Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) recently announced his intentions to bring acclaimed science fiction author Philip K. Dick’s 1969 novel “Ubik” to the big screen.

Named by TIME magazine in 2003 as one of the Top 100 English language novels published since 1923, plans to adapt the book to film have existed since the mid seventies, with Dick even going so far as to pen his own version of a screenplay, which was eventually published under the title “Ubik: The Screenplay” in 1985, three years after the authors death.

While I haven’t read the book, my first impression is that the material is a perfect fit for the esoteric, visually stylish Frenchman, especially after his latest film, The Green Hornet, proved to rather less than memorable. Dick’s writing has previously been adapted into films including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and the upcoming The Adjustment Bureau, all of which can be noted for their existential themes and dreamlike subject matter. With that in mind, it’s not hard to imagine Gondry being able to craft something unique and appropriately surreal.

Of course Gondry has several other projects currently in the works, so it may be sometime before we get to see his stab at this particular story. After the jump, check out a plot synopsis of “Ubik”; it sounds bizarre to say the least.

Taken from Amazon.com:

“[Joe] Chip works for Glen Runciter’s anti-psi security agency, which hires out its talents to block telepathic snooping and paranormal dirty tricks. When its special team tackles a big job on the Moon, something goes terribly wrong. Runciter is killed, it seems–but messages from him now appear on toilet walls, traffic tickets, or product labels. Meanwhile, fragments of reality are timeslipping into past versions: Joe Chip’s beloved stereo system reverts to a hand-cranked 78 player with bamboo needles. Why does Runciter’s face appear on U.S. coins? Why the repeated ads for a hard-to-find universal panacea called Ubik (“safe when taken as directed”)?

The true, chilling state of affairs slowly becomes clear, though the villain isn’t who Joe Chip thinks. And this is Dick country, where final truths are never quite final and–with the help of Ubik–the reality/illusion balance can still be tilted the other way”