Amazon has picked up Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (fka Electric Dreams: The World of Philip K. Dick), a 10-epiosde sci-fi anthology series from Ronald D. Moore, Michael Dinner, Bryan Cranston and Sony Pictures TV, sources say.

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The show, based on short stories by the award-winning novelist, was originally commissioned by Channel 4 in the UK in May. At Amazon, it will join the streaming network’s flagship drama series The Man in the High Castle, which is based on Dick’s award-winning novel.



Cranston is set to star in one episode of the series, which he is executive producing alongside Moore and Dinner, who are writing.

Electric Dreams, a passion project for those involved, had a lengthy road to the screen. It had been in development at AMC and Channel 4. When Channel 4 was ready to give the project a green light last spring, AMC opted not to go along.

Being already the home of Dick adaptation The Man in the High Castle, Amazon always was considered a great fit for Electric Dreams. I hear the streaming service was close to picking up the series at the end of last year but opted not to go through with it amid the controversy surrounding Amazon’s cancellation of the Sony TV-produced freshman drama series Good Girls Revolt. Electric Dreams was put back on the marketplace, eventually landing at Amazon again.

Amazon

Amazon and Sony TV have a lot of business together. In addition to Electric Dreams, the studio has recently released drama series Sneaky Pete — also executive produced by and co-starring Cranston — which has been renewed for a second season. Coming up are new Sony TV series for Amazon The Last Tycoon and The Tick.

Each episode of Electric Dreams will be a stand-alone based on Dick’s shorts stories as adapted by a writers room made up of British and American writers. Joining Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) and Dinner (Justified) as writers are Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Matthew Graham (Doctor Who), David Farr (The Night Manager), Dee Rees (Bessie) and Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim).

Moore and Maril Davis (Tall Ship Productions) and Michael Dinner (Rooney McP Productions) are executive producing alongside Bryan Cranston and James Degus (Moonshot Entertainment); Isa Dick Hackett, Kalen Egan and Christopher Tricarico (Electric Shepherd Productions), who also exec produce The Man in the High Castle; David Kanter and Matt DeRoss (Anonymous Content Entertainment); Lila Rawlings and Marigo Kehoe (Left Bank Pictures) and Kate DiMento.

“This is an electric dream come true,” Cranston said at the time of the Channel 4 pickup. “We are so thrilled to be able to explore and expand upon the evergreen themes found in the incredible work of this literary master.”

After starting its foray into original series using exclusively the pilot model, with pilots uploaded online for viewer feedback, Amazon increasingly has been employing straight-to-series approach for high-profile projects, such as the recent pickups of a drama from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and the David O. Russell series starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore and the pending order for Nicolas Winding Refn’s crime thriller Too Old to Die Young.

In features, Dick’s works have been adapted into such popular titles as Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report as well as Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau, Impostor and Paycheck.