Picturenose

Vengeance is mine!

Of the many adaptations of legendary graphic novel author Alan Moore, James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta (2005) is one that I think he would approve of. I say ‘think’, because he famously eschews the advances of the movie industry, and neither licenses nor watches any of the Hollywood adaptations of his art, preferring to let the graphic artists take the credit and the cash. He certainly wouldn’t like how the scriptwriters have changed the mission of the central character, V (Hugo Weaving), from anarchy to a much more screen-friendly freedom, but he’d probably enjoy how the style of the film captures the essence and feel of the original graphic novel series. Of course, I can’t and won’t speak for him, as he has already publicly denounced the screenplay, by Andy and Larry Wachowski, as ‘crap’ - I think he’s probably wrong.

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It’s been quite a decade or two for Philip K. Dick - it’s a pity he’s not still around to enjoy all the success his books have had when given the Hollywood treatment. I was a bit of a sci-fi fan in my youth, and always had a soft spot for Dick’s work. Admittedly, I spent an awful lot of time re-reading parts of his books that just didn’t make any sense, but I persevered and am very glad I did. Of course, our Phil has had many of his books or short stories turned into films - Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and some little-known cult hit called Blade Runner (1982). It is with great pleasure I learn that production will soon begin on UBIK, possibly my favourite (and certainly one of the strangest) of Dick’s stories. I’m really not sure how they’ll shoehorn the outrageous concepts onto celluloid, but I’m certainly looking forward to the finished product. You can read the press release here.

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