Ridley Scott making Philip K. Dick series for Syfy

Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions is adapting sci-fi author Philip K. Dick’s Man In The High Castle as a four-hour miniseries for cable network Syfy. The X-Files’ writer Frank Spotniz will pen and executive produce the new show.

Scott Free will make the series with Headline Pictures, Electric Shepherd Productions and FremantleMedia International.

FremantleMedia international will handle distribution of the series. FremantleMedia International is already working with Scott Free Productions and Headline Pictures on Le Mans drama The Drivers.

The story is set in an alternate history in which Nazi Germany and Japan were victorious in World War II. Set in 1962, the Axis Powers occupy the United States, where fascism rules and the few surviving Jews hide under assumed names.

“The Man in The High Castle is one of Dick’s most imaginative and captivating works and certainly one of my favorites. I am pleased to team up with the singular Frank Spotnitz and Syfy, Headline Pictures, Electric Shepherd and FremantleMedia International to bring this epic to audiences who will find this story as intriguing and riveting as we do.” said Ridley Scott.

“Alternate history stories are part of an amazing and intricate genre of sci-fi,” said Mark Stern president of original content, Syfy and co-head, original content, Universal Cable Productions. “When done well, there’s nothing better; and I can’t think of better creative talent to bring Philip K. Dick’s fascinating alternate-history thriller to life than Ridley Scott and Frank Spotnitz.”