Like Stephen King, Philip K. Dick is an author whose literary works have been adapted into several films. One of his novels from 1962, The Man In The High Castle, was even turned into a series on Amazon Prime Video.
Based on a Philip K. Dick short story, the movie Screamers takes place in the year 2078, and it's about machines that become intelligent and evolve. Sounds familiar? The source material, Second Variety, was published in 1953.
Released in 1995, Screamers lacks the super high production value seen in other Philip K. Dick-based films, like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. However, the sci-fi action thriller was co-written by Dan O'Bannon, and it has a very creative story, particularly about what it means to be human. Dan O'Bannon is the accomplished screenwriter of modern sci-fi movie classics, like Alien, Total Recall (1990), and Blue Thunder, another one of my all-time favorites.
With Peter Weller from Robocop in the starring role, Screamers is an underrated science fiction film, and I actually would not mind seeing it get remade and rebooted. In the hands of the right filmmakers, it has the potential to become a highly successful film series and franchise.
With such an imaginative mind, Philip K. Dick tells memorable and thought-provoking stories about people's reality. And because of their universal themes, I think they can appeal to a broad audience, not just science fiction. Take Screamers as an example.
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