Photo credit: Courtesy of GPG
“Today it seems like fascist themes and provocative questions are more relevant than ever, almost fifty years after the height of the Cold War. What will you be willing to sacrifice for freedom?” That was the opening theme of Amazon Studios’ introduction to the DC premiere of the first episode of The Man in the High Castle at the Newseum that launched on Amazon Video on November 20th – an instant hit with customers and critics alike. “For all of us at Amazon Studios, it very gratifying to see such an overwhelming response to the show. This has been a labor of love for more than two years for all of us; but for many of our producers, it has been a journey that started almost a decade ago,” according to Amazon exec Morgan Wandell. The screening was followed by a panel led by The Hill’s Bob Cusack and Nazi propaganda expert Steve Luckert, Ph.D.
The Man in the High Castle is based on Philip K. Dick’s award-winning novel and explores what it would be like if the Allied Powers had lost WWII and Japan and Germany ruled the United States. “Phillip K. Dick’s daughter Isa Dick-Hackett, David Zucker and Ridley Scott started this odyssey back in 2006 when they first sold the project to the BBC,” Wandell added.
“Frank Spotnitz, our fearless show-runner, adapted this material and subsequently sold it with the producers to the Syfy channel almost five years ago. Fortunately, today it is ours and it’s exactly that kind of unique and thought-provoking programming that Amazon Studios is committed to making. We made pilots for this first episode and put it up on our service and basically invited the whole world to watch, give feedback, and rate it. It was, by far, the best performing, highest rated, most critically reviewed thing that we had done. That gave us confidence to then go forward and make the series. I think it would have been a really scary thing to go spend tens and tens of millions of dollars with no way of getting feedback before sharing it with the world. The show has done incredibly well internationally.”
The reception preceding the screening was light and lively as guests took notes on what to hashtag and mingled with the panelists.
It wasn’t until after the episode finished that the popcorn crowd turned serious. They listened intently to the ‘what ifs’ and responded to the current political climate and the heightened terror alerts with thought provoking questions of their own.
The Panelists
Moderated by Bob Cusack of The Hill (R), each panelist introduced himself prior to engaging in some really serious dialogue. For that reason, we have included much of the Q and A here:
The Trailer:
