Blade Runner director Ridley Scott is returning to the work of the late Philip K Dick to executive produce a BBC TV adaptation of one of the American sci-fi writer's novels.

Howard Brenton, the playwright and Spooks writer, is adapting Dick's Hugo award-winning dystopian novel The Man in the High Castle into a four-part BBC1 mini-series.

Set in the 1960s in an alternative scenario where the Axis forces defeated the Allies in the second world war, the drama will be co-produced by Scott's independent production company Scott Free Films. Scott's credits include Blade Runner, the science fiction movie loosely based on Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe.

The series is a co-production with Headline Pictures and Electric Shepherd, the production arm of the Philip K Dick Estate.

"I've been a lifelong fan of Philip K Dick," said Scott. "He is the master of creating worlds which not only spark the imagination but offer deeper commentary on the human condition."

A number of Dick's novels and short stories have been made into films including Total Recall and Minority Report.

The BBC is co-developing the project alongside RTL subsidiary FremantleMedia Enterprises, which will hold the international distribution rights.

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