Bryan Cranston is making an anthology show based on the works of sci-fi icon Philip K. Dick. We may have just found his first co-star for the series.
While chatting with Anthony Mackie about All the Way (in which Mackie plays Martin Luther King, Jr. opposite Cranston”s LBJ), I mentioned the recently announced anthology series since Mackie has some Philip K. Dick on his resume with 2011 movie The Adjustment Bureau.
Mackie seems to have a genuine enthusiasm for the writer whose stories have led to tons of screen adaptations, Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Man in the High Castle among them.
“Adjustment Bureau reigns as one of my favorite movies I”ve done,” Mackie told me. “Philip K. Dick”s short stories are just amazing and from another time of writing. You used to sit and read those stories, and they would take you to a whole other world. And I feel like he”s still one of the only writers who had the ability to do that in such convincing way.”
So might this anthology series be the chance for a reunion for the All the Way actors?
“I would do that tomorrow. I would never say no to a Philip K. Dick movie,” Mackie said.
When I interviewed Cranston the following day, I told him about his co-star”s apparent sincere interest in signing on.
“I will give him a call!” Cranston said. “Isn”t that funny how we find things out? It”s funny “cause because between us, we get asked the question so many times ‘What are you doing? Tell me about this project. Tell me about that project” that when we”re with each other, we don”t want to burden each other with what we”re doing. It”s like, ‘Let”s talk about sports.””
Alright, connection made. I”ll be here waiting for my finder“s fee.
Cranston is executive producing the anthology series, titled Electric Dreams: The World of Philip K. Dick (taken from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the story that“s the basis of Blade Runner), with Ronald D. Moore, showrunner of Outlander and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series.
The Breaking Bad alum told me he expects he”ll act in one episode in the 10-part series, though he”s mostly focusing on producing and procuring writers for the project. The cast may be made up of a “company” of actors who play different parts in the standalone episodes, or new faces may appear in each episode, Cranston said when, yes, I asked him to tell me about “this project” and “that project.”
As for why he”s limiting himself to acting in just one episode, Cranston said, “I don”t think that I should become a series regular on anything right now. Once Breaking Bad ended, I gave myself a three-year moratorium on series television. In fact, [All the Way] is the first time I will have been on [live-action] television in three years. I”ve held up my end of the personal bargain for myself. Walter White was such an avalanche, and I just needed to step out of the way and not get swallowed up by the zeitgeist of that show.”
The lead role in All the Way on Broadway was among the four-time Emmy winner”s first post-Breaking Bad projects in his efforts to try something different for a while. The HBO TV movie adaptation of All the Way debuted last Saturday.
Electric Dreams will premiere on the U.K.”s Channel 4, and Sony Pictures Television will distribute internationally. No word yet on which network will air the series in the U.S. or which of Dick”s stories will be the basis for the project.