Timothy Spall Cast in Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams

LONDON: The BAFTA-winning actor Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner, Secrets & Lies, The King’s Speech) will star in the first episode of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, “The Commuter.”

Spall plays Ed Jacobson, an unassuming employee at a train station who is alarmed to discover that a number of daily commuters are taking the train to a town that shouldn’t exist. When he investigates for himself, he comes face to face with an alternate reality that forces him to confront his own struggles around his relationship with his wife and his very troubled son. “The Commuter” is based on the short story of the same name by Dick and is written by Jack Thorne (National Treasure, This is England, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The episode is directed by Tom Harper (War & Peace, Peaky Blinders).

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams is a ten-episode sci-fi anthology series featuring stand-alone episodes each inspired by Dick’s shorts stories as adapted by writers such as Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander), Michael Dinner (Justified), Tony Grisoni (Red Riding, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Matthew Graham (Life on Mars, Doctor Who), David Farr (The Night Manager), Dee Rees (Mudbound) and Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim).

The series is commissioned by Channel 4, which will air the program later this year in the U.K., and by Amazon for the U.S.