Vulcan’s Hammer, Philip K. Dick’s novel published just prior to The Man in the High Castle, might not be one of the author’s most well-known works.
The pulpy story here, like so many of Dick’s works, strikes me as eerily prescient, and director Francis Lawrence, who has previously explored dystopian landscapes, provides a surreal perspective, As evidenced by the success of films such as The Hunger Games and I Am Legend, as well as Apple TV+’s series See.
Vulcan’s Hammer is the story of the 70 nations of Earth who become the Unity Party after a devastating world war, and who then grant control of the planet to an AI system called Vulcan. The AI measures Unity’s actions algorithmically.
The adaptation will be produced by Isa Dick Hackett, Dick’s daughter, who has previously worked on Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle and Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, as well as the feature film The Adjustment Bureau. Dick’s work has been adapted into films such as Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Total Recall, and Minority Report.
A total of 125 short stories and 40 novels written by the legendary author have been translated into 25 languages. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, and the 1990 and 2012 versions of Total Recall have all been based on his works.
