Ridley Scott/Frank Spotnitz Adapt "The Man in the High Castle" For Amazon

[Sawyer]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/fra...ott-produced-mini-the-man-in-the-high-castle/

Frank Spotnitz To Adapt Ridley Scott-Produced Mini ‘The Man In The High Castle’
By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor

The miniseries adaptation of The Man In The High Castle was originally announced as a project back in 2010. At the time, the four-parter based on Philip K Dick‘s novel, was to be a Headline Pictures/Electric Shepherd/Scott Free production for the BBC, scripted by British playwright Howard Brenton and sold internationally by FremantleMedia. Some of the puzzle pieces have since shifted. Syfy said today it has sealed a deal to adapt the Hugo Award-winning tome with Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, Hunted) attached to write and exec produce. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free will produce with Headline, Electric Shepherd Productions (the production arm of Dick’s estate) and FremantleMedia International. Producers are Ridley Scott and Stewart Mackinnon. Spotnitz will write the first two hours and supervise the writing of the second two hours, Syfy said today.

Dick’s novel is an alternate history story set in a world in which Nazi Germany and Japan were victorious in the second World War. The year is 1962 and the Axis Powers occupy the U.S., where fascism rules and the few surviving Jews hide under assumed names. Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner was adapted from Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Story sounds intriguing as hell. Ridley Scott and a former X-Files writer being involved only makes it seem more promising.

 

[Destructus86]

Love it. I'm all for it.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

I don't remember it very well but it is a good Dick novel.

 

[Motown Marvel]

Yeah the book is great.

 

[Perfect Cell]

Ok, so there are like four threads for this show, so I'm not exactly sure which one to post in. But this one is the most recently created that is also in the right forum (even if the title needs to be changed to reflect it being on Amazon, not Syfy now), so...

Watched the pilot tonight, and I really enjoyed it. I hope this gets picked for a full season order. It seems like it could be a breakout show for Amazon. I always love alternate history stories, and this one piqued my interest from the start.

 

[James]

I watched the pilot and it didn't grab me. Phillip K. Dick or not, the premise is pretty shaky to begin with, but I could have looked passed it if it hadn't been for the stale characters and never ending clumsy exposition throughout the entire show. Apparently every character has to remind everyone they talk to that the Nazis won the war. On top of that the show seems intent on drilling it into the audience that the lead girl was in some sort of accident, again and again.

The one halfway interesting thing had to do with a film reel, but it was barely touched upon and most of the pilot was spent following around some seriously boring people. Safe to say I won't be bothering with the rest of the series.

 

[Marvolo]

I assume this thread is about the Amazon series. I just watched the pilot, and I'm intrigued about where this is going, and I love the alternative "what-if" history so I'll definitely tune into season one.

 

[Kaleb]

I need this now.

[YT]zQhXKW5SwGA[/YT]

 

[BestGirl]

I don't recall the book being particularly action-packed. I have no idea how this will turn out as a TV show.

 

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

I've seen the pilot episode and the second episode and I LOVED it... it had this feeling of dark, grim and hopelessness as the US is under the brutal control of the Japanese and the Nazi Reich after THEY won World War II... I HIGHLY recommend this and I want MORE...

 

[aNarcHy2day]

I have seen the pilot and I want more too. I'll go looking for the second episode now, I guess.

 

[Kaleb]

2nd episode was great,I cant wait for the rest of the episodes tomorrow

 

[Kaleb]

6 episodes in so far, this show has been amazing

 

[Kaleb]

Renewed for season 2

 

[Marvolo]

The ending to episode 9...

End of episode 10...

I thought this show was one thing and then it completely pulls the rug out from under me!

Spoiler

So Hitler and the Nazis were able to win WW2 because Hitler had newsreels showing him what would happen before it happened.

The news reels show all the stuff that actually happened in real life. The Allies winning and all that. Just like it all played out in real life. At some point someone took those news reels back in time and somehow Hitler found them and used them to change the outcome of the war.

This show just skyrocketed to the top of my must watch list!

 

[flickchick85]

This show is really good, glad it's been renewed. And yeah, I feel like I should have seen that revelation about Hitler coming, but I didn't. Well played.

 

[Teelie]

I knew there was something special about the reels even beyond the obvious but not what or how until near the end. The last scene though? I was surprised they went there. I thought it was too out-there for them to do but it was exactly where they were headed. Still a damned good series.

 

[Primal Slayer]

So what are we thinking? Alternate reality? Someone changed it? How was that guy at the end able to get to "our" reality?

 

[Teelie]

I think it's an alternate reality although how it came about and how it was discovered you can travel to other realities I don't have a theory on yet.

 

[Paradox1]

I did like this show and I recommend it to anyone who ask. It's such a frightening look of what could of been.

 

[Marvolo]

Damn straight about it being frightening. Little things like the doctor casually telling the Oberführer to kill his son because he has a congenital disease. And the big things like the causal acceptance of jews having been eradicated from Europe and the total enslavement of Africa. And the way Americans killed millions of American jews after the Nazis invaded. And the Japanese treating americans like second class citizens.

Its all a nightmare come to life.

 

[Paradox1]

The moment that really hit me how horrible a world that can be is in the first episode. Joe is getting help from a local sheriff because his truck has a problem. The sheriff casually mentions at the hospital how they are burning the criples and elderly on that day.

 

[Teelie]

Although I doubt it would have been that bad in reality it still probably isn't too far from possibility. At the time the story was written in 1962 tensions were still high and this kind of extreme belief in what the Germans and Japanese had/would do was more accepted. Some of what was claimed to happen during the war was exaggerated or false. Though the truth still is bad enough without that need.

 

[Schlosser85]

The Nazis did exterminate mentally and physically handicapped.

 

[Teelie]

Yeah I know but the depiction in this series is so much larger in scale. And it requires the (formerly)American people to go along with it without protest or second thought.