Welcome to the Wild West, or at least a virtual representation of it.
This is Westworld, a place where bored rich people go to relive life in the Wild West, while androids run around posing as characters from that time period. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.
For starters, what happens when the line between reality and dream begins to fade? What happens when someone wakes up and no longer knows what's real?
That's the dilemma posed on HBO's new series Westworld, which is based on the 1973 movie of the same name. Westworld is a theme park posing as the Wild West, but is full of robots that do what robots often do in sci-fi: they start becoming aware.
Here is the show's official synopsis:
"The one-hour drama series Westworld (10 episodes) 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."
HBO just released the first full-length teaser trailer for the series:
The original Westworld movie, directed by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, had the robots going on a killing rampage, but it seems that, in the HBO series, the plot is a little more subtle.
"I can say that, if audiences are as excited and titillated and compelled by what they see as we are by what we're doing, then we're all going to have a really good time," actor Jeffrey Wright said to Collider about the series. "I've not been a part of something that looks like this, that sounds like this, that explores the ideas that it's exploring."
The trailer shows a series that has a very Blade Runner-like vibe, and that's intentional. The iconic Ridley Scott movie served as inspiration for the look and feel of Westworld.
"I think the other thing that's fascinating about doing this now is, in a short amount of time since Blade Runner came out, the kind of science that we're talking about has become closer to 'science' than it is to the 'fiction' part of 'science-fiction,'" co-writer Lisa Joy said to Entertainment Weekly. "I think we're standing at an interesting precipice from which to both view the future and to hypothesize about the future."
The series also has a stellar cast, including Sir Anthony Hopkins as the brilliant man behind the curtain — the guy who programs and runs Westworld. In addition to Wright, the cast features James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Evan Rachel Wood and Ed Harris.
Westworld premieres on HBO in October.
