Let me introduce Philip K Dick, who was
passed away a number of years ago. But you will know his work. He wrote the book
that 'Blade Runner' was based on. He also wrote 'Total Recall' amongst many others.
But he had a bank of beautiful short stories and the fine people at Amazon
and Channel 4 in the UK got together, banged their heads together and came up
with 10 gorgeous stories – five shot in the US, five shot in the UK – and these lovely
people included one man you may know called Bryan Cranston. Mister "Breaking Bad"
himself. Mister "Malcolm in the Middle." He's one of the producers on the show and he
saw fit in his madness to have me in the the one episode that he is doing.
The episode is called "Human Is" and we have the gorgeous Essie Davis and the main
thing in this is the relationship between Bryan Cranston and Essie Davis
Bryan and Essie both work for me. I'm a general – General Olin – who's... he's kind
of a good guy but he's a bit of a powerful character and it is this
futuristic tale of what it means to be human,
which is one of Philip K Dick's extraordinary talents.
People use the well-worn clichéd phrase
of "dystopian future." Yeah, I don't think many people
are using a phrase that I possibly would use now which is "dystopian
present." It's getting kind of ugly at the moment. I mean things... people
are being polarized. There seems to be a lack of a center ground
anymore. It's a disease that seems to be growing right around the world and
and the first thing that happens is people tend to – if you'll excuse the
expression – build walls, either around themselves or around their countries or around
their thinking.
One of the best moments in cinema I ever had was the first
showing of "Total Recall,"
the original one with Schwarzenegger. And I'll never forget it I was on the front
row of this cinema with this band of... This was when Arnie was at the height of his
powers, and I remember that when the music started, these huge kettle drums,
and it was Andrew Vanja and Mario Kassar, and it was like the old Superman
titles they came from the package and then Arnold Schwarzenegger name came up.
Present Arnold Schwarzenegger. I've never seen so many boxes of popcorn, screaming
at the screen the whole lot and I looked around I nearly collapsed and he pissed
myself laughing that was just that and everybody went there over the top and it
was the beginning of "Total Recall." It was one of the moments where I just kind of
went, "Man, cinema is a wonderful thing," this collective thing in this room. And so
Mister Philip K Dick has given me enormous pleasure over the years.
There's an old cliché
that artists have an obligation to hold a mirror up to society and I love the
idea of setting up these... or being involved with shows that kind of
creator a world that doesn't exist. For instance with the other show that
you may have heard of – "Game of Thrones" – we have dragons and shadow babies and
all sorts of strange and weird Night Kings and just strange stuff but it is a
world that we inhabit and it's as real as possible, we try to make it as real as
possible and that particular show is about these huge almost
Shakespearean ideas of power. And then something like 'Philip K Dick's
Electric Dreams' is about something that's near and dear to us all and that
is "What does it mean for us to be human?" So to use that world to show
those kind of stories I think is incredibly important and I think with
the popularity of those it's something that people crave for.