Daily Archives: August 3, 2012
Big Ideas On The Big Screen – Phillip K. Dick In Hollywood
Words like “imaginative”, “mind-bending”, and “psychologically unsettling” are often applied to the science-fiction novels of Phillip K. Dick. He wrote stories with big ideas.
At the same time, his novels have been almost uncomfortably fertile ground for adaptation into big-budget Hollywood films – some faithfully, and some very, very loosely. And while we’re on the subject of Total Recall, let me mention Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”. The story of a quiet, unassuming man who tries to book a virtual vacation only to find out that it’s actually happened has become a massive, explosive, ultraviolent action movie not once, but twice.
Twice.
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Total Recall vs Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Biff Bam Pop’s Box Office Predictions 08/03/2012
This weekend, a sci-fi remake and the third entry in a family friendly franchise look to topple The Dark Knight Rises from the top of the box office. Do either of them have a chance, or will the numbers recall the last few weekends?
Let’s be real – I don’t think anybody has been waiting for a Total Recall remake. The original, a classic, über violent sci-fi flick with Arnold Schwarzenegger, is still well-regarded, even if it did have very little resemblance to its source material, the novel We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Phillip K. Dick. A remake with Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel and directed by Len Wiseman was a hard sell for me…and then the trailers started hitting the web. And they look good. I think Total Recall could be a decent hit – not a blockbuster, but it could find an audience that hasn’t particularly been well served with pure science fiction this summer. What the film has going against is none of the leads can really open a film. On that note, I’m predicting a second place showing for Total Recall with $28 million.
Check out the rest of our predictions after the jump!
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