Unfilmable: The weird world of Philip K. ******

“Next,” a sci-fi thriller starring Nicholas Cage, opens this week.

Judging by its trailer, who would ever guess it’s based on a short story more than 50 years old?

Philip K. Dick’s “The Golden Man,” published in 1954, is the basis for this 90-minute special effects showcase, although it seems the filmmakers have jettisoned everything about Dick’s original story aside from its basic premise: a mutant with an instinctive ability to see into the future is pursued by the government.

This is a fate that’s often befallen Dick’s works. His stories are often just too multilayered to be filmed as-is. So, the studio folks just cop the central idea and run with it. The end results are often a disappointment to Dick’s fans, smearing his legacy.

Here’s a brief guide to the Hollywood films inspired by the 20th century’s most fascinating science fiction author:

“Blade Runner” — Based on the novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Blade Runner” was the only film produced while Dick was alive. It deals with bioethics, cloning and the perils of unchecked environmental destruction. Dick died shortly before its release, but did see some footage of its special effects sequences. He reportedly described the hellish vision of Los Angeles in the year 2019 as “exactly as how I'd imagined it!” The movie differs from the novel in many ways, but stays true to its bleak tone and moral themes. Harrison Ford hated working on this long, grueling production, but his obvious misery adds to his performance as a beaten-down ex-cop.

“Total Recall” — Based on the short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” this movie finds Arnold Schwarzenegger playing an average Joe who thinks he’s going on a fantasy vacation as a secret agent on Mars. He can’t afford to really go on vacation, so he has false memories of the adventure implanted in his head. But the twist is, he might have actually been a secret agent whose memories were wiped. What’s fantasy and what’s reality is never clear. This movie, while filled with more violence and gore than the original story, is still a fun, paranoid action thriller.

“Screamers” — Based on the short story, “Second Variety.” This is actually a Dick story that could’ve been adapted to the screen with few changes. “Second Variety” is a bang-up action yarn about humans locked in a losing war against super-intelligent machines. “Screamers,” which stars Peter Weller of “Robocop” fame, is pure garbage. Cheesy special effects and lame writing make this one a painful viewing experience.

“Minority Report” — Based on the short story of the same title. Tom Cruise stars and Steven Spielberg directs in this entertaining popcorn-muncher. Cruise showed his dark side as Anderton, a drug-addicted cop of the future. In “Minority Report,” police rely on visions captured from the minds of psychic savants. They see predictions of crimes before they happen, and arrest the perpetrators before they can do harm. Anderton is shocked when he sees a vision of himself, committing a murder. He must solve the crime he is about to commit without, at first, knowing why he’s even going to kill someone he’s never met. My only complaint about this film is that Spielberg sanitizes the story for the audience’s protection. Dick’s original story was much darker.

“Impostor” and “Paycheck” are two movies starring Gary Sinise and Ben Affleck, respectively. I never saw either of these. Both are based on Dick’s stories of the same names, and were critically panned on their release. The stories are great. But, I don’t have the time or the stomach to see every lame movie adaption that comes along.

“A Scanner Darkly” is based on the novel of the same name. Once again, this one deals with a policeman of the future who’s got a drug problem. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover officer named Fred, whose alias in the drug world is Bob Arctor. The drug he takes, Substance D, causes the brain’s two hemispheres to split, resulting in multiple personality disorder. Fred soon forgets that Bob is his “cover” and begins narcing on himself. Director Richard Linklater used computer animation, tracing over the real-life images of his actors, to produce a film that looks like a hyper-realistic cartoon. Sometimes the stunning visual technique gets in the way of the story, but this is otherwise a very faithful adaption of Dick’s spellbinding book.

As you can see, Dick is a bit like the Tupac Shakur of the science-fiction world. Two decades after his death, his imagination still fuels our pop culture.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)