Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

HBO’s reimagining of Michael Crichton’s Westworld has been plagued with various problems during production, but HBO has finally announced that the ten-part series will start this autumn.

Described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin” the series is “set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past” and “explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.” The cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Ben Barnes, Simon Quarterman, Angela Sarafyan, Luke Hemsworth and Clifton Collins, Jr.

As the LA Times reported, the series had attracted ire for a request from an outside casting agency for extras to consent to appear in “graphic sexual situations”, and production was shut down earlier this year for further work on the script.