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Ridley Scott Adapts Philip K. Dick's 'Man in the High Castle' For Amazon

An anonymous reader writes with word of an adaption of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. Ridley Scott is the executive producer for the adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel that's one of 13 new TV shows from Amazon Studios. There's also a video adaptation of The New Yorker magazine, and all 13 pilots are available free online. Votes of viewers will help decide which ones get picked up for a full season, and Amazon is promising customers that they've assembled "some of the greatest storytellers in the business with works of novelty and passion."

20 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by andersenep · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Prometheus was light years better than Gladiator. I enjoyed it immensely. If there is any movie in the Alien franchise that absolutely sucked, it was Alien 3.

    I am looking forward to 'Man in the High Castle'. Watching episode 1 now.

  2. Good try, but a bit dissapointed... by mpthompson · · Score: 2

    I really wanted to like the adaption of "The Man in the High Castle", but was dissapointed it went in directions greatly different than the book. One example is "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy". It is is no longer a book, but a 16mm movie filled with images of the Allies winning WWII including scenes from VE and VJ day. How did this movie physically cross from our reality to their reality? As a book, the alternate reality was about ideas and imagination, not a physical reality to be escaped to. This could lead the series into well worn SciFi time-travel and alternate universe trope that wasn't what the PKD story is about.

    I thought the visuals and atmosphere of the show were good, but the characters seemed to bland vanilla versions of the rich and colorful characters in the PKD source material.

    If Amazon picks it up, I'll give it more of a chance, but I didn't enjoy the show as much as I wanted to. I remembet it taking me a little while to get into the book so perhaps I have to do the same with this adaption.

    1. Re:Good try, but a bit dissapointed... by MrHanky · · Score: 2

      Eh, it's not like Blade Runner was a faithful adaptation either. For one, its theme is completely different from the book. Still, it's one of the best SF movies and one of the best adaptations ever.

    2. Re:Good try, but a bit dissapointed... by MrHanky · · Score: 2

      Blade Runner is a Frankensteinian tale about creation revolting against its creator, questioning the meaning of death, whereas Do Androids ... is about empathy as an essential human quality in a world where everything is artificial. Much of the novel is about Deckard's desire to buy a pet, required for spiritual fulfilment according to the religion of Mercerism. Death is as unimportant to the book as Mercerism is to the film.

  3. This video is not available due to geographical .. by RichMan · · Score: 2

    This video is not available due to geographical licensing restrictions.

    That is a lie.
    It is available. Availibility is a technical issue.
    it is just not allowed to be presented which is a formality issue.

    Nice twisted use of the words there to disquise that fact that market segragation is being done.

  4. What happened to 2013's winners? by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 4, Informative

    Amazon is promising customers that they've assembled "some of the greatest storytellers in the businesswith works of novelty and passion."

    I'm still waiting for the Harry Bosch show starring Titus Welliver that "won" in 2013. Hello, Amazon?

    1. Re:What happened to 2013's winners? by JackieBrown · · Score: 2

      The Chris Carter show was canceled

      http://variety.com/2015/digita...

  5. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by wiredlogic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nothing better that two crewmen in a first-contact situation taking their helmets off, running off like ninnies, getting lost, and contaminating themselves. Top notch writing that.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  6. Re:This video is not available due to geographical by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2

    it can't be presented due to contractual issues, not formality issues.

  7. Re:This video is not available due to geographical by PTBarnum · · Score: 2

    I hate geographic restrictions also, but you are taking a very narrow definition of "unavailable" that defies common usage. If there is no legal way to acquire something, it is not available. The fact that this is a choice Amazon is making and could make differently does not change the fact that it is not currently available to you.

  8. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by andersenep · · Score: 2

    Yeah, I suppose the critters should have instead launched out of eggs and melted through their helmets. /sarcasm

    All movies require a certain suspension of disbelief. Still, I will take "two crewmen in a first-contact situation taking their helmets off, running off like ninnies, getting lost, and contaminating themselves." over "Roman emperor fights a gladiator."

  9. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Informative

    All movies require a certain suspension of disbelief. Still, I will take "two crewmen in a first-contact situation taking their helmets off, running off like ninnies, getting lost, and contaminating themselves." over "Roman emperor fights a gladiator."

    Even though the latter actually happened? Granted, the fights were always fixed, but still...

  10. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by andersenep · · Score: 2

    Look, every sci-fi fan is in the same boat. However I don't understand the level of vitriol towards Prometheus. It's not like every other movie in the Alien franchise didn't have parts that sucked. Molecular acid...xenomorphs...the entirety of Alien 3....I thought Prometheus was a step back in the right direction after Alien 3 and Resurrection (which was at least better than 3). I am continuously amazed at the hatred towards it. It's a great movie.

    Ridley Scott has been one of the few movie directors/producers to embrace sci-fi with any amount of success. He is clearly a fan of Philip K. Dick. Let him do his thing and give it a chance.

  11. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by TWX · · Score: 2

    He's no fan of Philip K. Dick. If he were, he wouldn't have gone on trying to claim that Deckard is a replicant, and he wouldn't have claimed in an interview that he never read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? before making Blade Runner.

    Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of Scott's movies and TV shows that he's been involved with, but being good at making adaptations or good with stories doesn't mean that he's interested in maintaining the feel of the author's work.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  12. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A lot of the Prometheus complaints seem to originate from the concept that the crew should have been a 100% perfectly professional team that knew exactly what to do in all situations. Given what Weyland was trying to accomplish, it's not surprising that some of the crew weren't up to the job.

    Vickers' team was intended to die to hide what Weyland was up to, so the "exploration" specialists that weren't critical to the process were chosen to be expendable and characterized as such. They were stupid idiots because they weren't professional explorers, but lured there by money to fill an gap in the roster. If they had pulled in a completely professional team, Weyland and David wouldn't have been able to get the situation to the state they needed it.

    I'm constantly amused by the number of people who get so upset when a movie portrays characters this way. It isn't a failure of the writers, it's a success in portraying an imperfect, greed-motivated person who thinks they are in the position they are in because they are the best, but actually aren't. Maybe that hits a little close to home for some.

    --
    Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
  13. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I recommend you read the original Aliens : Engineers script by Jon Spaihts.
    A lot of the foolishness from the movie actually doesn't happen here:
    - Travel based on only a picture of 5 stars: in the script they find engineer writing containing detailed stellar coordinates and directions.
    - Take helmets off: they actually keep them on for most of the time
    - Biologist playing with space cobra: in the script it's more like a worm or centipede, and they note the suits are virtually impenetrable, so they pick one up for a closer look. That should have been perfectly safe, were it not for alien acid.
    - Getting lost: both men are sent to deploy more probes, and they both assumed the other one took the mapping computer console with. There are a lot of similar corridors. Before they track their way back, they are attacked.
    - Etc

    You can thank Damon Lindelof and Ridley Scott for dumbing it all down.

  14. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by newcastlejon · · Score: 2

    But instead we're quibbling about how scientists would act on another planet.

    Sci-fi lets writers hand-wave technical things like FTL travel, a common trope, with the goal of exploring how people would react in the situations that technology would open up. Whether you choose the hardest or softest sci-fi story you can find, you'll most likely find that the plot revolves around people and not technology.

    In short, sci-fi isn't about the science, it's about the effects that it has on the human condition.

    --
    If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  15. Great show by FreeUser · · Score: 2

    I just watched it on my Roku3, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Hopefully it will get enough votes for Amazon to make the rest of the series.

    --
    The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
  16. Re:Colour me apprehensive. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

    All movies require a certain suspension of disbelief

    Yes, but this one required constant suspension of disbelief. It was like, every other thing they did was utterly idiotic.

    Roman emperor fights a gladiator

    You do realize that it was actually a real thing that existed? You can find some examples in the "Decline and fall of the Roman Empire".

  17. tried to see the "free" episodes by ruir · · Score: 2

    "Please install SilverLight" "it will only take a minute" Fuck you amazon.