Apologies for the late notice; this event snuck up on me.
The Third Annual Philip K. Dick International Film Festival of Science Fiction, Fantastic Film, Science and the Supernatural will be held on January 16, 17, and 18 2015 at Tribeca Cinemas, Cervantes Institute and other venues in New York City.
For more information, visit the film festival’s web site: http://www.thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com/
Angus Taylor has reformatted his essay Philip K. Dick and the Umbrella of Light. This includes changing the typeface and margins to make the essay more attractive and easier to read, and also adding more illustrations by Cora Lee Healy from the original 1975 booklet.
Philip K. Dick and the Umbrella of Light – Originally published in paperback in 1975, Philip K. Dick and the Umbrella of Light by Angus Taylor was one of the first extended critical examinations of Philip K. Dick’s work. This reformatted digital version features Cora Lee Healy’s illustrations from the original edition. The essay is made available here with the author’s permission.
A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 31 or view past issues.
Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.
Here are locations that you can view Radio Free Albemuth online:
Both found on the Radio Free Albemuth‘s web site.
Also, the film is available on [Your Local Cable Company’s] Video On Demand.
I also discovered the film on
Amazon Instant VideoI’m delighted to see that it is also still in theaters:
South Lamar Theatre
Alamo Draft House in Austin, Texas
Late Shows August 29 and August 30Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Opening August 29, Radio Free Albemuth will play for one week.Tickets for both theatres are available at the Radio Free Albemuth Screenings page.
If there are other locations to view Radio Free Albemuth, please leave a comment and I’ll add them to the list. As far as I know, there are no more theaters scheduled to show the movie.
More information can be found at the Radio Free Albemuth Screenings page or at the Radio Free Albemuth Facebook page.
Here are the cities and theaters selected for the release of Radio Free Albemuth:
New York – Quad Theatre – New York City (Greenwich Village), NY 10011
Los Angeles – NoHo 7 Laemmle – North Hollywood, CA 91601
Chicago – The Logan Theatre – Chicago, IL 60647
Philadelphia – Frank Theatres Montgomeryville Stadium 12 – Lansdale, PA 19446
San Francisco – Rialto Cinema Elmwood – Berkeley, CA 94705
Atlanta – Plaza Atlanta Theatre – Atlanta, GA 30306
Seattle – Pickford Film Center – Bellingham, WA 98225
Phoenix – Harkins Valley Art Cinema – Tempe, AZ 85281
Minneapolis – The Heights Theater – Columbia Heights, MN 55421
Cleveland – Atlas Cinemas Great Lakes – Mentor, OH 44060
More information can be found at the Radio Free Albemuth site or at the Facebook page.
After the successful Kickstarter campaign many Philip K. Dick fans have been waiting (im)patiently for Radio Free Albemuth to arrive in theaters and eventually on DVD. Along with the announcement of a new trailer for the film, the release date has been announced as June 27, 2014.
From the press release sent out a few days ago:
NEW TRAILER DEBUT FOR ‘RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH’
A new trailer is now available for the film. Please see the two links below for the trailer:
YouTube: http://youtu.be/ovH_-mQxCok
Yekra: http://www.yekra.com/radio-free-albemuth
Los Angeles, CA (May 6, 2014) – Freestyle Releasing and Freestyle Digital Media (FDM) announced today that they have acquired theatrical and all DVD/VOD rights to the science fiction thriller RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, which is based on a Philip K. Dick novel and was directed and adapted by John Alan Simon. The film stars Jonathan Scarfe (“Perception,” “Grimm”), Shea Whigham (“Boardwalk Empire”), Katheryn Winnick (“Vikings”) and world renowned recording artist Alanis Morissette (“Weeds”). Supporting cast includes Scott Wilson (“Walking Dead”), Ashley Greene (“Twilight”), Jon Tenney (“The Closer,” “Scandal”) and Rich Sommer (“Mad Men”). The film was produced by Dale Rosenbloom, Stephen Nemeth and Elizabeth Karr along with Simon and will debut in limited theaters and on all digital platforms on June 27, 2014.
From sci-fi author Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly) comes his most personal and prophetic thriller to date. It’s 1985 in an alternate reality and Berkeley record store clerk Nick Brady (Jonathan Scarfe, Perception) begins to experience strange visions transmitted from an extra-terrestrial source he calls VALIS. He uproots his family and moves to Los Angeles where he becomes a successful music executive with a secret mission to overthrow the oppressive government led by US President Fremont (Scott Wilson – The Walking Dead). With the help of his best friend, sci-fi writer, Philip K. Dick himself (Shea Whigham – Boardwalk Empire, American Hustle) and a beautiful, mysterious woman named Silvia (Alanis Morissette – Weeds), Nick finds himself drawn into a conspiracy of cosmic, mind-shattering proportions. Although it might cost them their freedom or even their lives, they join
forces to expose the dangerous truth about the corrupt regime.
FDM’s CEO Susan Jackson brokered the deal directly with Simon’s Discovery Productions, which will join forces with FDM on the release. Discovery was repped in the deal by Matthew Fladell, Esquire.
“Philip K. Dick is a legend in the sci-fi world,” said Jackson, “Radio Free Albemuth” is one of the truest adaptations of his vision and will be loved by his core fans as well as fans of the genre.”
“The big-budget, effects-heavy studio movies made from Dick’s works have often emphasized one ‘high concept’ idea to try to create exciting action movies. I took the indie route in order to have the freedom to make a movie that captures all the other aspects that reader/fans like myself love – Dick’s dark humor, politics, visionary metaphysics, borderline paranoia, and especially his tender view of the human condition,” said Simon.
The source novel for the film was considered to be Dick’s answer to Orwell’s 1984 and is still one of his most prescient works — a powerful sci-fi conspiracy thriller that underlines the conflict of individual rights against the power of the state.
The following is a list of Dick’s highest profile screen adaptations:
Recent Freestyle titles include the box office hit GOD’S NOT DEAD, TIGER EYES, the first big screen adaptation of a Judy Blume novel starring Willa Holland, and the SXSW festival favorite FUNERAL KINGS from the McManus Brothers and the upcoming THE IDENTICAL starring Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta.
Website: www.freestyledigitalmedia.tv
Freestyle Releasing is a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company that specializes in representing independent companies, major studios, and mini-major studios for the purpose of exhibiting their films in a first class theatrical release. The founders and principals of Freestyle Releasing, Mark Borde and Susan Jackson are highly regarded and experienced motion picture veterans with a combined total of over a century of respected work in the industry. From a platform that delivers an anytime-anywhere capability in the medium of their choice and a positive digital viewing experience on any device in any location.
Freestyle Digital Media, LLC was launched in November 2011 by its CEO Susan Jackson who is Co-President and founder of independent theatrical distributor Freestyle Releasing, LLC and North American sales company Turtles Crossing, LLC. Freestyle Digital Media supplies quality commercial film and TV content directly to all US VOD/SVOD rental DVD/Kiosks and theaters using the latest cloud-based technologies to automate digital workflow. Freestyle’s goal is to provide fresh, well-marketed product and stay on the cutting edge of the ever-compressing windows to ensure that their partners benefit from a platform that delivers an anytime-anywhere capability in the medium of their choice and a positive digital viewing experience on any device in any location.
Discovery Productions is a production company that primarily specializes in movie adaptations. Development projects include other Philip K. Dick properties (“Flow My Tears The Policeman Said” and “VALIS”), Jim Thompson novels (“Nothing More Than Murder” and “Pop 1280”) as well as novels and short stories by Hugo-Award winning author Lucius Shepard. The distribution arm of Discovery has successfully rereleased cult classics like the original “The Wicker Man”, “The Haunting of Julia” and Dennis Hopper’s “Out Of The Blue.”
Here is the new trailer at youtube:
Copyright © 2014 Prodigy Public Relations, All rights reserved.
Unfortunately due to logistic problems that the Philip K. Dick Festival committee was not able to overcome, the 2014 Philip K. Dick Festival has been postponed. The Festival won’t be taking place at University of California, Irvine, but in another location that would have the space plus be able to meet the other logistical issues.
The Philip K. Dick Festival committee would like to hold the next festival in Orange County, California because that is where Philip K. Dick spent the last several years of his professional life. The Philip K. Dick Festival committee has also shared that the event won’t take place before the end of 2014. More information will be shared about the new location and the new dates as soon as possible.
(Cross posted on The Philip K. Dick Festival site)
A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 30 or view past issues.
Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.
The Mayor, City Council and Orange Country Film Fiesta (Facebook Page) are honoring their one-time resident, Philip K. Dick, with the proclamation of September 14, 2013, as “Philip K. Dick Day”.
The writer/director John Alan Simon of Radio Free Albemuth has been invited to commemorate the occasion with a special free screening at the Fiesta Twin Theatre at 7 p.m.- and Question and Answer Session with writer/director John Alan Simon afterwards.
There will also be a Philip K. Dick Tribute and panel on Philip K. Dick.
Here is a photo of the proclamation for Philip K. Dick Day:
{A big thank you to the moderators of the Radio Free Albemuth Facebook page for this news.}
Here are details of Tessa Dick’s New Radio Show on Internet Radio Monday, September 2, 2013. She is chatting to Anthony Peake and jami Morgan about Philip K. Dick.
If you missed the show, here is the archive of it: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio/2013/09/02/ancient-of-days-no-bull-zone or I have archived the mp3 at /mirror/audio/Tessa_radio_show_5224947.mp3
A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 29 or view past issues.
Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.
From the questions and comments I’ve seen, many of the you may have noticed that the Official Philip K. Dick Website, http://www.philipkdick.com is offline and all that is displayed is:
I don’t know what happened to the site. Because of my experience, I have some facts about the situation. The site went offline sometime at the end sometime between June 23, 2013 and July 28, 2013 (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.philipkdick.com/). The domain name hasn’t expired (http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx). I would guess that the message is coming either from a hosting services servers or a content management system, but at this point I haven’t investigated that avenue very much.
What I have been working on is capturing as much of the old site as I can to either archive it here (if allowed) or for my own personal use. What happens to the site is entirely up to Electric Shepherd Productions LLC. I have reached out to my contacts within the organization to offer help about 1-2 weeks ago and haven’t had a response. I strongly feel that the www.philipkdick.com domain needs to be active or at least have some web presence. That domain is the one that used to drive the most traffic in (besides Wikipedia and imdb.com). This site is now 3rd when I search for “Philip K. Dick” so at least there is some location that can attract fans or new explorers to learn about Philip K. Dick.
Meanwhile, here is a screen capture from the old(?) www.philipkdick.com
The Kickstarter campaign has finished and the total amount pledged by 827 backers was $92,267.
Congratulations to the Radio Free Albemuth Kickstarter Project team for meeting their Kickstarter goal and exceeding it. Backers are still submitting pledges and as an update from the project says any money above the goal will be used for additional screenings, ads and publicity.
I’m so ecstatic that this Kickstarter project was fully funded and I contributed a tiny part of the overall goal. From what I’ve heard this movie is a very faithful adaption of the novel and a great movie also. I have wanted to see it since it was released but it was only shown rarely at conferences or other events that I have been unable to attend.
The most recent post from the team:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elizabethkarr/radio-free-albemuth-theatrical-release/posts/527078
You can still go here and make a pledge (or increase your plaedge) until Wednesday Jul 3, 2:02 pm EDT
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elizabethkarr/radio-free-albemuth-theatrical-release
Up into now, the film Radio Free Albemuth has only been shown and available at special events like the Philip K. Dick Festival, the Hugo Awards at Worldcon, Science Fiction Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Seattle, and in the near future at the Indie Night Series at Lincoln Center Film Society in New York.
The film has received excellent reviews and when screening the film, it has received an enthusiastic response. Unfortunately the major distribution companies have not selected this film for wide spread release. The filmmakers believe that there is an audience who would like to view Radio Free Albemuth, and have been trying since 2010 (when the film was completed) to show the film as often as was possible but many potential audience members are still denied access to see it. I am one of these frustrated potential audience members who because of geography, haven’t been able to attend any of the locations Radio Free Albemuth has been screened.
Because of these reasons the filmmakers have decided to try the self-distribution (DIY) route. Like many frustrated artists, writers, filmmakers, etc., they have created a Kickstarter project to raise the money to distribute Radio Free Albemuth to a wider audience. The link to the Kickstarter project is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elizabethkarr/radio-free-albemuth-theatrical-release. Please help support the distribution of this film. From what I have heard and read it is the most faithful adaptation of any of Philip K. Dick’s novels.
Here are some links for more information about Radio Free Albemuth not coming from the filmmakers:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129396/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth_%28film%29
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/radio_free_albemuth_2011/
The filmmakers have been advertising Radio Free Albemuth in social media in addition to the press they receive at the events where the film is shown.:
http://www.radiofreealbemuth.com/
http://www.facebook.com/rfamovie
Click on the image below to play a short from the filmmakers about this project:
A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 28 or view past issues.
Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.
This issue of PKD Otaku holds special significance because of two related reasons. First, the issue is entirely devoted to the life and recent death of Paul Williams and second, the issue was published on May 19th, 2013 which would have been Paul Williams 65th birthday. This beloved man definitely will be missed.
I recently received an email from the filmmakers and promoters of Radio Free Albemuth with some great news and with an appeal for help from the movie’s fans (including anyone who hasn’t been able to see it yet but wants to like me). Here is what they wrote:
Radio Free Albemuth Release Plan (We need your help)
For Radio Free Albemuth Fans
Two Big News Items to Share!
RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH AT LINCOLN CENTER JUNE 4, 2013
Radio Free Albemuth has been selected to screen at Lincoln Center Film Society as part of their curated, prestigious ‘Indie Night’ Film Series on June 4. They are flying writer/director John Alan Simon in for conversation after the screening to be interviewed by producer Christin Vachon. If you are in New York City, we would love to see you there.
KICKSTARTING INTO THEATRICAL AND DIGITAL RELEASE
It has been a long and winding road but we are finally ready to bring Radio Free Albemuth to the general public.
While we’ve had great receptions at every screening and special events we’ve played around the world, it’s became clear to us that if we want to release this film properly we would have to pursue the Hybrid distribution model – engineering the modest theatrical component ourselves for the publicity and reviews to maximize the digital release.
The Kickstarter campaign will raise the funds to play Radio Free Albemuth in theaters around the country and to release it on DVD and Digitally so that audiences can have the chance to see this film that’s already received glowing advance review from Variety and the PKD fan/sci-fi community.
Grass roots efforts like this depend on support from friends and fans of the film — especially early on in the campaign.
Tell your friends, family, and coworkers. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
We simply can’t reach our goal without your support in the outreach effort. Even to simply tell 5 friends about this film with an email link will make a big difference.
There will be cool rewards at every pledge level!
Any help blogging or promoting the campaign is much appreciated! If you have any suggestions and/or connections for places to reach out to PLEASE let us know.
Whatever you do is appreciated. You’ve helped make this moment possible. You’ll be the first to know when the campaign is launched!
We believe in the power of Philip K Dick’s story and we think this has the ability to connect with both the loyal faithful reader and sci-fi fans as well those previously unaware of his work.
Thank you for all the love and support! We know we have the best fans out there!
Sincerely yours,The Radio Free Albemuth Team
John Alan Simon
Chip Rosenbloom
Stephen Nemeth
Elizabeth Karr
