Philip K. Dick is the author of science-fiction classics that have inspired movies like Bladerunner, Total Recall and Minority Report. Sadly, Dick did not live enough to see how his suspicion of reality and his search for the human essence in an artificial world became mainstream concerns and pop culture icons.
Based on a careful review of biographical materials and his personal acquaintance with some of Dick's closest friends and relatives, Salvador Bayarri has written Dick's life story in a screenplay format, preserving the richness of the writer's character as his charming humor and foretelling genius mixes with a personal struggle to make sense of his own visions, the human nature and the meaning of the universe.
"The Owl in Daylight" was the working title for Dick's last book project, in which he planned to create a character much like himself: a visionary artist who discovers that his work improves as an alien intelligence takes control of it. Blinded by his unique perception –like a night owl in daylight– the artist has to make the Faustian choice between reaching for the ultimate secrets of the universe and die in glorious flames, or trying to save the remains of a normal life.
The screenplay follows the key episodes that propelled Dick to his prophetic visions, from the death of his twin sister shortly after birth, through the paranoia of the 50s and the psychedelic culture of the 60s, towards his final and most dramatic visions of love, good and evil.