Amazon has finalized the casts for the last two episodes of Season 1 of Philip K. Dicks Electric Dreams, its sci-fi anthology series from Ronald D. Moore, Michael Dinner, Bryan Cranston and Sony Pictures TV. Annalise Basso and Maura Tierney are set for the episode Safe and Sound, with Essie Davis, Liam Cunningham and Ruth Bradley in Human Is. Series exec producer Cranston, who had been announced as acting in an unspecified episode of the show, will appear in Human Is.
The show, based on short stories by the award-winning novelist, was commissioned by Channel 4, which will air the series later this year in the UK. It will launch on Amazon Prime in the U.S.
In Safe & Sound, Basso (Ouija: Origins of Evil) plays a small-town girl, already gripped with social anxiety, who moves to a big, futuristic city with her mother (Tierney, The Affair). Exposed for the first time to urban societys emphasis on security and terrorist prevention, it isnt long before her school days are consumed by fear and paranoia. She soon finds guidance and companionship in the most unexpected of places. The episode is written by Kalen Egan & Travis Sentell and directed by Alan Taylor.
Human Is, penned by Jessica Mecklenburg and helmed by Francesca Gregorini, follows a woman (Davis, The White Princess) suffering in a loveless marriage. She finds that, upon his return from battle, her emotionally abusive husband (Cranston, Sneaky Pete) suddenly appears to be a different man in more ways than one. Cunningham (Game of Thrones) plays General Olin, and Bradley (Humans) is Yaro. Amazon notes that the episode cuts to the heart of Philip K. Dicks core concern: What, truly, defines us as human?
Each episode of Philip K. Dicks Electric Dreams will be adapted by leading British and American writers including Moore, Dinner, Tony Grisoni, Jack Thorne, Matthew Graham, David Farr, Dee Rees and Travis Beacham.