the rights to Sheep.
Dick agreed to Kelly’s offer – Jaffe’s option had apparently been dropped by then – and Fancher wrote his screenplay (4).
Michael Deeley gets the screenplay
In 1977, award-winning British producer Michael Deeley optioned Fancher’s screenplay. Deeley convinced fellow-Brit and Alien director Ridley Scott to film it. Kelly and Fancher became executive producers.
In 1981, Fancher’s screenplay was rewritten by David Peoples. It was filmed by Scott as Blade Runner. The screenplay was credited to both Fancher and Peoples (7).
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
SelecTV Guide article: early screenplay
He hated it
In early 1981, the production of Blade Runner was underway but, astonishingly, the production company not only wasn’t consulting Dick – they hadn’t contacted him at all. Rude.
Somehow Dick heard about the film and his agent got him a copy of the screenplay (4) from producer Michael Deeley.
Dick hated the screenplay and wrote a snarky article about it, Universe Makers…And Breakers (5), for a sci-fi edition of SelecTV Guide, the magazine for a TV service he subscribed to.
The ostensible point of Dick’s article was that a breakthrough in special effects gave sci-fi movies box-office success but at the expense of story.
But the real point of the article was to criticise Scott and the Blade Runner screenplay Dick had read.
This excerpt gives Dick’s views not only on the Blade Runner screenplay (suppressed anger and disgust) but also on Alien (bad), Star Wars (not bad) and early Star Trek (very good):
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‘Ridley Scott, who directed Alien and who now intends to bring into existence a $15 million [*] film based on my novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, confessed to an interviewer from Omni magazine that he “found the novel too difficult to read,” despite the fact that the novel appeared as a mass-circulation paperback.
[* Blade Runner’s budget was actually about $30 million.]
‘On the other hand I was able rather easily to read the screenplay (it will be called Blade Runner). It was terrific. It bore no relation to the book. Oddly, in some ways it was better. (I had a hell of a time getting my hands on the screenplay. No one involved in the Blade Runner project has ever spoken to me. But that’s okay, I haven’t spoken to them.) What my story will become is one titanic lurid collision of androids being blown up, androids killing humans, general confusion and murder, all very exciting to watch. Makes my book seem dull by comparison.’
[My bolding]
‘Still, you wouldn’t want to see my novel on the screen because it is full of people conversing, plus the personal problems of the protagonist. These matters don’t translate to the screen. And why translate them, since a novel is a story in words, whereas a movie is an event that moves?…
‘As a writer, though, I’d sort of like to see some of my ideas, not just special effects of my ideas, used. For all its dazzling graphic impact, Alien (to take one example) had nothing new to bring us in the way of concepts that awaken the mind rather than the senses … Star Trek, years ago, delved more into provocative ideas than most big-budget sci-fi films today, and some of the finest authors in the science-fiction field wrote those hour TV episodes … But I must admit that the eerie, mystical, almost religious subtheme in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back enchanted me.’
(It’s now well known that Scott was also enchanted by Star Wars – that’s what made him decide to make Alien!)
In this article, Dick said the Blade Runner screenplay was terrific and in some ways better than his book. But given his later highly critical comments on the screenplay (see below), he was clearly being sarcastic.
In a later interview (14), Dick described his SelecTV Guide article as ‘smartassed’.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Interview: Hollywood, novelisation, screenplays
He loved the new screenplay
Interviewed in 1981 (6), Dick expounded on many aspects of his life and writings, including his hate/love relationship with Blade Runner.
He spoke about his relationship with Hollywood (fraught), the film company’s lucrative offer for him to write a film novelisation (rejected), the early screenplay (despised), and the revised screenplay (adored).
(My subheadings)
Hollywood
Dick: ‘I was supposed to go up there [to the Blade Runner studio]. They called me up and called me up, and I temporized and temporized. I thought — no, I’ll go up there and I’m on a diet, so I can’t eat the rich foods they’ll serve me, and what I’ll really hope for is a whole lot of free cocaine, and there won’t be any free cocaine, and I’ll be real pissed because of that. I’ll keep querulously, petulantly saying, “Where’s the cocaine?” and they’ll say, “No, that’s a myth, you’ve been reading TV Guide.”
‘I have been up there to another film project, the little Capitol Pictures one, called Claw [subsequently retitled Screamers, based on Dick’s short story Second Variety]. They’re very nice. I really like them. Every change that’s made, they send me a copy to get my opinion. They just treat me like a human being.
‘In other words, I am able to discriminate between essentially reputable people up there, and these high-pressure types. Shit, Blade Runner started yelling at me because, in an article that I wrote in the SelecTV Guide, I mentioned androids. They said, “That’s very dangerous talk, mentioning androids in connection with this film. We’re not using the word android.” Well, it seems hard to avoid a word that’s in the title of your own book. And they wanted to know how I’d gotten hold of a copy of the screenplay. “How did you get hold of it?” they said, with the emphasis on the word “you,” you know?…
Film novelisation
Dick: ‘The amount of money involved [in the proposed film novelisation] would have been very great, and the film people offered to cut us in on the merchandising rights. But they required a suppression of the original novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in favor of the commercialized novelization based on the screenplay. My agency computed that I would accrue, conservatively, $400,000 if I did the novelization. In contrast, if we went the route of rereleasing the original novel, I would make about $12,500.
‘Blade Runner’s people were putting tremendous pressure on us to do the novelization — or to allow someone else to come in and do it, like Alan Dean Foster. But we felt that the original was a good novel. And also, I did not want to write what I call the “El Cheapo” novelization…So we stuck to our guns, and at one point Blade Runner became so cold-blooded they threatened to withdraw the logo rights. We wouldn’t be able to say, “The novel on which Blade Runner is based.” We’d be unable to use any stills from the film. Finally we came to an agreement with them. We are adamant about rereleasing the original novel…
Note: In the event, Sheep was rereleased, and a novelisation was published. Wikipedia:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was eventually reprinted in 1982 as a tie-in [the film company got one percent], with the film poster as a cover and the original title [and, on the cover shown below, the author!] in parentheses below the Blade Runner title. Additionally, a novelization of the movie entitled Blade Runner: A Story of the Future by Les Martin was released in 1982.
[My bolding]
Dick: ‘You know, I was so turned off by Hollywood. And they were really turned off by me. That insistence on my part of bringing out the original novel and not doing the novelization — they were just furious. They finally recognized that there was a legitimate reason for reissuing the novel, even though it cost them money. It was a victory not just of contractual obligations but of theoretical principles. And although this is speculation on my part, I think that one of the spin-offs was that they went back to the original novel [*]. Because they knew it would be reissued, you see. So it is possible that it got fed back into the screenplay by a process of positive feedback.
[* They didn’t. See below]
Early screenplay
Dick: ‘I was such a harsh critic of Hampton Fancher’s original screenplay, and I was so outspoken, that the studio knows that my present attitude [regarding the novelisation] is sincere, that I’m not just hyping them. Because I was really angry and disgusted. There were good things in Fancher’s screenplay, but it’s like the story of the old lady who takes a ring into a jeweller to have the stone reset. And the jeweller scrapes all of the patina of years and years and shines it up, and she says, “My God, that was what I loved the ring for — the patina!” Okay, they had cleaned my book up of all of the subtleties and of the meaning. The meaning was gone. It had become a fight between androids and a bounty hunter.
‘I had this vision in my mind then that I would go up there and be introduced to Ridley Scott, and be introduced to Harrison Ford, who’s the lead character, and I’d just be so dazzled I’d be like Mr. Toad seeing the motorcar for the first time. My eyes would be wide as saucers and I’d just be standing there completely mesmerized. Then I would watch a scene being shot. And Harrison Ford would say, “Lower that blast-pistol or you’re a dead android!” And I would just leap across that special effects set like a veritable gazelle and seize him by the throat and start battering him against the wall. They’d have to run in and throw a blanket over me and call the security guards to bring in the Thorazine. And I’d be screaming, “You’ve destroyed my book!”
‘That would be a little item in the newspaper: “Obscure Author Becomes Psychotic on H’wood Set; Minor Damage, Mostly to the Author.” They’d have to ship me back to Orange County in a crate full of air holes. And I’d still be screaming.
‘I started drinking a whole lot of scotch. I went from a thimbleful to a jigger glass and finally to two wine glasses of scotch every night. Last Memorial Day I started bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding. And it was because of drinking scotch and taking aspirin constantly and worrying about this whole goddamned thing. I said, “Hollywood is gonna kill me by remote control!”
‘One is always haunted by the specter of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who goes there and they just grind him up, like in a garbage disposal.’
Revised screenplay
Interviewer: All of that changed when you saw David W. Peoples’ revised screenplay?
Dick: I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull’s special effects for Blade Runner on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly.
‘I wrote the station, and they sent the letter to the Ladd Company. [See below] They gave me the updated screenplay [7]. I read it without knowing they had brought somebody else in. I couldn’t believe what I was reading! It was simply sensational — still Hampton Fancher’s screenplay, but miraculously transfigured, as it were. The whole thing had simply been rejuvenated in a very fundamental way.
‘After I finished reading the screenplay, I got the novel out and looked through it. The two reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel. I was amazed that Peoples could get some of those scenes to work. It taught me things about writing that I didn’t know.
‘… I was so disappointed when I read the first Blade Runner screenplay, because it was … a destruction of the novel. But now, it’s magic time. You read the screenplay and then you go to the novel, and it’s like they’re two halves to one meta-artwork, one meta-artifact. It’s just exciting.
‘… It’s been the greatest thing for me. I was just destroyed at one point at the prospect of this awful thing that had happened to my work. I wouldn’t go up there, I wouldn’t talk to them, I wouldn’t meet Ridley Scott. I was supposed to be wined and dined and everything, and I wouldn’t go, I just wouldn’t go. There was bad blood between us.
‘That David W. Peoples screenplay changed my attitude. He had been working on the third Star Wars film, Revenge of the Jedi. The Blade Runner people hired him away temporarily to do the script by showing him my novel. [*] I’m now working very closely with the Ladd Company and I’m on very good terms with them. In fact, that’s one of the things that’s worn me out.’
* In his enthusiasm for People’s rewrite, Dick over-egged the pudding. Peoples wasn’t shown Dick’s novel. In a 2017 podcast (15), he said he never read it (and he thought Fancher’s script was ‘awesome’). And he wasn’t hired away from Jedi. Although he apparently made uncredited contributions to that film (renamed Return of the Jedi), in the 2017 podcast he said he moved to Blade Runner after a project with Tony Scott, Ridley’s brother. (Tony introduced him to Ridley.)
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Dick’s letter praises production
I think he liked it
In October 1981, Dick wrote a gushing letter (9) to the production company after seeing a TV show featuring shots from the film:
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‘…After looking [at the shots] – and especially after listening to Harrison Ford discuss the film – I came to the conclusion that this indeed is not science fiction; it is not fantasy; it is exactly what Harrison said: futurism. The impact of Blade Runner is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative people — and, I believe, on science fiction as a field. Since I have been writing and selling science fiction works for thirty years, this is a matter of some importance to me. In all candor I must say that our field has gradually and steadily been deteriorating for the last few years. Nothing that we have done, individually or collectively, matches Blade Runner. This is not escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day “reality” pallid by comparison. What I am saying is that all of you collectively may have created a unique new form of graphic, artistic expression, never before seen. And, I think, Blade Runner is going to revolutionize our conceptions of what science fiction is and, more, can be.
‘Let me sum it up this way. Science fiction has slowly and ineluctably settled into a monotonous death: it has become inbred, derivative, stale. Suddenly you people have come in, some of the greatest talents currently in existence, and now we have a new life, a new start. As for my own role in the Blade Runner project, I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runner. Thank you … It will prove invincible.’
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Dick enthuses after seeing shots at studio
He definitely liked it
In early 1982, the Blade Runner production company, after getting Dick’s enthusiastic letter of approval and giving him the new screenplay, arranged for him to see some pre-release shots.
On arrival at the studio, a grouchy Dick apparently had things to get off his chest – but after the showing, he expressed great enthusiasm for the shots.
Dick was shown the shots by special effects chief David Dryer (who’d taken over from Douglas Trumbull).
In his book about Blade Runner (10), filmmaker and photographer Paul Sammon – who was making a photographic record of the production – relates Dryer’s recollection of the event (plus a few words – seven, actually – from the famously laconic Scott).
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[Dryer:] “I could tell right away that Dick was unhappy; he acted like somebody with a burr up their ass. First he started kind of grilling me in this grouchy tone about all kinds of things. He wanted to know what was going on, told me that he’d been very unhappy with the script, and so on and so forth.
“So first we gave him a quick tour of the EEG [*] shop, which I thought might settle him down. But Dick didn’t seem impressed, even when we showed him all the preproduction art and the actual models we’d used for certain effects shots. Then after Dick and Ridley had a meeting we went into the screening room.”
[* EEG: Entertainment Effects Group, a special photographic effects company owned by Douglas Trumbull]
“Dick was a bit guarded at first,” recalls Ridley Scott. “Until we doused the lights, turned up the music, and ran the reel for him,” adds Dryer. “Dick didn’t say a word at first. He sat there for twenty minutes like a statue. Then the lights came up, and Dick turned around to me. He said in this gruff voice, ‘Can you run that again?’ So the projectionist rethreaded and ran it again.”
“Now the lights come up a second time. Dick looks me straight in the eye and says, ‘How is this possible? How can this be? Those are not the exact images, but the texture and tone of the images I saw in my head when I was writing the original book! The environment is exactly as how I’d imagined it! How’d you guys do that? How did you know what I was feeling and thinking?’
“Let me tell you, that was one of the most successful moments of my career,” Dryer concludes. “Dick went away dazed.”
Sammon, who’d known Dick since the early 70’s, said (11) Dick called him after the showing and said, ‘I can’t believe it. Where can I get a Deckard action figure?’.
Interviewed by Sammon (12) about the film, Dick enthused about the thrilling detail of the street shots he’d seen.
It wasn’t all sweetness and light at the showing. In the Sammon interview, Dick said during his conversation with Scott they disagreed about the androids (or replicants).
Dick said he based Sheep‘s androids on his research for The Man in the High Castle (his 1962 alternative-history novel where Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan rule the United States).
He told Scott the androids, lacking empathy, were a threat to humans; and Deckard, in hunting them, became like them.
Dick said Scott wasn’t interested in that intellectual aspect, but saw the replicants as superior. Dick said the conversation was nevertheless cordial.
(Actually, Scott was probably completely unaware of Dick’s critical comments on Alien) | Photo: Ladd Company
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion
Kind of
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Do androids dream? Rick asked himself. Evidently; that’s why they occasionally kill their employers and flee here. A better life.
Contents
Peoples praised Fancher; didn’t read book
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
INTRODUCTION
U turn if you want to
At first, Dick hated the film. He called it Road Runner. But after he saw pre-release shots and read the rewrite, he dramatically changed his mind.
Fans like me of both the book and the film may wonder at this point: how come Dick so loved the special effects shots he saw and the new screenplay, when the film – as it was shaping up – was so different from his precious book?
Was Dick’s U-turn enthusiasm justified? Was it, as screenplay rewriter David Peoples has suggested, the special effects shots he saw that turned him around?
A 2017 article by Rob Harvilla (13) addressed that question in detail with wit, empathy and appreciation. Harvilla convincingly concluded that while Blade Runner isn’t a faithful adaption, it’s nevertheless true to Dick’s vision.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
DICK ON THE SCREENPLAY
Stepford Wives
In a 1982 interview with James Van Hise (14), Dick said the original screenplay was ‘Philip Marlowe meets The Stepford Wives’ and – with typically humorous hyperbole – expressed his despair:
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‘When I read it originally I thought that I will move to the Soviet Union where I am completely unknown and work making light bulbs in a factory and never even look at a book again and pretend I can’t read.’
But he thought the new screenplay miraculously complemented the book:
-
‘They took a good book [*] and made a good screenplay. The two reinforce each other, two parts of a single whole. If you start with the book, the screenplay adds material to it. If you start with the screenplay, the book adds to that. They’re beautifully symmetrical, a real miracle.’
[* But see below – they didn’t]
[My precis and bolding]
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
PEOPLES PRAISED FANCHER; DIDN’T READ BOOK
Scott: ‘Don’t bother’
Was the first script, by Hampton Fancher, really that bad? And did rewriter David Peoples actually read the book? No and No, according to Peoples.
In October 2017, shortly after the release of Blade Runner 2049, a podcast (15) featuring Peoples, then 77, and Fancher, 79, considered the screenplay for the original Blade Runner.
In the podcast, Peoples and Fancher (who apparently became friends after the first film’s release) amiably recalled the difficulties of giving director Ridley Scott what he needed. (They agreed Scott was always right.)
What did Peoples think of Fancher’s script?
Apparently, he loved it. Although he was hired to rewrite Fancher’s script, Peoples said in the podcast he felt there was nothing he could do to improve it. He described it as ‘fantastic’, ‘awesome’ and even, in parts, ‘exquisite’.
Did Peoples read the book?
Apparently, not. In the podcast, Peoples said he asked Scott if he should read Sheep, and Scott said, ‘Don’t bother’. (Fancher said Scott didn’t read it.) Peoples said he had ‘no eagerness‘ to read it.
The 1989 authorised biography of Dick by Lawrence Sutin (2) bears this out:
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Peoples thought Fancher’s initial script excellent and never read Androids before or after his rewrite.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
FANCHER – DICK’S DEMON?
Dissed Dick – but got the film made
Was Hampton Fancher Dick’s demon?
In early 1981, when Dick read Fancher’s screenplay (4), his reaction was intense: he was very upset and critical.
Dick said he felt destroyed. He said although there were good things in the screenplay, the book’s meaning was gone.
(David Peoples, who’s script rewrite was highly praised by Dick, loved Fancher’s script. He said it was ‘awesome’ and in parts even ‘exquisite’. But Peoples didn’t read the book.)
Fancher’s interest in Sheep began in 1975. Wanting to make a commercial film and thinking SF was the next big thing, Fancher was advised by a friend to read Sheep. He said:
- ‘I went out, got it, read it, and I didn’t like it that much but I saw the through-line: detective, bureaucrat, chasing after androids.’
Fancher then sought out Dick to ask for the rights to Sheep. The rights weren’t available at that time but Dick said in an interview (14) that he and Fancher became good friends.
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We had a lot of fun together. Fancher and I got along very well. I became real good friends with him and his girlfriend, Barbara Hershey.
Fancher later got the rights to Sheep and wrote his screenplay. In a 2017 podcast (15), he said Hershey encouraged him in doing that.
In the same podcast, Fancher spoke dismissively about his association with Dick, gainsaying Dick’s recollection of fun and friendship.
Fancher said they met three times in 1975. He grudgingly conceded Dick was a genius and very intelligent, but said he was ‘crazy’. He said he ‘wasn’t into’ Dick and ‘didn’t read him’. He said Dick was very talkative and ‘took all the oxygen’.
It’s true Dick was wrestling with apparently borderline-crazy ideas (later published as The Exegesis). Maybe he sometimes tended to dominate or curate conversations. Nonetheless, by other accounts he remained sane, sociable and friendly.
Before Blade Runner, Fancher was a minor actor with filmaking aspirations. He built his success on the unique imagination of Dick. In spite of Dick’s strong criticism of his screenplay, Fancher owed Dick his appreciation.
Fancher said Dick was a genius; but otherwise, with bad grace, he was curtly dismissive of a man who claimed to have become ‘real good friends’ with him.
In the 2017 podcast, Fancher came across as arrogant. He sounded high or hungover (but if he was, that’s no excuse).
Blade Runner 2049 – for which Fancher wrote the story and co-wrote the script – was released a few days before the podcast. That might explain the apparent high or hangover. (And the podcast.)
(BR49 was pretty bad. This was mainly down to Denis Villeneuve’s directorbot direction, but writer Fancher must take most of the blame for the unmemorable story and the dull dialogue.)
In the 2017 podcast, Fancher said he didn’t read Dick. But he did read Sheep. Ironically, given his low opinion of Dick’s work and his crass misreading of Sheep’s theme, Fancher seems to be the only person involved with the film who actually read the book.
In any case, Dick found Fancher’s screenplay unsympathetic to his vision. He expressed his anger and despair. He didn’t hold back.
- I was really angry and disgusted. There were good things in Fancher’s screenplay, but the meaning was gone. It had become a fight between androids and a bounty hunter.
I started drinking a lot of scotch. I started gastrointestinal bleeding because of drinking scotch and taking aspirin constantly and worrying about this whole goddamned thing. I said, “Hollywood is gonna kill me by remote control!
I was so disappointed when I read the first Blade Runner screenplay, because it was a destruction of the novel. I was just destroyed at one point at the prospect of this awful thing that had happened to my work. It was Philip Marlowe meets The Stepford Wives. It was a lurid collision of androids and humans blowing each other up. That whole Mickey Spillane-type thing was so terrible.
When I read it originally I thought that I will move to the Soviet Union where I am completely unknown and work making light bulbs in a factory and never even look at a book again and pretend I can’t read.
So – was Fancher Dick’s demon?
The strokes that ended Dick’s life were probably caused by a long-term underlying condition such as high blood pressure. His intense anger towards Fancher’s script probably didn’t help.
But although Fancher might be a jerk, and apparently didn’t get Dick or Sheep, he wasn’t Dick’s demon.
If anything, Dick was his own demon. He clearly had the habit of winding himself up.
In fact, with hindsight, if Fancher owed Dick appreciation for his success, the reverse is also true.
Dick’s current high reputation was kick-started by Blade Runner. In spite of Fancher mangling his book, Dick – albeit posthumously – owes Fancher appreciation for getting the film made.
Whatever Fancher’s faults, it’s largely due to his efforts – his original idea (however misconcieved) and his perseverance in getting the rights, writing his screenplay and getting it produced – that Blade Runner got made by Scott. It’s not easy, getting a film made – however good the source material.
Dick’s fans are bound to take Dick’s side about Fancher’s screenplay, but those of us who also love Blade Runner have to say (perhaps through gritted teeth) to co-screenwriter and co-executive producer Fancher: thanks for that, Hampton.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
PEOPLES – DICK’S SAVIOUR?
Politely dismissive
Was David Peoples Dick’s saviour?
In August 1981, when Dick read Peoples’ rewrite (7) of Hampton Fancher’s script, his reaction was again intense, but in a good way – he was very happy and highly appreciative.
Dick said it was ‘the greatest thing’ for him. He said Peoples had ‘rejuvenated’ Fancher’s script ‘in a very fundamental way’.
But in a 2017 podcast (15), Peoples praised Fancher’s script, and was modest about his own contribution. He said there may have been sections by both writers in both the screenplays Dick saw.
Peoples suggested Dick naturally disliked the first draft because it messed with his book, but after liking the shots he saw, he wanted to like the second draft.
However, in spite of Peoples’ modest appraisal of his input and although he didn’t read the book – saying, in his politely dismissive way, he had ‘no eagerness’ to read it – his rewrite somehow made the connection with the book that Dick raved about.
Perhaps it was, as Dick said, a real miracle (albeit Dick wrongly assumed Peoples read the book).
Regarding miracles, Dick wrote in a 1978 essay explaining his radical Christian gnostic views that only healing miracles had significance. (16)
Peoples’ rewrite certainly had a healing effect on Dick’s state of mind. After reading Fancher’s screenplay, Dick was drinking heavily, and in despair. About the rewrite by Peoples, he said:
-
I couldn’t believe what I was reading! It was simply sensational — still Hampton Fancher’s screenplay, but miraculously transfigured…It’s been the greatest thing for me. I was just destroyed at one point at the prospect of this awful thing that had happened to my work…That David W. Peoples screenplay changed my attitude.
[My bolding]
So – was Peoples Dick’s saviour?
Peoples came across in the 2017 podcast as a decent chap – but he clearly had no interest in Dick’s writings.
However, given Dick’s uplifted attitude and his enthusiasm about the rewrite, perhaps – inadvertently – Peoples was Dick’s saviour. Hallelujah.
(Sadly, any miraculous healing effect wasn’t enough to prevent Dick’s untimely death a few months later.)
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
SPECIAL EFFECTS
‘How did you know?’
As for the special effects that so impressed Dick, he attributed them solely to Douglas Trumbull, but during the production Trumbull was replaced as special effects supervisor by David Dryer.
(Trumbull left by prior arrangement to direct Brainstorm, and Dryer was appointed on Trumbull’s recommendation.)
Other people were inolved in the design of Blade Runner, of course.
The film’s design was initially the brainchild of director Ridley Scott (college-trained as a designer) and neo-futurist Syd Mead, the film’s concept artist.
Mead was inspired by Scott’s well known idea of ‘Hong Kong on a very bad day’; and both were influenced by French comic book artist Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud.
Scott’s and Mead’s sketches were realised by production designer Lawrence Paull and art director David Snyder.
So the film’s design was, of course, a team effort led by Scott. But the wonderful special effects created by Trumbull and Dryer made a world Dick recognised as his own.
The shots Dick saw at the studio prompted him to say to Dryer, ‘How did you know what I was feeling and thinking?’.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
ANDROIDS V REPLICANTS
A compromise
Regarding the disagreement about the androids/replicants (see above), Dick seemed to accept Scott’s replicants, perhaps as a necessary compromise.
In his novel, Dick faced the androids’ dangerous inhumanity. Scott, having not read the book, had no interest in that. He humanised his replicants – but was making a brilliant film.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Conclusion 🔼
HE LOVED IT
Love is all you need
So… what did Philip K Dick think of (pre-release) Blade Runner? He loved it. That makes this fan of the book and the film very happy. Less anxious.
Dick couldn’t know controversial changes would be made after audience testing: a happy ending inserted and a Marlowe-esque voice-over added.
He might not have approved of the released version. But I like to think he’d have loved The Final Cut.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
The end bit
Vale
Dick apparently started to get decent book payments shortly before his death, but he spent much of his adult life in near poverty.
For instance, his payment for the 1981 article about Fancher’s screenplay, written for his TV subscription company’s magazine, was a year’s free subscription.
Since the success of Blade Runner and other major films based on his books (such as the dodgy but high-earning Schwarzenegger Total Recall), Dick’s estate (run by his daughter Isa Dick Hackett and her siblings) has generated tens of millions of dollars from book royalties, rights and licensing fees.
It’s a shame Dick didn’t live to enjoy that deserved financial reward – and to see more of his ideas being used in films. His brilliant ideas have been used not as hooks to hang special effects on, but in their own right – as he hoped.
Blade Runner‘s production hoo-hah had a successful outcome, but Dick’s intense response apparently took its toll on his health.
Ironically, it probably contributed to Dick’s sad early death – which meant he never got to see the finished version (!) of the wonderful Blade Runner.
I asked Isa Dick Hackett, Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples for their comments. None have replied. 😢
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Sources
Check it out yourself
1. Sutin book: The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick
2. Sutin book: Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick
3. Dick: 1968 notes on Sheep film
5. Dick: SelecTV Guide article
6. Interview on Philip K. Dick site
7. Blade Runner screenplay (Peoples’ rewrite)
8. Peoples ‘never read Androids‘; thought Fancher’s script ‘excellent’
9. Dick’s letter to Ladd Company
10. Paul Sammon book: Future Noir
11. Paul Sammon: ‘Deckard action figure’
12. Paul Sammon: Dick interview
14. James Van Hise: Dick interview
15. Podcast with Peoples and Fancher
16. Dick on healing miracles in Cosmogony and Cosmology
1. Lawrence Sutin book: Shifting Realities
1995 | The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings compiled and introduced by author Lawrence Sutin | Ref: Preamble
2. Lawrence Sutin’s biography of Dick
1989 | Authorised biography | Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick by author Lawrence Sutin | Ref 1: Preamble | Ref 2: Did Peoples read the book?
3. Dick: 1968 notes on Sheep film
May 1968 | Dick’s Notes on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as sent to producer who optioned the book | Referenced above | First published in Philip K. Dick Society newsletter #18 (August 1988)* | PKDS newsletter facsimile on Cornell University Android Dreams site | Text reproduced in The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick by Lawrence Sutin
* Bizarrely, PKDS newsletters aren’t online. However, photocopies can be bought here. Update: Or, rather, they could be. Not currently, apparently. Watch this space. There’s a private PKDS Facebook page I’ve applied to join. And I await info from the widow of late PKDS maestro Paul Williams.
4. Fancher’s screenplay
July 1980 | Hampton Fancher’s screenplay (as reproduced in script format on resource site The Daily Script) | Ref 1: Fancher’s option | Ref 2: Dick’s SelecTV article* | Ref 3: Fancher – Dick’s demon?
* Written after Dick saw an early script – presumably this one
5. Dick: SelecTV Guide article
February 1981 | Dick’s article Universe Makers…And Breakers [sic*] for SelecTV Guide** | Referenced and quoted above | Written in response to an early Blade Runner screenplay | Reproduced in The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick by Lawrence Sutin
* The clumsy ellipsis was apparently Dick’s. (No one’s perfect.)
** Dick wrote the article for a sci-fi edition of SelecTV Guide, the monthly guide to a local paid-for TV film service. Dick’s payment was a year’s subscription.
6. Interview on Philip K. Dick site
1981 | Interview on resource site Philip K. Dick | Quote 1: Interview | Quote 2: Fancher | Collated from two 1981 interviews originally published in The Twilight Zone (June 1982) and The Patchin Review (October 1982)
7. Blade Runner screenplay (Peoples’ rewrite)
February 1981 | Blade Runner screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples* (as reproduced in script format on resource site The Daily Script) | Sent to Dick in August 1981 – understood by Dick to be Peoples’ rewrite | Ref 1: Fancher’s option | Ref 2: Getting new screenplay: Dick’s account | Ref 3: subject of podcast | Ref 4: Peoples – Dick’s saviour?
* The film credits the screenplay to both writers, in that order (below). Fancher wrote his script after getting the rights to Sheep. Ridley Scott hired Peoples to rewrite the script, fired Fancher and then re-hired him; and used work by both writers. IMDB lists the writers as Fancher, Peoples and Dick, in that order. Dick’s name appears in the end credits
8. Peoples ‘never read Androids‘; thought Fancher’s script ‘excellent’
Referenced above | From approved biography, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (1989), by Lawrence Sutin:
David Peoples, who in early 1981 was called in to do a rewrite of the Fancher script, doesn’t recall Phil’s name ever coming up in meetings. Peoples thought Fancher’s initial script excellent and never read Androids, before or after his rewrite.
[Ch 12, P 275 – my bolding and italics]
9. Dick’s letter to Ladd Company
October 1981 | Dick’s letter to Blade Runner film company, Ladd | Quoted above | Written after Dick saw pre-release shots on TV | Text and facsimile on many sites including Letters of Note
10. Paul Sammon book: Future Noir
2017 | Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by filmmaker, author and photographer Paul Sammon (revised and updated 2017) | Ref 1: Dick’s reaction to Robert Jaffe’s screenplay (excerpt from Wikipedia) | Ref 2: report on Dick seeing shots at studio (excerpt from Flavorwire)
11. Paul Sammon: ‘Deckard action figure’
2017 | Comment by Future Noir author Paul Sammon | Referenced above (reported in public radio station KPCC article, Philip Dick wasn’t crazy about his novel being adapted into ‘Blade Runner’)
12. Paul Sammon: Dick interview
1980-82 | YouTube audio Interview with Dick by Future Noir author Paul Sammon | Referenced above
13. Rob Harvilla article
2017 | Ringer article: ‘Blade Runner’ Is Still the Truest Philip K. Dick Adaptation by Rob Harvilla | Referenced above
14. James Van Hise: Dick interview
Late 1981 | Interview: Philip K. Dick On ‘Blade Runner’ by historian and author James Van Hise | Quote 1: Robert Jaffe | Ref: ‘smartassed’ | Quote 2: the screenplay | Quote 3: friendship with Fancher | Quote 4: Criticism of Fancher | Originally published in Starlog (February 1982) | Reproduced on Scraps from the Loft
15. Podcast with Peoples and Fancher
October 2017 | Podcast*: Blade Runner (’82) – Fancher & Peoples Q&A | Hosted by Jeff Goldsmith | Ref 1: how Peoples moved to Blade Runner | Ref 2: Peoples praised Fancher, didn’t read book | Ref 3: Hampton Fancher | Ref 4: David Peoples
*Podcast: Digital audio file available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically part of a series.
16. Dick on healing miracles in Cosmogony and Cosmology
January 1978 | Dick’s essay Cosmogony and Cosmology | Reproduced in The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick by Lawrence Sutin | Referenced above |’Expressly intended by Dick as a summary of the key insights in the Exegesis‘ (Sutin)* | First published by Kerosina Books (1987)
Christ’s healing miracles were the substantial indication that the Just Kingdom had arrived; other kinds of miracles meant little or nothing.
From Cosmogony and Cosmology in Shifting Realities, part 5, P 307 – my bolding
* Dick’s biographer Sutin said Dick’s Exegesis project ‘didn’t mean [he was] putting on self-righteous airs or forgetting to have fun’. Sutin said Dick, in a humorous critical ‘review’ of his Exegesis-related 1981 book The Divine Invasion, wrote, ‘Take some much-deserved R&R: stop writing, Phil, watch TV, maybe smoke a joint’. [My bolding.]
Apparently, sci-fi fanzine Venom accepted Dick’s spoof review, and Dick suggested the anagramic pseudonym Chipdip K. Kill (as used by John Sladek for his 1973 Dick parody, Solar Shoe-Salesman).
But Venom’s next edition wasn’t published, and neither was Dick’s review. This may have been due to a shadowy connection between the fanzine and Divine Invasion editor David Hartwell, who may have seen Dick’s spoof as bad publicity.
(The Kill review isn’t online AFAIK, but it’s in PKDS #29. Apparently.)
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
A personal opinion
Blade Runner 2049 was crap
Gosling and Villeneuve: zzzzzz…
Several sources referenced above date from 2017. They were cashing in (and why not?) on the well publicised but crap sequel film, Blade Runner 2049.
Yes, I saw it – of course. I would have left after 20 minutes but my completist wife was there, so we saw the whole mind-numbing two hours, 35 (count ’em) minutes.
How was BR49 crap? To be fair, it had great visuals and music. But – Ryan Gosling. Oh dear. He thinks he’s Robert Mitchum and doesn’t need to act. He isn’t; he does. He needs a good director – but see below.
Great story? Can’t remember it, so… But I can remember long, boring scenes with nothing but pointless, dull dialogue.
BR49 storywriter and screenplay co-writer Hampton Fancher – whose Blade Runner screenplay was described by Dick as ‘Philip Marlowe meets The Stepford Wives’ – must take much of the blame for that.
But mainly I blame the director – one of Dick’s Sheep androids disguised as Denis Villeneuve.
As with the weirdly stilted and deeply meaningless stuff produced by chatbots*, BR49 was like a film made by a directorbot.
- *Edit: Since the Great Leap Forward of chatbots, ChatGPT and other super-chatbots can now produce convincing and readable content (but can’t always be trusted).
Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune (though neither Gosling nor Fancher were involved) had a similar problem.
As with BR49, Dune looked and sounded good. But Frank Herbert’s filmogenic story – an exotic hippy classic loved by many boomers like me – was flattened by the steamroller of Villeneuve’s portentous vacuousness.
- i could add a disclaimer:
just my opinion
but it’s not
i want it to be:
the truth
(but it’s not)
Hugo Brucciani, 1974
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
Footnote
Versions of Blade Runner
Final?
How many are there? Seven, apparently.
Author Ryan Britt has a well informed and good humoured take on the Great Debate in his Den of Geek article, Which Blade Runner Cut Is Really the Best? (Spoiler: it’s The Final Cut.)
I’ve got The Final Cut on DVD. I’m trying to persuade my (uninitiated) wife to watch it with me, to expunge the BR49 atrocity.
What did Philip K Dick think of Blade Runner?
They say…
Quotes about this post
I enjoyed reading your blog, which I thought was astute and thorough
Lawrence Sutin, author:
The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (1995) and Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick (1989)
Dug your post a lot! You know your shit
Rob Harvilla, writer:
‘Blade Runner’ Is Still the Truest Philip K. Dick Adaptation
(Online article, The Ringer, October 2017)
It is well done
James Van Hise, historian, author and writer:
Philip K. Dick On ‘Blade Runner’
(Article, originally in Starlog, February 1982)
Nicely done
Paul Sammon, filmmaker and author:
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner
(Book, revised and updated edition, 2017)
Lots of cool research…nice work
Ryan Britt, author and writer:
Which Blade Runner Cut Is Really the Best?
(Online article, Den of Geek, November 2021)
Great blogpost!
Tim Shanahan, professor of philosophy and author:
Philosophy and Blade Runner
(Book, 2014)
Great post
Special Agent Dale Cooper, admin:
Off-world: The Blade Runner Wiki
Dear Reader/Scanner, feel free to Comment
(All comments will be answered.)
soothfairy 
thank you for your work in writing this, clearly blade runner is not dick’s baby but I like to think that every time I watch the film he stays with us through his ideas for a little while longer. cheers 🙂
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Thanks for your comment, Anonymous. Yes, that’s how I feel too.
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