Remembered for its groundbreaking special effects Yul Brynner played a lethal mechanised gunslinger

Doesn't sound much like Westworld though.

And he scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.

HBO orders 'Westworld' series starring Anthony Hopkins



HBO has officially ordered a TV series based on Michael Crichton's cult 1973 sci-fi western film Westworld.

The series will star Anthony Hopkins as the owner of a futuristic amusement park populated with human-like robots played by actors including Thandie Newton, James Marsden and Even Rachel Wood. Westworld's all-star cast will also include Ed Harris, Miranda Otto and Jeffrey Wright.

The series is being written by Jonathan Nolan - brother and frequent collaborator of Interstellar director Christopher Nolan - and his wife, Lisa Joy. Jonathan Nolan has also directed the pilot episode, while Star Wars' JJ Abrams will serve as one of the series' executive producers.

Westworld is set to air in 2015 and is being billed by HBO as "a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin." HBO teased the series yesterday (November 17) with a cryptic Vine - check it out above.

'Westworld' EP Lisa Joy Signs Overall Deal With Warner Bros. TV

Lisa Joy is setting up shop at Warner Bros. Television.

The executive producer of HBO's upcoming drama Westworld has signed a multi-year overall deal with the studio, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Under the new pact, Joy will continue to serve as executive producer of the star-studded sci-fi series, which she developed with Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)

Based on Michael Crichton's 1973 film, Westworld centers on an inventor (Anthony Hopkins in his first series regular role) who runs an adult amusement park populated by lifelike robots. The project boasts an A-list cast that also includes James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Miranda Otto. The series is slated to premiere later this year.

Joy and Nolan co-wrote the pilot. They will exec produce with J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk through their Warner Bros. Television-based Bad Robot Productions, and Jerry Weintraub. Westworld hails from Bad Robot, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Kilter Films.

Thanks to the impressive names involved, Westworld has quickly become one of the pay cable network's most highly anticipated projects – filling the void left by recently departed dramas including True Blood, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom.

Joy's other credits include Burn Notice and Pushing Daisies – the latter for which she earned a Writers Guild Award nomination. On the film side, she sold a spec script titled Reminiscence to Legendary and is set to pen a female superhero project for Columbia Pictures.

She is repped by UTA and attorney Michael Schenkman.

amusement park populated with human-like robots played by actors including Thandie Newton, James Marsden and Even Rachel Wood

Sexually Explicit Casting Contract for HBO's ‘Westworld’ Extras Has SAG-AFTRA Concerned

Background actors – extras – for HBO’s Westworld were being required Tuesday to sign a nudity and sex consent form that reads like the Kama Sutra and that has SAG-AFTRA officials worried that performers won’t realize that if they get cold feet on set they have the right to withdraw.

Indeed, cold feet may be the least of a performer’s worries.

The explicit consent form itself wouldn’t pass standards reviews at a broadcast network as it recites that the performer “may be required to perform genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, [and] ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude.”

Less strenuously, others might simply “have [their] genitals painted.”

Like all lists drafted by a lawyer, this one includes a catch-all phrase at the end, indicating that the actor may also be pressed into service to perform “other assorted acts the project may require.” The imagination wanders at that phrase, but an omission from the form suggests that whips and chains may be off the table: the union contract requires advance notice of “rough or dangerous” work, and no such warning appears on the form.

Still, if any of those “assorted acts” verge on stunt work – as seems within the realm of possibility – the union contract may entitle the actor to be upgraded to principal performer, which brings with it residuals and a boost in pay.

The union agreement also requires additional payment when a background performer is asked to bring specified wardrobe. However, no additional payment is required when the performer is told to bring no clothing whatsoever.

The 2016 Westworld, described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin,” is inspired by the eponymous 1973 Michael Crichton film that starred Yul Brynner and is produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. The star-studded cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright.

A SAG-AFTRA member alert advises background performers that they have the right to withdraw consent at any time except as to scenes already shot, and that the set must be closed and still photography prohibited without the actor’s consent. The shoot takes place Wednesday, and a SAG-AFTRA representative will be at or near the set. The guild only tends to send member alerts when it is concerned.

Those protections only apply to union extras who are the first 19 on a television show. They’re usually referred to as “covered background performers,” though in this case it seems that they’ll be covered by almost nothing except the union agreement.

The consent form is on Central Casting letterhead and includes a logo that indicates the company was established in 1925, about a decade before SAG itself. The form is no doubt of more recent vintage and would not have been necessary in a pre-union era when movie companies were free to demand table-like nude contortions with abandon.

But today, the union agreement requires that producers obtain the performer’s advance written consent to nudity and sex acts, so the attorney who dutifully drafted the unusual form was apparently simply following the rules. The result, more risque than the usual boilerplate waivers, was probably not just another day at the office for its creator.

HBO’s ‘Westworld’ Shuts Down Production, Still Targeting 2016 Premiere

Production has been temporarily shut down on HBO’s highly anticipated drama “Westworld,” sources tell Variety.

The ambitious project, which doesn’t have an official premiere date, was shuttered for two months so executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy can catch up on the final four scripts. Sources say the California-based production, which was originally scheduled to wrap in November, is now set to resume in March.

“As we head into the final phase of production on ‘Westworld,’ we’ve made the decision to take a brief hiatus in order to get ahead of the writing,” said HBO in a statement.

Sources tell Variety the shutdown is temporary and that HBO is confident that the series will make its targeted premiere date. HBO has yet to specify a date beyond saying it will air in 2016.

The one-hour drama, inspired by the 1973 film starring Yul Brynner, is described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The series stars Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden and Thandie Newton.

When “Westworld” was first ordered to series in November 2014 (the pilot was greenlit in 2013), HBO was targeting a 2015 premiere date, which it promoted with several Vines:

The production has faced earlier questions about graphic sex scenes, when background actors employed on the production were required to sign a document agreeing to possibly “perform genital-to-genital touching.” HBO issued a statement placing blame on an external casting agency, and resolved the issue with SAG-AFTRA by revising the document.

The project hails from Warner Bros. TV, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Jerry Weintraub Productions. Abrams and Bryan Burk also executive produce.

JJ Abrams' remake of 'Westworld' will air in autumn

JJ Abrams' remake of '70s sci-fi film Westworld is to air on HBO this autumn, it has been confirmed.

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens director produced the series, which stars Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden and Evan Rachel Wood. It was written by Interstellar and The Dark Knight writer Jonathan Nolan.

The Guardian reports that HBO says the programme is set at "the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past" and "it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged."

It takes place in a theme park based around the American West where robots play out customers' fantasies.

HBO's New 'Westworld' Teaser Features Massive Orgy Scene



HBO used Sunday's penultimate episode of Game of Thrones to drop a new promo for its highly anticipated (and twice-delayed) drama Westworld.

The clip, only the second featuring footage of the series, aired ahead of Thrones' highly anticipated "Battle of the Bastards" hour and features a closer look at the 10-episode project based on Michael Crichton's 1973 film. The new teaser features a look at the Western world and also includes a massive orgy scene. The latter part of the teaser aired Sunday on HBO and seems to have been trimmed from the trailer HBO released online.

Written by Jonathan Nolan (Person of Interest) and Lisa Joy, Westworld stars Anthony Hopkins in his first series-regular role as an inventor who runs an adult amusement park populated by lifelike robots. Here's HBO's new description of the series: "Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged."

The drama hails from J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk's Warner Bros. Television-based Bad Robot Productions, with the duo exec producing alongside the late Jerry Weintraub, Nolan (who directed the pilot) and Joy. Kathy Lingg will co-executive produce and Athena Wickham is a producer on the series. Susie Ekins is set as a co-producer. Westworld hails from Bad Robot, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Kilter Films.

Sources told 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.

The series was originally slated to debut in 2015 and was delayed in January for script rewrites and reshoots. HBO at the time pushed it to premiere in first half of 2016, with the premium cable network more recently confirming that it will debut in the fall with the new teaser noting it is due in October

The first footage for the show bowed last year at San Diego Comic-Con during a panel for Nolan's CBS drama Person of Interest and after which HBO released first-look images.

An extended trailer wowed the press at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour last year.

"[With] the film … you were very invested in one particular group of humans that were enjoying the park and their experience with the robots. This is not that. This is very much told from the POV of the robots," HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told reporters at TCA. "The corporate world’s as dimensionalized as the park. And I think the visitors to the park are really not the primary focus of our show at all. So again, without giving more than that away, I think all I can say is only one character that you saw in the clip is a visitor to the park. And yeah, it resembles the film in name and in spirit and but really is, I think, otherwise not much of a reference point."

Watch the new promo, above.