Electric Dreams Do Come True

October is a red letter month on Lightbox for sci-fi buffs with the streaming service premiering season three of Mr Robot and Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams.

Lightbox announced this morning that the latter, which it describes as a “hugely ambitious” 10-part anthology series based on the stories of the Blade Runner author, will stream from October 18.

Interestingly, the Channel 4 series is a co-production with Amazon Prime Video, which obviously won’t stream it in this market, and goes to air in the UK on Sunday.

Each stand-alone episode is set in a different world, close to home or across other universes, and will explore the common theme of humanity.

“Our viewers are consuming content that is topical, thought provoking and deeply layered,” Lightbox General Manager Hema Patel says.

“We have seen a rise in demand for what used to be niche content and is now broadly embraced. The Lightbox team is thrilled to bring Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams to NZ audiences.”

The cast of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams includes:

• Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner, Secrets & Lies) in The Commuter
• Steve Buscemi (Fargo, Boardwalk Empire) in Crazy Diamond
• Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, The Martian) in Impossible Planet
• Anna Paquin (True Blood) and Terrence Howard (Empire, Lee Daniel’s The Butler) in Real Life
• Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel, The Conjuring) in Kill All Others
• Greg Kinnear (Rake, As Good As It Gets) in Father Thing
• Bryan Cranston (who’s an executive producer) and Essie Davis in Human Is.

Each of the stand-alone episodes have been adapted by leading British and American writers, including Ronald D. Moore (Outlander) and Michael Dinner (Justified), Tony Grisoni (Red Riding), Jack Thorne (National Treasure, Skins), Matthew Graham (Life on Mars, Doctor Who), David Farr (The Night Manager), Dee Rees (Mudbound) and Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim).