The Syfy Channel, the cable network that has long operated under the woefully misguided notion that what science fiction fans want to watch is more pro wrestling and high school dropouts hunting ghosts in the restrooms of abandoned shopping malls, is planning a miniseries based on Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle. The book describes an alternate history where the Axis powers emerged victorious in World War II and occupied America. But this being a Dick novel, the story gets pretty meta.
Syfy has a mixed track record of developing book adaptations. Its version of Dune was mediocre to good, but it made a hot mess of Ursula K. Leguin’s Earthsea. I worry that a network suit will take a red pen to anything in the script that addresses the book’s more metaphysical themes while shouting at the writers, “No, no, no! Less late-night freshman dorm bullshitting, more Nazis! And let’s make one of the Nazis a hot but icy blonde who kills American resistance fighters with a katana! I’m thinking Scarlett Johansson. Get me her agent! And get me some more coke!” Or something like that.
The fact that Frank Spotznitz, a writer for The X-Files, is involved gives me faint hope that it won’t be a train wreck. But it’s usually wise to expect disappointment from Syfy and be pleasantly surprised if the final product doesn’t suck.
