Amazon's New Series 'The Man In The High Castle' Is Amazing (PKD Novel is a new TV series)

Thanks for the tip. Just watched and it is a quality pilot; very atmospheric with a sense of menace and fear throughout. The cinematography and acting was also first rate. I hope they make more episodes. I couldn’t help thinking that it reflected a subjugated, grimy America that would be harmonious with what Obama wants for this country.

I don't recall _Confessions of a Crap Artist_. I left Marin after 8th grade to live with my father and attend high school. The high school choices in West Marin entailed either two hour daily commutes to San Anselmo, or a 1.5 hour commute to the truly sucky Tomales High School, whose history texts at the time had been published about 1938-39.

Hattie got out too, and the third of us tied for 8th grade valedictorian at West Marin Elementary, Jay Power, did too as his state park ranger father was transferred elsewhere. All three of us turned up as freshmen at the spanking new UC Santa Cruz in the fall of 1967. Each of us wanted to live in the same coastal redwood environment we grew up in on Western Marin, so we ended up with about eight years together in elementary school and then college.

The three of us really lived California's post-World War Two Golden Dream.

Thanks, interesting. A combo of returning to the same trough and ease of getting his rights. I wonder if him dying right at Blade Runner helped that too.

Do a lot of sci-fi authors/estates not give out the rights as easily? I know the rights are often purchased for the more popular books, even if popular culture never has heard of them, and then it seems like they are bought and sold again and again and nothing ever comes from it.

Freegards

A lot of writers are very touchy, they want control, or lots of money. Blade Runner was only the second time he’d given out his rights and he hated what happened the first time (not actually sure what the resulting movie was, it’s kind of a legend of how much he hated it and hated dealing with Hollywood). There is a crowd that doesn’t really care what the resulting movie is, they like the money, and they like that the movie helps sell the book. Stephen King is kind of the flag bearer for that crowd because he provided the “rallying” phrase when asked about how Hollywood had ruined one of his books, he pointed to a copy on the shelf and said “they didn’t ruin it, the book is right there, now the movie they made from it is bad, but the book is fine”.

Development hell is always a problem. Every movie that comes out represents 3 or 4 that “almost” happened. Scripts were written, important people were signed, sometimes stuff was even filmed, but something fell apart. And most rights sales have an expiration, if nothing happens by X date the rights revert and can be resold. I know a guy who makes a good living on development hell, he’s a script writer, pulls in 6 figures most year, has never had a movie released. But he is a 100% guilded professional writer, he just has bad luck and all his project melt down, luckily not until after he gets paid.

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