Emily Blunt Joins The Adjustment Bureau

Fun Fact: The K in Philip K. Dick's Name Stands for Kindred

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (14)

We first mentioned way back in March that Matt Damon is attached to The Adjustment Bureau, a movie based on a Philip K. Dick short story. It’s being described as a sci-fi love story, and Dark City meets The Truman Show. Damon will play a smooth-talking congressman whose political future is thrown in doubt by uncontrollable events and the arrival in his life of a mysterious ballerina. George Nolfi, who wrote The Bourne Ultimatum and Oceans 12, is adapting and directing the movie.

The project had been shopped around for quite some time, and word came yesterday that Emily Blunt has signed on to play the ballerina. She makes a pretty good pairing with Damon (aren’t they both short and attractive), and by the time that The Adjustment Bureau makes it to the big screen, Blunt may be nearly a big a name as Damon. She’s already got five films in various stages of production (and she’s rumored for another), including Gulliver’s Travels and The Wolf Man. It was a little delayed, but it looks as though she’s finally getting that big The Devil Wears Prada bounce we’d expected.

And as for Philip K. Dick adaptations — they’re a mixed bag. You’ve got Blade Runner and Total Recall on one end of the spectrum, Next and Paycheck on the other, and Minority Report in the middle. I’d expect, with Matt Damon’s nearly perfect track record, that this one will fall toward the Blade Runner end of the dial.

And, as is now custom when discussing Matt Damon trade news, here’s his Matthew McConaughey impression because it never gets old, people. Never.

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Comments

does Next really have to be at the oThEr eNd of the spectrum? can't it be somewhere in the middle?

*pouts*
i had fun watching Next.

Posted by: gp at July 15, 2009 10:33 AM

A Scanner Darkly, as well. Keanu playing a drained, emotionless man with brain damage. Good for him.

This sounds full of potential.

Posted by: twig at July 15, 2009 10:46 AM

aren’t they both short and attractive?

For some reason I always thought that Damon was short too. It's hard to get accurate info on actor height, but the range I see on the interwebs is 5'10" to 6'0" which by Hollywood standards makes him a damn giant.

Posted by: ed newman at July 15, 2009 10:52 AM

I wonder if that low-budget (but faithful) Radio Free Albemuth adaptation will ever be released. That's my favorite novel of his.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at July 15, 2009 11:21 AM

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Posted by: satokofan at July 15, 2009 11:27 AM

God Matt Damon is cool.

Posted by: Mimi at July 15, 2009 12:17 PM

i had fun watching Next.

While I almost always enjoy Jessica Biel, I could not get over the fact that Cage's character was basically the ultimate rapist. He could see how every different angle played out, and therefore knew how to manipulate whomever he pleased to get almost any outcome he wanted. That's just fucking creepy.

Plus, his hair was about eight million times worse than usual.

Posted by: Snath at July 15, 2009 12:27 PM

Snath, I fully agree about Cage's character in Next. Also, it is me or has he gotten hit in the face by the plastic surgery fairy?

Posted by: androstarr at July 15, 2009 12:51 PM

What are your thoughts on A Scanner Darkly?

Just wondering.

P.S. I loved Minority Report.

Posted by: Christian H. at July 15, 2009 1:19 PM

*pouts*
i had fun watching Next.

Posted by: gp at July 15, 2009 10:33 AM

I am going to pretend that I didn't see that. What could possibly have been fun with this movie? Cage's acting was terrible. The romance with a woman, let me rephrase that, his relationship with a hot woman, was unbelievable at best. The gimmick got old really quickly. If someone could see the future and its possible outcomes don't you think none of it would have ever happened?

Posted by: DeistBrawler at July 15, 2009 1:20 PM

I would have clicked on the link to this story much more quickly if there'd been a clue it was going to be about Emily Blunt. Say, if the picture had been of her.

Posted by: Todd at July 15, 2009 1:31 PM

Christian H., I hated A Scanner Darkly. It seemed to take itself way too seriously, and that whatever-the-fuck-it's-called effect was more distracting than anything. Fine (albeit tedious) for Schwab commercials, not for feature-length movies.

In general I think it's safe to say that all modern adaptations of PKD will suck. Too glossy, too Hollywood. His tales teem with mild insanity, and while Blade Runner and Total Recall both had a level of grime that made them feel real, all the rest of 'em have left me flat.

I don't know, but I'm guessing even the illustrious Matt Damon won't be able to pull this off.

On a side note, how the hell is it possible that Arnold Schwarzenegger has put in one of the best performances in this arena? Whenever I think I'm gonna lose it at someone, I glower and say, "Two weeks."

Posted by: ahamos at July 15, 2009 4:06 PM

I dug A Scanner Darkly. It's by far the most loyal film adaptation of any work of PKD thus far, and that was nice to see.

PKD's novels teem with mild insanity, but many of his short stories - many of which written before he went a little crazy - are much more standard and accessible sci-fi. The one on which Minority Report was based had very little in common with the film in terms of the specifics of the plot, but the spirit was generally intact. I enjoyed what Spielberg did with it particularly from a visual perspective, and I like to think of the third act as a hallucination.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at July 15, 2009 8:28 PM

Never read his stuff, but I would put Minority Report closer to the Blade Runner side than just square in the middle.

Posted by: Mick J at July 16, 2009 1:15 AM

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Fun Fact: The K in Philip K. Dick's Name Stands for Kindred

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