Russian television reporter Vladimir Lenski interviews an android version of the late sci-fi author Philip K. Dick (right) at NextFest 2005. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Considering that he wrote the source material for some of the most innovative science fiction movies ever made (“Blade Runner,” “Total Recall” and “A Scanner Darkly,” just to name three), it’s about time that the literary world gave sci-fi icon Philip K. Dick the respect he so richly deserves. Oh … wait. It just did.

Reports have recently emerged that The Andrew Wylie Agency, a literary powerhouse with offices in New York and London, has quietly added the late author’s estate to its illustrious client list — a group that includes literary luminaries like Chinua Achebe, Dave Eggers and Philip Roth, as well as the estates of writers like Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov. In other words, cue up the theme song to “The Jeffersons” — one of the world’s most well-known authors is finally movin’ on up.

Of course, the question remains: Why would an already world-renowned author like Dick need newer and better representation? There’s no controversy here; this move is actually part of long-standing and logical progression toward profitability and worldwide fame for an author whose sales never quite matched those of peers like Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. (The Library of America’s recent collection of his early novels looks like a major part of this progression.) In fact, most of Dick’s work was out of print throughout the 1970s and 80s, until previous agent Russell Galen helped bring the writer larger advances and more visibility — and a young director named Ridley Scott turned his novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” into a little movie called “Blade Runner.”

So, what does this all mean for Dick fans? Will the estate’s fancy new arrangement lead to global posthumous fame and respectability, or to more mediocre movie adaptations like “Paycheck?” Time will tell, but the inevitable increase in interest in the “Shakespeare of science fiction” is a long time coming.