‘The Man In The High Castle’ Amazon Series Brings Philip K. Dick’s Nightmarish Vision Alive
The Man in the High Castle, Amazon Studio’s newest series, takes us into a world where Hitler and the Axis powers won World War II. Based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 book of the same title, the show imagines life in a divided America under shared-rule by the German-occupied east and Japan-controlled west.
From an Entertainment Weekly summary of the series, the unoccupied zone is supposedly where the “Man in the High Castle” lives and produces propaganda films. These fictional and highly seditious newsreels depict events and life as if the Allies won the Second World War. They envision an America that is surprisingly similar to the one we are familiar with.
In the Philip K. Dick adaptation, the propaganda films inspire a small resistance movement to fight the German and Japanese occupation. Additionally, the story hints at a “cold war” brewing between the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese Pacific States over definitive control of the North American continent.
Watch The Man in the High Castle Official Trailer
First reading The Man in the High Castle in college, Frank Spotnitz was hesitant to work on a film adaptation of the book. As reported previously by the Inquisitr, Spotnitz realized that to make it a viable TV series required an enormous attention to detail and some departure from the original novel. So far, Philip K. Dick fans have given rave reviews of the Amazon version.
Known for his work on The X-Files, Spotnitz had some unique challenges designing a world where fascists’ values rule.
“It’s uncomfortably close to our world, but crucially different. Creating that kind of past is really tricky: you need it to seem like the ’60s, but not the ’60s we recognize. There were a thousand decisions we had to make about the clothes and the hairstyles, as well as what the cities looked like.”
Spotnitz also found it difficult to find shooting locations for the series. When filming in cities like New York or San Francisco, the producer had to convince building owners that they were not making a pro-Nazi film. As many locations prohibited the display of anything Nazi-related, many of the swastikas seen in The Man in the High Castle were digitally added later.
Other producers involved in the Amazon project are Ridley Scott and Isa Dick Hackett, Philip K. Dick’s granddaughter.
Was Philip K. Dick a Man Before His Time?
Born December 16, 1928, Philip K. Dick became a published author in his early 20’s when he sold his short story Roog. From then on, he wrote and published many science-fiction stories and books throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the 1970’s, his books veered away from science fiction, and began to echo more of his personal interest in metaphysics and theology.
Dick’s novel, The Man in the High Castle, earned a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Another one of his books, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, won him the John W Campbell Memorial Award for best novel in 1975. The last book that Dick wrote was The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, which was published posthumously in 1982.
Despite having some recognition in the literary world, Dick never achieved any real financial success or fame while alive. He often worked for small science-fiction publishers who never fully paid him for royalties owed and spent much of his life in poverty. Many believe his use of mind-altering drugs and frequent hallucinations often influenced his writing.
According the an IMDb biography, Philip K. Dick’s life was taking a turn for the better after some movie producers noticed his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. They bought the rights to the book which became the basis for the science-fiction cult-classic Blade Runner. Without ever reaping any credit, he died of a heart attack in 1982 shortly after the film was completed.
It wasn’t until after his death did Dick finally achieve fame and success. As Hollywood began to notice his writing talent, more of his books were turned into movies. A total of 11 top-grossing films have been based on Philip K. Dick novels including, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and Impostor.
The Man in the High Castle is the latest adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel. The Amazon series vividly depicts the nightmarish parallel universe almost as Dick envisioned it. It brings us into an American alternate reality where men in Nazi uniforms are commonplace, and Japanese flags fly over American cities.
Amazon may be taking a huge risk with The Man in the High Castle. Producing a series based not only in the past, but on a reality that did not exist requires a substantial budget and financial commitment.
According to Spotnitz, “It is enormously expensive, and an incredibly brave move by Amazon to invest those kinds of resources in a production like this.”
[Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Amazon]
