The decision to adapt Philip K. Dick’s alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle to television seems, at first, like an easy one. Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall are among the novelist’s works to transition successfully from page to screen. But despite this successful track record, and even with Blade Runner director Ridley Scott and his production company Scott Free backing the property, High Castle proved a tough sell.

The series opens in 1962 and imagines a world in which the Nazis won WWII by developing the atomic bomb before the Americans. The Germans and Japanese rule a divided United States with an uneasy alliance as they try to crush a nascent resistance effort among the citizenry.

At a recent Film Independent at LACMA screening of the show’s first two episodes, cast and crew discussed the almost interminable process of bringing the book to the screen.

“People had a certain reluctance about the material,” said producer David W. Zucker. “There’s disturbing iconography and it had limitations for commercial television.”

During the nearly decade-long development period, the project existed in several forms, including as a feature film, a mini-series and even a European TV series. It wasn’t until the rise of VOD streaming services in the last few years that the project finally found a home.

“I’d just started with Amazon and there was nothing on the shelf,” said Morgan Wandell, Amazon’s Head of Drama Series, about his eagerness to fill his inaugural slate. “We were really interested in book properties given the history of Amazon.”

He contacted High Castle showrunner Frank Spotnitz, who made his name writing and executive producing The X-Files, and asked: “What’s the one thing you haven’t been able to get done and keeps you up at night?”

Spotnitz gave his answer and Wandell had found his series.

“It’s exactly the kind of thing we were looking for,” said Wandell. “We wanted a world you haven’t seen and characters in relationships that are unique.”

The pilot debuted in January. Wandell said it’s been the most watched of any of the several dozen pilots the streaming service has released. The series’ second episode was released on October 23. The rest of the first season will be available to Amazon Prime members starting November 20.

Glen Golightly / Film Independent Blogger