Given the brains trust and producing power behind it – Jonathan Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub among them – and the high profile cast it had secured, we were fairly confident that the new, HBO-based take on Michael Crichton’s Westworld would make it past the pilot stage. So it has come to pass, with the American cable channel announcing via Twitter and Vine that the show will hit screens next year.
Westworld, of course, promises a new spin on Crichton’s old-school high concept of artificial intelligence in a Wild West-themed adult amusement park going awry when some of the ‘bots become more human than the others.
Anthony Hopkins is playing Dr. Robert Ford, the park’s big boss who has plenty of creative vision for the place, but isn’t above using unorthodox means to make sure it succeeds. Then there’s Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), one of the artificial life forms in love with Teddy Flood (James Marsden), a fellow AI. The cast also boasts Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Rodrigo Santoro.
There’s no timetable for the series yet (after all, the show hasn’t shot anything beyond the pilot), but it should arrive sometime next year, likely replacing one of HBO’s retiring heavy hitters, including True Blood.