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HBO order Crichton's 'Westworld' series, Anthony Hopkins & Evan Rachel Wood to star

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F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I was about to post the Harris news. I could never imagine a show like Westworld could attract this kind of talent. The cast is straight up bananas.
 
H

hydruxo

Member
Oh man. This came out of nowhere for me, I had no idea this was happening. HBO could have a massive hit on their hands with this one.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Thandie Newton has joined Westworld.

Newton (Crash) will play Maeve Millay, a beautiful and razor-sharp woman with a genius for reading people and a knack for survival.
Maeve is the Westworld madame whose seen-it-all-before worldview is about to be truly challenged.
Click to expand...

Spoiler is really not a spoiler, just covering the bases.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
- THR: HBO's 'Westworld' Enlists Miranda Otto
Rake and Lord of the Rings alum Miranda Otto has become the newest addition to the already impressive cast, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Inspired by Michael Crichton's 1973 feature film, the drama is billed as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.

Otto will play Virginia Pittman,
the head of the quality assurance department whose brutal honesty with her colleagues and ruthless efficiency in dealing with malfunctioning "property" have made her a formidable and unpredictable power player in Westworld.
Click to expand...
 
R

Revolver

Member
The cast is looking ace. Loved the movie as a kid so I'll definitely check this out. Off topic, but I wonder if anyone else remembers the 80's band Westworld too. Always had a soft spot for them.
 
D

Death Metalist

Member
MilesWebber said:
Futureworld > Westworld.

Deal with it.
Click to expand...

westworld-o.gif


He'll be dealing with you next!

Westword > Futureworld. Yul Bynner is enough reason for it to be better
.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- THR: How HBO's 'Westworld' Became TV's Hottest Project
HBO's Westworld is building an A-list ensemble cast — despite the fact that most of the actors will play robots. Actually, that's the allure.

Based on Michael Crichton's 1973 film and written by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the pilot stars Anthony Hopkins in his first series-regular role as an inventor who runs an adult amusement park populated by lifelike robots.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter these androids — played by castmembers including James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton — can be killed off and return with completely different personas, allowing actors to play many characters in the same season.

That creative device, one top talent agent says, is helping HBO attract a premier cast (which also includes Ed Harris, Miranda Otto and Jeffrey Wright). And unlike the actors on such anthology series as FX's American Horror Story and HBO's own True Detective, which reboot themselves every season, the cast of Westworld is signing multiyear deals.

"This is built as a series and, in terms of storytelling, I think the rules are definitely being broken," says HBO programming president Michael Lombardo of the sci-fi Western from executive producers J.J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk. "The promise of the show, in terms of where it's going, is exciting to actors, and they want to be a part of this."

Westworld — a rare outside studio buy for HBO, from Warner Bros. Television — is filming its pilot in Los Angeles in August as it awaits word on a pickup, which, given its pedigree, is expected.
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U

UrbanRats

Member
I'll keep an eye on this, but i wasn't super happy with True Detective, another series that got me initially hooked thanks to the cast.
then again, the Sci Fi setting could be more interesting as a premise.
 
J

jett

D-Member
I watched the movie last night. At first I thought it was going to be this piece about artificial intelligence becoming self-aware, social/classes commentary or something. The first half was pretty great. Then it turns into a slasher movie about defective robots and I'm like eh. I imagine the HBO show will be handling the themes I thought the movie would. :p
 
S

SquiddyCracker

Banned
How the hell is this going to work for more than 1 season?
Once shit goes down, the plot will have to wrap up quickly unless they wish to turn it into a worldwide robopocalypse event.
 
H

H3xum

Member
Just read the premise for the o.g. movie. It sounds like a Goosebumps book.

aka freaking awesome
 
J

Joni

Member
SquiddyCracker said:
How the hell is this going to work for more than 1 season?
Once shit goes down, the plot will have to wrap up quickly unless they wish to turn it into a worldwide robopocalypse event.
Click to expand...

They fix WestWorld, but then all hell breaks loose in FutureWorld. Nobody saw it coming!
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
SquiddyCracker said:
How the hell is this going to work for more than 1 season?
Once shit goes down, the plot will have to wrap up quickly unless they wish to turn it into a worldwide robopocalypse event.
Click to expand...

Allegedly the premise has been changed a good amount.

Now that I think about it, I'm guessing it'll share some themes and structural elements with Dollhouse.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
HBO Watch notes that filming is underway in Utah and at Warner Studios in LA.

Also, some of their speculation on HBO scheduling next year:
There has been a lot of speculation about what HBO will do about Boardwalk Empire, The Newsroom and True Blood all fading to black this year. Noting that filming has already begun we’d expect the pilot to be complete sometime this year, an approval (or disapproval) from HBO in early 2015 with the show ready to complete filming and wrap in Spring 2015. The show could be ready to air as early as True Blood’s old time slot (June 2015). True Detective season 2 will also be in the can by that time. Martin Scorsese & Terrance Winter’s new project will also be ready for next year, it appears.
Click to expand...
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
Laser speed development by HBO standards :p

Still baffled that Soderbergh dumped The Knick in their laps and they are airing reruns of True Detective instead of that show at 10 right now.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Cornballer said:
HBO Watch notes that filming is underway in Utah and at Warner Studios in LA.

Also, some of their speculation on HBO scheduling next year:
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty optimistic to me and frankly, their speculative schedule is absurd. The Leftovers shot its pilot in July 2013, received its series order in September, began filming in February, took an unplanned two week hiatus in April due to mounting pressure from a crazy tight schedule, and wrapped photography in late June/early July. (Perhaps it's merely a coincidence since they claimed otherwise, but the premiere was ultimately pushed back by the length of that production hiatus too.)

They'd have to get a series order ASAP and hit the ground running to make a premiere next June. Just saying.
 
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