Disney making Phillip K Dick's King Of The Elves

Simon Brew

His writing proved the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. But now: Phillip K Dick's work is underpinning a Disney animated movie...

Published on Apr 11, 2008

Go through the directors who have tackled the work of Phillip K Dick, and you get an idea as to the kind of attraction the legendary writer still holds. Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven and John Woo are among those who have tackled his work – it has to be said with varying levels of success – and the movie industry has been on the lookout, clearly, for more stories to adapt.

That said, eyebrows have been raised that the latest PKD project to be announced will be a Disney family film, which is being readied for Christmas 2012. Dick only ventured once into the fantasy genre, and his tale of the King Of The Elves is currently in production at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

It’s a fascinating marriage, and could well prove to be an ambitious project to realise for the House Of Mouse. To quote the blurb, it’s a “fantastic and imaginative tale about an average man living in the Mississippi Delta, whose reluctant actions to help a desperate band of elves leads them to name him their new king. Joining the innocent and endangered elves as they attempt to escape from an evil and menacing troll, their unlikely new leader finds himself caught on a journey filled with unimaginable dangers and a chance to bring real meaning back to his own life”.

Directors Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker are attached to the project, although their sole directorial credit thus far was the very kiddie-friendly Brother Bear in 2003 (which was Disney’s last hand-drawn hit of any note).

We’ll be keeping an eye on this one, although don’t expect to here much on it for a good year or two yet…