That the writer and all the persons quoted make no mention of the book that's the basis for the movie, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", shows their colossal ignorance. Indeed, the story was about what it means to be human.
“...That the writer and all the persons quoted make no mention of the book that’s the basis for the movie, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’, shows their colossal ignorance. Indeed, the story was about what it means to be human.” [Flick Lives, post 7]
“Blade Runner is based on the book, Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep and it’s clear the dolt writing this article didn’t bother to read the book.” [Rashputin, post 10]
Philip K Dick wrote _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_, and _We Can Remember it for you Wholesale_, on which the film _Total Recall_ was based.
Neither film adaptation follows the written works well, as forum members have pointed out. The filmmakers may or may not have read the books: creating a salable film treatment that accurately and honestly follows a book is difficult. Especially in science fiction: social/cultural situations that might come to pass in some future time are typically the products of unusual (sometimes unruly) imaginations of authors, and it can take a mighty long leap on the part of readers to understand such. Moviegoers - as a group, more passive and less intellectually curious than readers - are usually less interested in figuring things out or speculating how stuff will affect humanity generations hence.
Philip K Dick was said to be interested in exploring what makes an authentic human being, the nature of identity, the authenticity of memory, and a number of philosophical concepts. He won a Hugo Award in 1963 for _The Man in the High Castle_, which was recently adapted for television.
Dick worked at length with screenwriters on the original _Bladerunner_, but wasn’t satisfied with any version until Ridley Scott joined the project. Ironically Scott never did read the original book, but when Dick saw special-effects artwork depicting Los Angeles in the future, he proclaimed it was just as he’d imagined it himself, and did a complete turnaround, backing the film with the declaration that it “justified and completed” his life and writings. A further irony was that Dick died mere months before the film was released.
Infamously, the film crew & stars that made the film adaptation of _Starship Troopers_ did read Robert Heinlein’s original novel beforehand, but publicly rejected Heinlein’s ideas and themes, then went ahead and made the militaristic version that was released, chock full of neo-Nazi overtones.
Nor mention of the author, Philip K. Dick, as I recall.
No author, no book. No book, no movie.
Similarly, Peter Jackson gets too much credit for TLotR movies.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s genius was far the greater. And Jackson watered down the implicit monotheistic element, and the personal morality, of key characters. Typical Hollywood.