The Man In The High Castle Finds Its Female Lead
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Have you always wondered what the world would be like if the U.S. had been on the losing side of World War II? The upcoming Amazon Studios pilot The Man in the High Castle attempts to answer that question with an alternate take on our nation’s history. Now the series’ female lead has been cast, and Clash of the Titans beauty Alexa Davalos is set to kick a little ass as part of the country’s rising resistance forces.
The Man in the High Castle is a 1962 novel from sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, and its adaptation is being spearheaded by X-Files writer/producer Frank Spotnitz, who also created that series’ spinoff The Lone Gunmen and the Cinemax action drama Hunted. The series is set in 1962, in a completely different version of the United States, where the East Coast is ruled by the Nazis and the West Coast is run by the Japanese. The Midwest is still something of a free nation, and that’s where the Resistance makes its home.
According to Deadline, Davalos will star as Juliana, a resident of occupied San Francisco. Juliana doesn’t mind her situation, as she loves Japanese culture and is an expert in the ways of aikido. However, seeing her half-sister get killed by a Japanese soldier opens her eyes to the horrors all around her. Taking an important propaganda film with her, Juliana heads out on a dangerous trek to the Colorado-set Resistance headquarters.
One of the show’s male leads went to Bones actor Luke Kleintank, who will play All-American dude Joe Blake, not one of the novel’s original characters. Cary Tagawa (Revenge) stars as Tagomi, the head of a Japanese Trade Mission to San Francisco who is actually a spy for the Nazis. There are several other roles that need to be filled, assuming the series sticks to the novel’s narrative. And it’ll need to figure out an interesting way to do this.
Davalos, who first broke out with a small role on Fox’s Angel and alongside Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick. Also seen in films like The Mist and Defiance, the French actress most recently starred in the shortlived TNT noir drama Mob City from Frank Darabont.
Other Amazon pilots getting recent casting include the yoga comedy Down Dog, with Orange is the New Black actress Alysia Reiner, and the Shawn Ryan-created thriller Mad Dogs, which added Steve Zahn, Romany Malco, and Ben Chaplin. It’s unclear when Amazon Studios will bring their latest Pilot Season to viewers, as their latest round-up is still currently gaining votes.
