Writer/Director George Nolfi Talks About Adjusting "The Adjustment Bureau"

Philip K. Dick's short story Adjustment Team becomes a member of the PKD adaptation team this weekend. Other members of this illustrious group include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, but unlike those darker, dystopic films, The Adjustment Bureau is more romantic -- on a date with destiny, where the date is more important than the actual destiny. Politician David Norris (played by Matt Damon) has a chance to be President, but he'd give it all up for love with a saucy ballerina (played by Emily Blunt). Too bad for the would-be couple that the Adjustment Bureau has a different plan for them, and will do anything to keep them apart. Writer/director George Nolfi (who wrote Ocean's Twelve and co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum) explains how he made the story different than any Dick adaptation before.

Q: The Adjustment Bureau is in charge of our fates, but who is in charge of them? You allude to this Chairman, but we never see him... or her...

A: We actually had an actress initially cast to be the Chairman. That's the reason all the agents are men, so it would be a surprise to have the Chairman be a woman. But man or woman, that's just a manifestation of the Chairman in a body, and the Chairman can take many forms.

Q: Just as the Chairman, or the Adjustment Bureau themselves, could be a metaphor. Have you noticed that most of the better adaptations of Philip K. Dick are the ones that just took his basic idea and expanded on it, versus trying to be overtly faithful? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, like Adjustment Team, was more of a domestic drama with some interesting concepts ... and from that you get Blade Runner...

A: I would love to be compared in the same breath as Blade Runner! [Laughs] That's a tremendous movie, but I don't know the ins and outs of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I read that a long, long time ago. But speaking as a writer, what's going to be compelling as a short story is probably not going to be as powerful as a movie, if it's an exact translation, because that's not taking into account the needs of the forum. I explicitly did not want to steep myself in the Philip K. Dick tradition, in the other movies that had been adapted from his novels and short stories, because that wouldn't make the best movie here. I knew we were going with a completely different tone [than Blade Runner or Minority Report].  Most of the Philip K. Dick adaptations are darker-toned, sadder, about dystopic worlds, and hopefully, if people like what I did with this one, they'll try to do different tones as well. Not do what I did, but expand the ways they adapt his work. This is more of a mix of genres. And the way to do this adaptation was to ground it in reality as much as possible. I was committed to the idea of making the action be about a guy who falls in love, learns that it's a mistake, that he can't be with her, but tries anyway.

Q: All of which wasn't in the original story -- you dreamt that up wholesale.

A: Well, I started building the characters, a politician and a dancer, and then I was already in completely different territory than the short story.

Q: And there's no talking dog...

A: The dog is a perfect example! [Laughs] The dog is fun in the short story, which is more in the realm of, is this a drug trip? In the short story, the question is, what is real, what isn't real? Is this a dream? So I was explicitly going the other way. You wonder if it's real for a few seconds, when he's pulled through the door and chloroformed. But we didn't play the scene to suggest that he's wondering what's real. He's just jarred. We thought, if you saw behind the curtain, how would you react?

Q: Why do you think fate versus free will has wandered over from philosophy and religion to be a sci-fi trope?

A: For me, the interest in it comes from philosophy. I've just been interested in why we are here? What gives life meaning? How much are things imposed on us? That was fascinating territory for me in college and graduate school, and I'm coming at it more from the philosophy area than from science fiction. I'm not super grounded in science fiction. I don't pretend to be. But inherent in the notion of science fiction is massive rule changes. What science fiction allows you to do is turn the rules of physics on their head. And as soon as you do that, presuppositions change, and you can get into grander territory.

Q: Usually science fiction stories with these themes end up being about time travel in some way...

A: Like what you do in the past affects the future. In this story, they have a supernatural power, but we don't get into what the rules are. These guys are above or outside physics. There's one path you can go down, and there are ripple effects.

Q: Would you go down this path again? Considering this was pretty ambitious for a first time directing?

A: You mean ambitious because we used 85 locations in a city where to move the crew is taxing? [Laughs] Next time, we won't have that much crew movement. I'm really happy with the experience, and I would go and do the whole thing again.