Why Is Amazon’s ‘The Man In The High Castle’ So Different From The Original Book?

Total Recall. Blade Runner. Minority Report. The Adjustment Bureau. A Scanner Darkly. The Man In The High Castle. What do these films and shows all have in common? They are all adaptations of works by celebrated science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

Dick’s work is imaginative and dense. It bewitches the reader’s mind and beguiles filmmakers. So, when writer and producer Frank Spotnitz wanted to adapt The Man in the High Castle as a thrilling television show, he had his work cut out for him. The novel the new Amazon series is based upon is nuanced and full of intimately meditative moments. It’s not exactly linear or built for the screen.

“The truth is when I started I thought, ‘I don’t want to change anything because I love the book.’ But then I realized that you have to because it’s not a TV series. It’s a great book, but it’s not a TV series.” Spotnitz explained, “I want to build out this world. I want to extend it in a way that is consistent with the intention of the novel and actually hopefully give us an even greater opportunity to explore those ideas.”

So what did Spotnitz change? Well, in the book, Frank and Juliana are hardened divorcées, Joe Blake is a middle-aged Italian war vet named Joe Cinnadella, there’s no “Nazi Atticus Finch,” and “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” film reels are non-existent. Instead, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is a banned book that everyone in America is reading.

“That was the first thing that I thought of. [Television]’s a visual medium and to see the film is resonant to us because we’ve seen those films all our lives,” said Spotnitz. Reading passages aloud from a book might work inside a book, but on film it’s a little boring.

All these changes come with the blessing of Philip K. Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick Hackett. Hackett is one of the primary people responsible for preserving Dick’s estate and is a producer on The Man In The High Castle. She told us that she was all for Spotnitz taking her father’s work and giving the story “something to propel it forward.” She and Spotnitz conferred on adding more in terms of backstory and giving the narrative a push with the inclusion of the Resistance, but she’s well aware that some purists aren’t fond of these amendments to her father’s work.

“By and large, the fans have been very positive. There are some people who just really have trouble with changes. I understand that and respect their feelings about it because this material is really personal to people.” Hacket said, “I would say though that the novel is not a show. It’s not a series. So it must be adjusted.”

Hackett added, “We can all at least agree that by having this series more people are reading the book.”

Season one of The Man In The High Castle is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Click here to order the Philip K. Book via Amazon.com.

[Watch The Man In The High Castle on Prime Video]