Electric Dreams had an unusual production, filming episodes in both America and the UK simultaneously. On the set of the series in Chicago last year, Isa Dick Hackett explained to visiting press how that came to be, why now is the right time for the series, what her father would make of modern technology and more. There’s been a real snowball of Philip K. Dick adaptations. What allowed this show to come to be?
Isa Dick Hackett: You’re right. There has been a snowball. Sometimes it feels like everything happens at once with High Castle and the sequel to Blade Runner coming out and it’s like suddenly it’s PKD all around us. But really, in fact, these things take a lot of time to get going. High Castle was a ten year odyssey to get that first pilot made. This one was just as long and when we originally pitched it we were not in the “Golden age of TV.” We didn’t have a lot of options and anthology was a dirty word. It’s been a dirty word for a long time. Now it’s not so there’s an opportunity to do that. I think it’s both the marketplace and people's desire to do something different. And I think the people we pulled into this are so amazing and contributing beyond my expectations. They really make it that compelling.
As you said, the development process for adaptations can be long, but once it was actually up and running, your dad’s track record speaks for itself. Did that easily convince the likes of Ron Moore and all these actors to get involved?
Yes, it did. And it’s a privilege for me, both working with his material but also because people are so receptive. It’s a business where you get doors shut in your face all the time when you’re trying to make shows. I feel so fortunate when we approach somebody and say “Are you interested in Philip K. Dick?” and it elevates everything in a totally different way. It was almost like so many people wanted to join the PKD party that we had to say, “Okay, in Season 2!” It was so wonderful. And then it was pairing certain stories for certain filmmakers and having them find things they could embrace and dig into and felt like it was a good fit for their sensibility. The response has been amazing. In terms of choosing Philip K. Dick's stories, was it the filmmakers' preference or did you say “these are the ones we’re going to do. What do you like?”
We sort of curated. My partner and I would go through the available titles and say, “What do you think of these? Give us your feedback.” And we’d go from there. Usually there’d be one or two that they’d respond to. Then we were off and running. In some cases we had people who came to us who wanted a particular story like, “I love ‘The Cookie Lady’” and if it was available, it was like “Go for it.” The writers' room -- the typical version of what you think of in television when these things happen -- this was not that. This was, “You tell me what really excites you and we’ll make that happen,” and use it as a springboard, use it as an inspiration. And people get really afraid, sometimes, of changing things. They get this need to keep it as close to the original as possible. And I’m always saying, “Don’t worry about that. The thing I care most about is that its faithful in spirit and intention. And then you do your thing."
How did the decision come about to film episodes both in the United States and England?
I think most of it was driven by the release date, which necessitated shooting it at the same time in two different places. It was kind of a practical decision more than anything. It’s also a joint project [from Amazon and Channel 4 in the UK]. So the nice thing about that is we were having what we were hoping for, which was cross pollination, where we have English actors in the US [filmed episodes] and American actors [in the UK filmed episodes]. We wanted to make them seem connected so you didn’t watch it and go “That’s a British show” or “That’s an American show." In some cases it was harder because of the story but that really came because of the demand of the time and the practical sort of considerations for it. You’ve mentioned a lot of previous adaptations of your father's work and I’m sure you have your own thoughts about which ones did and didn’t nail his spirit. Is it gratifying to be personally involved and help shepherd that along?
Yes. There have been a lot of adaptations in the feature world and sometimes they feel like they’re hitting the right notes as far as what it means to be human and the nature of reality and those things. Others do not at all. There were enough that I felt like at a certain point, I needed to get in there and get involved enough to connect the material to people with the right sensibility. It was really sort of like, "If this continues, it actually devalues [his work] and in some ways can be really harmful." So, yes. It’s been super gratifying to work directly with these people who... We all share the same goal which is to highlight and to raise this to even a higher level, to elevate it. Some of them were written in the 1950s, they’re really dated, they’re not the stories you would adapt literally, but there’s a nugget of an idea in there where you go, “Whoa, how did he think of that?” And that’s what you run with.
When something has been adapted well it can find a whole new audience.
For sure. For all these years, actually, the movies have driven the sales of the books. No doubt about it. We’ve looked at it and seen direct correlation. It’s always my hope in doing this that people do go back to the written word and when that happens it’s a success. The situation with High Castle is a perfect example. When that came out, it hit the New York Times bestseller list. Never, when it came out, did it come close. All these people are reading this book. And he never would have imagined after it wasn’t received particularly [well]. It’s really truly astounding what that does. I feel like what my job is primarily is to get people back to the written word, so that’s great.
What do you think your father would make of the ultra-connected, smart phone-driven world we live in today?
I think he’d be completely freaked out in this world right now. I really do. He had paranoid tendencies which comes through in his work. And I think he would be so terrified of the loss of privacy. Really, truly, I think he’d be devastated by it. I think he appreciated technology to some degree. He was ahead of his time in feeling like computers were really important. But the privacy stuff -- that is scary. There’s the rub.Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams is now streaming on Amazon Video. Read our Season 1 review, check out what executive producer Bryan Cranston has to say about the series, and read up on other adaptations of Dick's work that you may not have known about.
You can follow Eric Goldman on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
