SNAPSHOT
The series comes from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and boasts J.J. Abrams as a producer. Based on the 1973 film from Michael Crichton, Westworld revolves around a futuristic theme park where patrons can bring their darkest desires to life with the help of androids. James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, and Thandie Newton round out the impressive cast of the series. (synopsis via Out.com)
Seeing, so they say, is believing.
But what if the “reality” has been distorted that it’s impossible to be certain what you’re looking at, what you are a part of, is actually happening?
And even more interestingly, you chose for it to be that way?
What makes this teaser trailer for HBO’s remark of the 1973 film Westworld, itself based on Michael Crichton’s book of the same name, is that it hints, nay pretty much comes and says, that what you wish for may not always be what you get, and that the act of telling up from down, in from out, can become exponentially more challenging.
Westworld is based on the idea that what you think you want may not actually be what you want once it’s in your grasp.
And potentially deadly into the bargain.
Especially so, if the agents of that desire fulfillment, the androids populating this most adult of theme parks turn against their patrons, triggering a necessary fightback in a world where the overriding drive up to that point has been desire not survival.
A scarily provocative idea indeed and one ripe with dramatic possibilities, and the chance, notes The Hollywood Reporter, for the star-studded cast to explore a whole range of characters:
“Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s 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. That creative device, one top talent agent said, helped HBO attract a premier cast (which also includes Ed Harris 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.”
We find out in the first half of 2016, when Westworld premieres on HBO, what happens when a dreamland of dark desires comes face to face with the reality of simply staying alive.