Westworld (TV series)

Westworld
Genre	Science fiction Drama Thriller Action/adventure Western
Created by	Jonathan Nolan Lisa Joy
Based on	Westworld by Michael Crichton
Starring	Evan Rachel Wood Thandie Newton Jeffrey Wright James Marsden Ben Barnes Ingrid Bolsø Berdal Clifton Collins Jr. Luke Hemsworth Sidse Babett Knudsen Simon Quarterman Rodrigo Santoro Angela Sarafyan Jimmi Simpson Tessa Thompson Shannon Woodward Ed Harris Anthony Hopkins
Theme music composer	Ramin Djawadi
Composer(s)	Ramin Djawadi
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bryan Burk Jerry Weintraub Lisa Joy Jonathan Nolan J. J. Abrams
Producer(s)	Athena Wickham
Location(s)	Castle Valley, Utah Simi Valley, California Newhall, California Agoura Hills, California Universal City, California Los Angeles, California
Cinematography	Brendan Galvin Robert McLachlan Paul Cameron David Franco Jeffrey Jur
Editor(s)	Mark Yoshikawa Tanya Swerling Stephen Semel Andrew Seklir Marc Jozefowicz
Running time	57–91 minutes[1][2]
Production company(s)	Kilter Films Bad Robot Productions Jerry Weintraub Productions Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	HBO
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Audio format	Digital
Original release	October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02) – present
External links
Website

Westworld is an American science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the same name, which was written and directed by American novelist Michael Crichton, and to a lesser extent on the 1976 sequel Futureworld. It is the second TV series based on the two films, the first being the short-lived 1980 series Beyond Westworld. Nolan and Joy serve as executive producers along with J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, and Bryan Burk, with Nolan directing the pilot. The first season premiered on October 2, 2016, concluded on December 4, 2016, and consists of ten episodes.^[3] In November 2016, HBO renewed the show for a 10-episode second season,^[4] which is planned for a 2018 debut.^[5]

The story takes place in the fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced, Western-themed amusement park populated completely by synthetic androids dubbed "hosts". Westworld caters to high-paying visitors dubbed "newcomers" (or just "guests"), who can do whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the hosts.

The series' debut on HBO garnered the network's highest viewership ratings for a premiere since the first episode of True Detective in 2014. Westworld has received positive reviews by critics, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and acting.

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy, the oldest host still working in the park; she is a Western girl who discovers her entire life is an elaborately constructed lie.^[6] Her aesthetic drew influences from Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World as well as Lewis Carroll's Alice.^[7]
• Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay, a host; she is the madam of Westworld. Like Dolores, she also discovered that her life is an elaborate lie.^[8]
• Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe and Arnold Weber, Head of the Westworld Programming Division and creator of artificial people. He is later revealed to be a host under Ford's control, made in the image of Westworld's co-creator, Arnold Weber.^[9]
• James Marsden as Teddy Flood, a host; he is a newly arrived gunslinger who is looking for Dolores to rekindle their relationship.^[10][11]
• Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as Armistice, a host; she is a brutal and ruthless bandit, and a member of Hector Escaton's gang.^[9]
• Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs, the head of Westworld security, charged with monitoring host and human interactions and ensuring the safety of the guests.^[12]
• Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen, Westworld's terse operations leader, responsible for keeping the park from sliding into unscripted disarray. She later forms an alliance with Charlotte Hale and Delos to conspire against Dr. Ford and remove him from power.^[13]
• Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore, Westworld's narrative director, whose artistic temperament aggravates his co-workers.^[9]
• Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton, a host; he is a wanted gang leader bent on survival.^[12]
• Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather, a host; she works for Maeve and is one of Westworld's most popular attractions.^[9] Lili Simmons portrays the character when the original Clementine is decommissioned.^[14]
• Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes, a rising star in the Programming Division tasked with remedying odd behavior in the park's artificial beings.^[12]
• Ed Harris as the Man in Black; a rich, sadistic Westworld guest searching for a "deeper level" in the park.^[15] Outside of the park, he has achieved prominence as the owner of a medical foundation, and is a board member of Delos.^[16]
• Anthony Hopkins as Robert Ford, the founder and creative director of Westworld.^[6]
• Ben Barnes as Logan, a veteran guest. His hedonistic romp through Westworld is equally motivated by self-indulgence and a desire to help his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law, William.^[17]
• Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence, a host; he is a charming but lethal outlaw, with a knack for maneuvering and negotiating the various criminal elements of Westworld.^[13]
• Jimmi Simpson as William, a reluctant first-time visitor to Westworld, joining his future brother-in-law, Logan. Initially dismissive of the park's more lascivious attractions, he slowly uncovers a deeper meaning to the park's narrative.^[13]
• Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale, Delos' executive director of the board overseeing Westworld. She seeks to smuggle Ford's creation out of Westworld.^[18]

Recurring cast

• Louis Herthum and Bradford Tatum as Peter Abernathy,^[19] Dolores' father.
• Ptolemy Slocum as Sylvester, a lab tech working in Delos.^[19]
• Leonardo Nam as Felix Lutz, a lab tech working in Delos who has a major connection with Maeve.
• Talulah Riley as Angela, a host that welcomes newcomers to the park, later reassigned to be a follower of Wyatt's.
• Oliver Bell as Young Robert Ford,^[19] a host made by Arnold to resemble Ford when he was a child.

Guest cast

Episodes

Production

Conception and development

Michael Crichton, the writer of the 1973 film on which the series is based

Warner Bros. had been considering a remake of Westworld since the early 1990s and after the departure of studio executive Jessica Goodman in 2011, the project was again under consideration.^[33] Jerry Weintraub had been pushing for a remake for years and, after his success with HBO's Behind the Candelabra, he convinced the network to greenlight a pilot. He took the project to Jonathan Nolan and co-writer Lisa Joy, who saw the potential in the concept to make something far more ambitious,^[34] and on August 31, 2013, it was announced that premium cable channel HBO had ordered a pilot for a potential television series version of the story. Nolan, Joy, J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are executive producers.^[35] HBO later announced that Westworld had been taken to series and that it would premiere in 2015.^[36] In August 2015, HBO released the first teaser, which revealed it would premiere in 2016.^[37] It is the second series based on Crichton's original story after the 1980s Beyond Westworld, which aired only three episodes on CBS before being cancelled.^[38]

Abrams suggested that the show be told with the perspective of the "hosts" in mind.^[39] Nolan took inspiration from video games like BioShock Infinite, Red Dead Redemption and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to deal with the narrative's moral component on a spectrum.^[40] He explained the show would explore why "violence is in most of the stories we like to watch, but it isn't part of what we like to do" through the characters known as guests, who give payment to satisfy those urges.^[41] The autonomous existence of non-player characters in video games influenced the approach to the individual storylines in Westworld that are reset in a continuous loop.^[42] A recitation from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet – "These violent delights have violent ends"^[43] – is made part of the show as a virus trigger within the hosts that alters how they perceive their existence.^[44] The series explores ideas about the bicameral mind by Julian Jaynes, about the existence of two separate minds—one that gives instructions and another that performs them, and how consciousness comes from breaking down the wall between them by exposing the individual to new kinds of stimuli.^[45] Asked whether the Roman Empire or Middle Ages-themed worlds from the original film would appear in the show, Nolan counted them out as possible new settings.^[46] George R. R. Martin met with Nolan and Joy to pitch them the idea of a Westeros-themed setting featuring androids based on Game of Thrones characters.^[47] Ed Brubaker served on the writing staff as supervising producer,^[48] co-writing the fourth episode with Nolan.^[49]

Costume designer Ane Crabtree approached her work focusing on the attire of the Wild West from the 1850s to 1890s, rather than drawing on Western films for inspiration. Fabrics were custom-woven, dyed and printed for any actor with a speaking role to capture the intricacies of the costumes, most of which were manufactured from scratch in Upstate New York and Los Angeles. Hat designs were described as the most challenging of the process.^[50]

The story has been planned to last up to five seasons by the writers and producers.^[51]

Financing

The ten episodes of the first season were reportedly produced on a budget of approximately $100 million, with per-episode budgets somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million to $10 million. HBO and Warner Bros. Television shared the cost of producing the series; HBO reportedly also paid an undisclosed licensing fee to Warner Bros. Television for broadcast rights.^[52]

Casting

Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood were the first cast members formally announced, taking on the roles of Dr. Robert Ford and Dolores Abernathy, respectively.^[6] Jeffrey Wright, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman were all announced as cast members in August 2014.^[9] James Marsden and Eddie Rouse were also added to the cast.^[10] Ed Harris was cast in a key villain role, known only as the Man in Black.^[15] Other roles were filled by Demetrius Grosse, Kyle Bornheimer, Currie Graham, Lena Georgas, Steven Ogg, Timothy Lee DePriest, Ptolemy Slocum, Thandie Newton, and Miranda Otto.^{[8][19][11][53]} In July 2015, it was announced that Otto had departed the show due to her commitments to the fifth season of Homeland and she was replaced by Sidse Babett Knudsen. Additionally, three others were cast; Eion Bailey, Jimmi Simpson and Clifton Collins Jr.^[13] Bailey was later replaced by Ben Barnes.^[17] Talulah Riley was revealed to have a role as one of the hosts after her ex-husband Elon Musk had stated so on Twitter.^[54]

Filming

Castle Valley in Utah is one of the filming locations.

Early on, it was decided that the series would be shot on 35 mm film, with assistance from HD taps, despite increasing difficulties in acquiring film stocks from the remaining manufacturers.^[55] For a softer look, the filmmakers used Arri Zeiss master prime lenses with their coatings removed.^[56]

Filming for the show's pilot episode took place during a 22-day period^[57] in August 2014 in and around Los Angeles^[58] as well as Moab, Utah.^[59]

Filming locations in California included various soundstages, backlots at both Universal Studios and Warner Bros., the Paramount Ranch in Agoura,^[60] the Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita,^[57][61] and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.^[62] The Melody Ranch set used for the town of Sweetwater had been used previously for many western films, such as Django Unchained and The Magnificent Seven, but was significantly upgraded for Westworld by production designer Zack Grobler to portray an idealized version of the American frontier.^[61] Green screens were placed around the California sets to block modern objects like parking lots, so that the California shots could be later merged digitally with exterior shots from Utah.^[61]

For the show's large-scale exterior look, the producers drew inspiration from the work of John Ford, who shot four of his Western films in Castle Valley, east of Moab.^[60] In the spring of 2014, Nolan visited southern Utah with key crew members and a location scout to explore the possibility of filming there, and promptly fell in love with the place.^[59] Location shooting for the pilot episode later occurred over five days in southern Utah,^[59] including Castle Valley.^[60] Most Utah locations, like Dead Horse Point State Park, were "walk-in" areas where both cast and crew were required to hike in and out with all their gear.^[59] Horseback riding scenes were filmed at a private ranch, where the filmmakers were not subject to as many restrictions as when working on public land.^[62] To seamlessly blend California sets with Utah scenery, set walls were shipped to Utah so that they could be used to film reverse angles of scenes originally filmed in California.^[62] For example, conversations on the exterior balcony of Westworld's operations center were shot on a balcony at the Pacific Design Center facing towards the center, then reverse angles over the shoulders of the cast members were shot at Dead Horse Point, to make it seem as if the operations center was located on top of the state park's steep cliffs.^[59][62] The train interior scenes were created by mounting the entire train car set on the back of a flatbed truck and driving the truck back and forth along Utah State Route 128.^[59]

The 3D printing of hosts was shot utilizing almost entirely practical effects, of which some were polished by the visual effects team.^[7] Out of respect for the actors and extras involved, filming of nudity is conducted on a closed set, and for sex scenes, a sex consultant is used.^[63]

Production was temporarily halted for a couple of months in early 2016 so that showrunners Nolan and Joy could complete the scripts for the last four episodes of the first season.^[64]

Title sequence

The series' title sequence was created by production studio Elastic, which had previously created the title sequences for Rome, Carnivàle and Game of Thrones for HBO. Patrick Clair acted as creative director for the title sequence,^[65][66] which took about five weeks to conceptualize.^[67] Clair met with Nolan and Joy in February 2016 to discuss its development. He was interested in their decision to approach the show's point of view from that of the hosts, deeming the result an inherent psychological study. Upon its inception, the sequence would translate elements present in the series via computer-aided design. For example, once Clair was sent footage by composer Ramin Djawadi of a player piano in motion, its actual counterpart, situated in the Westworld production office, was photographed and then reconstructed in computer-generated imagery.^[67][43] Nolan also applied it in reference to Kurt Vonnegut's first novel Player Piano, meant to represent the first Rube Goldberg machine to invoke an emotional response.^[44] Clair saw the metaphor behind the player piano – "a primitive form of robot" – as an exploration into the disparity between man and machine, "...being created to be made redundant." Hosts that were bathed in white liquid struck him as a juxtaposition between the grit and grain of the Western genre and its basis in science fiction. Motifs of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man came about from Clair's wish to convey Westworld's depiction of the naked human body.^[43] It commences with the ribcage of a horse, and then a set of hosts manufactured by industrial robots. The skeletal horse is shown in gallop to subvert the iconography of such a depiction.^[67] As for his efforts in exposing the Western landscapes in connection with a world of robotics, he thought it sensible that it be done inside a single eye; craters and valleys are formed as the simulacrum of an iris.^[43]

Music

Ramin Djawadi is the composer of Westworld

The music is composed by Ramin Djawadi, who also worked with showrunner Nolan on the TV series Person of Interest.^[68] The main theme blends the use of bass notes, light arpeggios and melody, all of which complement the "theme park aspect", says Djawadi.^[69]

In an interview, Djawadi spoke about the modern songs used in the show. He stated, "The show has an anachronistic feel to it, It's a Western theme park, and yet it has robots in it, so why not have modern songs? And that's a metaphor in itself, wrapped up in the overall theme of the show."^[70] The feature was invented by Nolan.^[71] Player piano renditions featured in Westworld include Radiohead's "No Surprises",^[72] "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Motion Picture Soundtrack",^[73] Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black",^[44] Scott Joplin's "Pine Apple Rag"^[74] and "Peacherine Rag", Claude Debussy's "Reverie L.68"^[75] The Cure's "A Forest"^[76] The Animals' version of "The House of the Rising Sun" and Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black".^[77] Licensing costs ranged from $15,000 to $55,000.^[78]

Broadcast

In North America, the series is broadcast on HBO in the United States, on HBO Canada in Canada, and HBO Latin America in Mexico, starting October 2, 2016.^[79][80] Internationally, the series was acquired in Australia by Showcase^[81] with each episode screening at the same time as the U.S. broadcast.^[82] In the UK and Ireland, Westworld is broadcast on Sky Atlantic beginning on October 4, 2016.^[83] To avoid competing with the second U.S. presidential debate of 2016, HBO released the second episode to its subscribers via its online distribution channels on October 7, 2016, two days ahead of the episode's announced broadcast date.^[84][85]

The series premiere had viewership numbers commensurate with another HBO series, True Detective.^[86] Michael O'Connell of The Hollywood Reporter notes that sources put the grand total for the night (combining HBO Go and HBO Now streaming content, up at 3.3 million viewers. ScreenRant's Michael Kennedy concurs with this comparison, adding that HBO must be breathing a sigh of relief, considering that the heavily-promoted Vinyl "failed to resonate" with subscribers, despite both series containing recognizable names in front of and behind the camera, and each costing close to $100 million to produce.^[87] Mandy Adams, of iTechPost notes that, "Emotional reactions on Twitter were estimated to be 545-percent greater compared to the debut of Vinyl and 326-percent higher than the latest The Leftovers season."^[88]

Marketing

Prior to the airing of Westworld, HBO held virtual reality exhibits at events like San Diego Comic-Con and Techcrunch Disrupt devoted to Westworld: A Delos Destination. Attendees were allowed to navigate the process by which guests would enter Westworld, and interact with the 3D environment. Made to run on the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, the piece was conceived by showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. It was designed using Unreal Engine 4, combining computer-generated content and live action 360-degree video. The subjects received a binary code whose function permitted the access of the website Discover Westworld as part of the viral marketing. Visitors were privy to the trailer of a fictional travel site leading them to order a trip to Westworld.^[44][89][90]

Reception

Critical response

Initial reception of the series has been positive, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and acting.^[91][92][93] After early reviews, the first season has a 89% approval rating based on 68 critics on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.2 out of 10, and an average episode score of 94%. The site's consensus reads "With an impressive level of quality that honors its source material, the brilliantly addictive Westworld balances intelligent, enthralling drama against outright insanity."^[94] On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 43 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[95]

The editors of TV Guide placed Westworld fifth among the top ten picks for the most anticipated new shows of the 2016–17 season. In writer Tim Surette's overall review, he notes the perfect concept of blending the western premise into a futuristic setting, saying, "Well, Westworld has both, ensuring that it will be an exciting mashup of genres that will disrupt a television landscape that typically says we can only have one or the other." He also added, "The look of the show and its fine cast swing open the saloon doors, but the real treat will be the intelligent discussion of whether or not robots will eventually kill us all. Thankfully, creator Jonathan Nolan already showed us he's the go-to guy for A.I. with Person of Interest."^[96]

Westworld (season 1): Critical reception by episode

Season 1 (2016): Percentage of positive reviews tracked by the website Rotten Tomatoes[97]

Audience viewership

The U.S. series premiere attracted 1.96 million viewers, with 0.8 million in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic. The premiere episode received 3.3 million viewers for its three Sunday night airings as well as on HBO's streaming platforms.^[98]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Westworld at the Internet Movie Database