Janelle Monae has signed up to star in an episode of the much-anticipated 10-episode “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams” sci-fi anthology series featuring stand-alone stories (each written and directed by different writers and directors, and starring different actors) all inspired by Philip K. Dick’s renowned shorts stories.
Monae will star in the episode titled “Autofac.”
The episode’s story: Despite society and the world as we know it having collapsed, a massive, automatic product-manufacturing factory continues to operate according to the principles of consumerism – humans consume products to be happy, and in order to consume continuously, they must be denied freedom of choice and free will. When a small band of rebels decide to shut down the factory, they discover they may actually be the perfect consumers after all.
Monae will play Alexis, an Autofac representative; she joins Juno Temple who will play one of the rebels.
Jay Paulson and David Lyons will also appear in the episode.
Peter Horton directs the episode written by Travis Beacham.
Announced last week, Dee Rees is attached to direct one of the 10 episodes as well, which will co-star “Straight Outta Compton’s” Jason Mitchell.
Terrence Howard will also appear in an episode.
Other cast members for the 10 episode series includes Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Mireille Enos, Anna Paquin, Timothy Spall, Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger, Jack Reynor, Benedict Wong, Geraldine Chaplin, Vera Farmiga, Mel Rodriguez, Glenn Morshower, Sarah Brown.and Bryan Cranston who also serves as an executive producer.
A collaboration between the UK’s Channel 4 and Amazon Prime Video for the U.S., the anthology series will air later this year (no exact date has been announced at this time).
She appeared in two of 2016’s most significant films (although they continue to perform in 2017) – “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” – and now Janelle Monáe continues to build on those successes also booking a co-starring role in director Robert Zemeckis’ scripted feature film adaptation of the 2010 documentary “Marwencol” for Universal.
