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Ridley Scott Adapts Philip K. Dick's 'Man in the High Castle' For Amazon 94

Posted by timothy from the changed-but-how-could-it-be-otherwise dept.
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."
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Ridley Scott Adapts Philip K. Dick's 'Man in the High Castle' For Amazon More

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

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  • I'd be a lot more excited if Sir Ridley hadn't disappeared up his own fundament shortly after Gladiator. He has a lot to do to make up for Prometheus.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by andersenep ( 944566 )

      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.

      • Re:Colour me apprehensive. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by wiredlogic ( 135348 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @04:33PM (#48840763)

        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.

        • 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."

          • Re:Colour me apprehensive. (Score:4, Informative)

            by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @04:59PM (#48840901)

            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...

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by pepty ( 1976012 )

            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."

            How about "the crewman in charge of making maps, the one controlling the little map making drones, the one who presumably has a friggin' map gets lost" followed by " the biologist decides to pet a snake" Lots of stories require designated idiots in order to be told, but this one would have been less frustrating if the designated incompetence extended to their pilot accidentally crashing their ship into the star at the beginning of the movie.

          • 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".

        • True but the whole 'let's take our hats off' shtick is closely related to the 'why do our helmets have lights that shine in our own eyes' one; It's about showing the actors faces, and as such I have decided to sigh and try to accept it for what it is, as long as their hats being off isn't a crucial plot point or something.

          • 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/pr

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by TWX ( 665546 )
              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.

              • All of Dick's writing contains a great deal of self-doubt and delusion, it has to do with Dick's own mental state and I believe that stating that Deckard did not even understand what he was fits with Dick's other work

            • Yeah I'm OK with that, and for whatever it's worth I liked Prometheus. Was a couple hours of fun, I'm perfectly OK with that.

            • The way it seems with alien 3 was that someone didn't like the original script, and so replaced it with the abomination we know. Sigourney Weaver may have had something to do with it - originally she wasn't going to do Alien3 and so the original wasn't going to include Ripley. The main characters included Newt and I think Hicks - and the story was basically set on Earth about 18 years after the film 'Aliens' ends. The bio-division basically catch an alien inside a host, take it to Earth, it escapes, and soo

        • Re:Colour me apprehensive. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by bruce_the_loon ( 856617 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @05:51PM (#48841245) Homepage

          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.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dbIII ( 701233 )

            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.

            Hollywood seems to have given up on that sort of environment some time after "The Thing From Outer Space" - where the only guy that seemed anywhere near inept was the journalist, until the end and his "watch the skies" speech.
            Even the Apollo 13 movie suffered from Hollywood deciding that a the real life crew that was 100% perfe

          • No, actually my complaint with Prometheus was that it was poor storytelling across the board. It seemed to purposely tell half a story in an attempt to hide this under the guise of interpretation, or possibly a Prometheus Mark II.

            It may be I am like those naysayers that panned Blade Runner upon release, and only some time after have come to see its true merit, but I don't think so. At least with Blade Runner there were reasons to view it multiple times, and that definitely can't be said for Prometheus.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by mjwx ( 966435 )

            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.

            Beyond that, think about the kind of person who signs up to do a job with a 10 year round trip most of which is spent in suspended animation.

            The worlds most competent and intelligent people are hardly going to be first in line. The kind of people who are first in line will have dollar signs in mind and little else.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          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

        • Since I've apparently offended both of the fans of Prometheus I suppose I'd better elaborate on a few of the things that made it such a disappointment. Insofar as Scott himself is concerned, I suggest you (not the parent, just folk in general) watch/listen to any of his recent interviews and see the smugness and dismissiveness of the fans' criticisms for yourselves. Anyway, back to the film. We had:

          -An alien astronaut that was single-handedly responsible for all of human evolution, while handwaving over all

          • I got a really stupid script for you

            Deep space ship is called on to land on a planet
            Somebody sticks their face into an opening egg
            The person is brought back on the ship and they somehow miss that they have an alien embryo in it
            Ships computer and an android attempt to kill a crew member, by stuffing a rolled up magazine down their throat
            Alien pops out, grows without any food and kills most of the crew while they flail about the flamethrowers in a closed environment
            Hero runs around with fog machines and strob

            • Nope, Alien makes a lot more sense than Prometheus no matter how you try to spin it. At least when they stick their face into an opening egg, they've still got their helmet on. The overall plot (evil company wants to smuggle an alien back to earth by flesh-wrapping it in a crew member) at least makes some kind of sense whereas Prometheus just doesn't (dying man decides to visit alien planet who had something to do with early humans so that they can keep him alive for some reason).

              I don't even understand w

              • Gotcha, every story has to be wrapped up in a bow and dropped in your lap with no loose ends in a 90 minute running time.

                I'm glad that Ridley Scott's other works like Blade Runner made it so easily digestible

                • I don't mind occasional loose ends, but Prometheus was nothing but badly thought out loose ends that made no sense. It was a real shame as I love Ridley's other films and was really looking forward to Prometheus.
      • Well we all know how much your opinion is worth then. The only thing possibly worse than Prometheus would of been the the suggested sequel to Gladiator, but then I doubt Ridley would of had anything to do with that.

      • Prometheus went full retard in every single way possible. Irredeemable excrement.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        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.

        Blame the bean counters for that.

        Alien 3 was meant to be a different film altogether with the Xenomorphs making it to earth, but the budget for that got canned so they made Alien 3 (whilst the weakest of the 3 alien movies, is still better than a lot of crap made these days with 10 times the budget).

  • Free? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The service looks to be DRM encumbered to me.

  • Can't watch the free preview in Canada.

    I was going to say that I would think that the novel (my favourite Philip K. Dick novel/story) would probably be best suited for 3-4 episodes? Definitely longer than a feature length film but not so long as a typical 13 episode "premium" season.

    The setting would be interesting because I always imagined the USA of the book to be worn out and dust blown. Probably as failed a society as "Blade Runner" but not as dense or monolithic. Hopefully a story that reflects that

    • The setting would be interesting because I always imagined the USA of the book to be worn out and dust blown. Probably as failed a society as "Blade Runner" but not as dense or monolithic. Hopefully a story that reflects that it takes place just a few years after the end of the war and not in a Sci-Fi future.

      why do you hate america? getting pleasure from imagining america in ruins. sick, man.

      • getting pleasure from imagining america in ruins. sick, man

        It's called plausibility, and it aids with the suspension of disbelief.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I live in Australia... we never get nice things down here :'(

      In the words of the wise: "Fuck it, pirate time!"

      captcha: copied

  • You know, product placement is valuable stuff. I see you recognize that. I sincerely hope you were paid for such a blatant advertizement.

  • Good try, but a bit dissapointed... (Score:3)

    by mpthompson ( 457482 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @04:24PM (#48840703)

    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.

    • spoiler alert!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      All the interesting intellectual and cultural parts from the book are not present in the adaption.
      I am thinking, that the adaption goes the "kick the jap and nazi ass ..." in the end, and thats no good.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        All the interesting intellectual and cultural parts from the book are not present in the adaption.
        I am thinking, that the adaption goes the "kick the jap and nazi ass ..." in the end, and thats no good.

        No, you cannot just take a book and translate it directly to TV. Or a video game. Or a movie.

        They're all different media, and different media has different requirements, and different ways of presenting.

        For example, in a book, you can spend a LOT of time going into lavish detail. You can't do that on TV or m

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by MrHanky ( 141717 )

      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.

      • Well, I did indicate I would continue to watch to give the show more of a chance.

        Blade Runner, by changing the name of the movie to something which didn't reference the book, at least gave a big clue that it would only be loosely based on the source material.

        Philip K. Dick was very enthusiastic about the adaption of Blade Runner from his story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" As far as we know, perhaps he would like this adaption as well.

      • Eh, it's not like Blade Runner was a faithful adaptation either. For one, its theme is completely different from the book.

        I've read the book, and I've seen the movie, and I don't agree that the theme is totally different from the book at all. Visual vs. textual is enough to explain any difference in where the emphasis is placed. The same underlying themes were present.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by MrHanky ( 141717 )

          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.

    • I haven't seen the movie, but the book is one of my favorites. One of the things that worries me is that the book is one of those rare, so self-contained and complete pieces of art that it seems anything added or deleted -- even a single word -- could spoil it.

  • This video is not available due to geographical .. (Score:3)

    by RichMan ( 8097 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @04:24PM (#48840711)

    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.

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

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I get those from time to time so I accidentally give them the wrong name and address. I wonder who they sent out to the apartment complex.

        And why would Amazon do that? This is an Amazon-sponsored, Amazon-paid-for, Amazon-produced, Amazon-distributed show. Amazon owns the bloody thing!

        Amazon could easily make it available to anywhere Amazon has a country presence.

        I presume Amazon is producing those things for their Prime service, so they'd have exclusivity over the produced materials (otherwise I'm sure Ridl

        • "This is an Amazon-sponsored..."

          You could have fooled me, with that 30 second Geico commercial prefacing every Pilot offering I was sure the Gecko was sponsoring everything.

    • 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.

    • I'll bet it's available thru the 'torrents.

  • What happened to 2013's winners? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @04:30PM (#48840745)

    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?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by swb ( 14022 )

      And the Chris Carter sort of post-apoc sci fi thing, too, Which will probably suck and be like everything else, with predictable, formulaic episode structures where *tiny* amounts of the bigger conspiracy are revealed, stringing viewers along forever and then never really having a point, like "Lost".

      Anyway, the pilot at least held my interest and binging without commercials makes it somehow less annoying. And the Bosch series looks good, too. The books are above everage mysteries and Welliver is pretty

      • Maybe traditional pilots and series' had long windows, too, you just didn't know about them because only TV suits saw the pilots and Amazon had that voting scheme.

        I'm not an expert on TV shows, but in casual browsing around I've seen examples of both.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by swb ( 14022 )

          Regardless of the reason (Amazon's missteps or typical TV timelines), it's kind of problematic. A year turnaround kind of kills momentum and interest, although given the thin creme at the top of the shitpile that is a streaming content catalog, maybe it won't matter because streamers will watch almost anything even if its not that good.

          It could also be a limitation of the "instant binge" model where the entire series is available at once versus a weekly release that allows them to actuallly shoot the serie

      • The Chris Carter show was canceled

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

    • Bosch pilot has been released and 10 more episodes, the season, will be released on Feb 1.
  • US only and needs MS Silverlight ..

    • US only and needs MS Silverlight ..

      http://phx.corporate-ir.net/ph... [corporate-ir.net]
      Amazon’s First Pilot Season of 2015, Featuring Slate of 13 Original Comedy, Drama, Docuseries and Kids Offerings, is Now Available on Amazon Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany

      And yeah, Silverlight :S . Amazon must be getting some £££££ from Microsoft, either that, or their video/web department is run by 16 year olds that never heard of flash.

  • the word is adaptation, surely?

    only the bbc, so far, has shown the ability to adapt anything with any degree of responsibility.

    perhaps i do not understand merkin manglish - maybe adaption means "convert to a drug"?

  • Great show (Score:3)

    by FreeUser ( 11483 ) on Saturday January 17, 2015 @08:09PM (#48842057)

    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.

  • tried to see the "free" episodes (Score:3)

    by ruir ( 2709173 ) on Sunday January 18, 2015 @05:24AM (#48843651)
    "Please install SilverLight" "it will only take a minute" Fuck you amazon.
  • Is probably my favourite entry in the series. There I said it.

  • Won't let me watch it in Canada.

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