Finally, to extend the brief story of Fletcher stumbling upon mysterious beings subtly altering reality, getting captured, and then being warned not to say a word about it, we can keep passing Norris’s case from one bad guy to another, repeatedly separate and reunite the lovers, and throw in exciting chase scenes whenever things quiet down – all, for Hollywood, strictly routine “adjustments.” And they can’t just be minor players in the master plan of the world’s secret controllers no, they must be absolutely central figures, literally destined to “change the world.” As for that family dog, actually an intelligent agent of the conspirators, who’s assigned to alter Fletcher’s schedule on one key day, well, this writer really does have a crazy imagination, but it’s too far out to please the focus groups, so we’ll replace the dog with a friendly guy, without entirely forgetting his canine origins because we’ll call him “Harry” (“hairy” – get it?).

Sorry, Philip K., but films about your sorts of ordinary people are for arthouses, so we’ll turn the characters into David Norris, handsome young politician and future Senator, and his girlfriend, a beautiful ballerina and rising star named Elise Sellas. Dick, “Adjustment Team” (1954), how could they “adjust” its plot to transform it into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster? A few problems were obvious, like the story’s protagonists, a working-class Joe named Ed Fletcher and his wife Ruth, living in suburbia. The operatives of Hollywood’s Adjustment Bureau had gathered to map out strategies for their latest assignment: given this quirky little story by Philip K.

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick