Variety recently reported that actors Richard Madden (best known for starring in HBO’s Game of Thrones as Robb Stark) and Holliday Grainger (known for her role as Lucrezia Borgia in Showtime’s The Borgias) have joined the Amazon series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams cast. Electric Dreams is a sci-fi anthology series comprised of 10 episodes. Due to its nature as an anthology series, each episode will stand alone as its own piece of work.
The show’s title is in reference to Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as inspiration for Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner. The author’s material is proving as popular source material these days, with Amazon running another Philip K. Dick adaptation with its acclaimed series Man in the High Castle. Additionally, Denis Villeneuve’s film Blade Runner 2049 (a sequel to Scott’s 1982 film) starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford will premiere on October 6th.
Richard Madden and Holliday Grainger will appear in the same episode, titled “The Hood Maker”. The episode is set in a futuristic world that lacks any advanced technology, instead depending on mutant telepaths for long-distance communication. Two detectives are brought in to investigate the implications of a jarring new trend of telepath-blocking hoods. Madden will play a character named Agent Ross, while Grainger will play a character named Honor.
Madden and Grainger are well-versed in working with each other, and this project will prove to be a bit of a reunion – both actors worked together in the recent live action Cinderella film, in which Madden plays the Prince and Grainger plays Anastasia. The two also starred in the lead roles of the 2015 BBC adaptation of Lady Chatterly’s Lover.
Matthew Graham (writer for shows such as Dr. Who and EastEnders) wrote “The Hood Maker” while Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane, The Crown) will direct. Other actors set to star in other episodes of Electric Dreams include Timothy Spall, Jack Reynor, Steve Buscemi, and Bryan Cranston.
All episodes of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams will be released on Amazon. A premiere date has not yet been set.