News Analysis India

Tag: Westworld

  • HBO cancels sci-fi drama Westworld after four seasons

    By Express News Service

    HBO’s hit sci-fi drama series Westworld has been cancelled after four seasons. The series had just released the last episode of season 4 in August 2022.

    According to reports, the decision to axe the series was made at HBO due to a number of factors including the heavy production cost, declining viewership for the series, and the recent changes at the top management level at HBO’s parent company Warner Bros. 

    In a recent interview, Westworld’s co-creator Jonathan Nolan revealed that he was hoping HBO would renew the series for a fifth and final season so they could wrap up the series.

    Co-creator Lisa Joy had also mentioned that they were always working towards a specific ending since the beginning and that she hoped they would get to tell the story they had initially planned. 

    The series had one of the strongest first seasons, with high critical reception and viewership numbers. However, the ratings for the series went through a sharp decline after the second season and the fans too started complaining about the story getting more intentionally over-complicated. 

    Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan is currently working on a sci-fi series for Amazon Prime Video titled The Peripheral, starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead, which premiered its first episode on 21 October 2022.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

    HBO’s hit sci-fi drama series Westworld has been cancelled after four seasons. The series had just released the last episode of season 4 in August 2022.

    According to reports, the decision to axe the series was made at HBO due to a number of factors including the heavy production cost, declining viewership for the series, and the recent changes at the top management level at HBO’s parent company Warner Bros. 

    In a recent interview, Westworld’s co-creator Jonathan Nolan revealed that he was hoping HBO would renew the series for a fifth and final season so they could wrap up the series.

    Co-creator Lisa Joy had also mentioned that they were always working towards a specific ending since the beginning and that she hoped they would get to tell the story they had initially planned. 

    The series had one of the strongest first seasons, with high critical reception and viewership numbers. However, the ratings for the series went through a sharp decline after the second season and the fans too started complaining about the story getting more intentionally over-complicated. 

    Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan is currently working on a sci-fi series for Amazon Prime Video titled The Peripheral, starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead, which premiered its first episode on 21 October 2022.

    (This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)

  • HBO axes ‘Westworld’ after four seasons

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Dystopian sci-fi series “Westworld” has been cancelled by American premium network HBO after four seasons.

    The show’s cancellation comes as a surprise as “Westworld” was once considered one of HBO’s biggest tentpoles and there were hopes for a fifth season, according to entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter.

    Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, “Westworld” was based on the 1973 Michael Crichton’s movie of the same name.

    “Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step.

    We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros.Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey,” HBO said in a statement.

    The fourth season of “Westworld” premiered on HBO in June this year.

    The show hailed from Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros Television.

    “Making ‘Westworld’ has been one of the highlights of our careers. We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds.

    “We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness, both human and beyond, in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so,” Kilter Films said.

    “Westworld” featured Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins among others.

    LOS ANGELES: Dystopian sci-fi series “Westworld” has been cancelled by American premium network HBO after four seasons.

    The show’s cancellation comes as a surprise as “Westworld” was once considered one of HBO’s biggest tentpoles and there were hopes for a fifth season, according to entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter.

    Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, “Westworld” was based on the 1973 Michael Crichton’s movie of the same name.

    “Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step.

    We are tremendously grateful to them, along with their immensely talented cast, producers and crew, and all of our partners at Kilter Films, Bad Robot and Warner Bros.Television. It’s been a thrill to join them on this journey,” HBO said in a statement.

    The fourth season of “Westworld” premiered on HBO in June this year.

    The show hailed from Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros Television.

    “Making ‘Westworld’ has been one of the highlights of our careers. We are deeply grateful to our extraordinary cast and crew for creating these indelible characters and brilliant worlds.

    “We’ve been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness, both human and beyond, in the brief window of time before our AI overlords forbid us from doing so,” Kilter Films said.

    “Westworld” featured Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins among others.

  • ‘Vikings’ actor Gustaf Skarsgard boards ‘Oppenheimer’ 

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgard, best known for shows such as “Vikings” and “Westworld”, has joined the cast of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film “Oppenheimer”.

    The Universal Pictures project is the biopic of famed physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. Cilian Murphy stars in the titular role.

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, Skarsgard will play Hans Bethe, a German-American nuclear physicist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in physics and was tasked by Oppenheimer to head up the T (Theoretical) division of the Manhattan Project.

    “Oppenheimer” also stars Robert Downey Jr , Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, David Dastmalchian and David Rysdahl.

    It is based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird. The film has booked July 21, 2023, as the release date.

  • Doing ‘Reminiscence’ was an easy yes, says Hugh Jackman

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Hollywood star Hugh Jackman says he made an instant decision to act in “Reminiscence” because the film had an “original and surprising” script.

    The Warner Bros movie, which also stars Rebecca Ferguson and Thandiwe Newton, marks the directorial debut of “Westworld” co-creator Lisa Joy.

    As a fan of the sci-fi western HBO show, Jackman said he felt he was in “good, safe hands” of Joy.

    “I’m a huge fan of ‘Westworld’. Just literally the moment you meet her, there’s a competence to her, you know you’re in good, safe hands, and we just got on incredibly well. She asked to have the meeting with me and to show me some images and various things on the computer, without me reading the script, which is unusual,” Jackman said in a transcript shared with PTI by Warner Bros.

    The 52-year-old Australian star said he was blown away by Joy’s vision with the movie and he instantly decided to do it.

    “When I heard her pitch, I thought, ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this movie even though I haven’t read it. Of course, I did my best poker face that I could. And about 20 pages into reading it, I rang my agent, I said, ‘I haven’t finished reading it and I’m absolutely doing it.’  I just thought it was such a cool world, so original, so surprising; I didn’t see where it was going, and I certainly didn’t see where it was ending. I just thought it was a different kind of role for me. And I just loved Lisa. So, it was a very easy yes, but it wasn’t a conventional yes, that’s for sure,” he added.

    “Reminiscence” features Jackman as Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas.

    He is an expert in a dangerous occupation: he offers clients the chance to relive any memory they desire.

    His life changes when he meets Mae.

    What begins as a simple matter of lost and found becomes a passionate love affair.

    But when a different client’s memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, Bannister must delve through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for.

    Jackman said he liked the genre-blending appeal of the story so much so that at one point, he felt “Reminiscence” was similar to a Humphrey Bogart movie.

    “In this movie, when I read it, I was like, oh, I’m reading a Humphrey Bogart sort of film. And then, oh hang on, now it’s not. We’re going in all these directions.”

    She sets up classic characters: the femme fatale, played by Ferguson, the very loyal secretary, who may be truly in love with Nick, played by Newton.

    “And then before you know it, you’re off, where you just go down a path you never thought you were going down. I found it incredibly enlivening and energising, different and original, certainly reading and making the film. I hope audiences find it the same.” 

    The actor believes that “Reminiscence” is best suited for the current times where people’s personal and professional lives have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

    “The film certainly explores the idea of memory and nostalgia as something that is potentially addictive, or just enticing to go back and live in the good old days, remember that time,” Jackman said.

    The themes that the movie explores are something that makes “Reminiscence” relevant for the audiences, the actor believes.

    Some of the issues that the film delves into are happening in the present world, he said.

    “The film is deliberately not too far in the future. Many of the things that are happening — how the climate is affecting the city of Miami, all the issues around income inequality — those are coming to the fore now,” Jackman said.

    All in all, the actor believes “Reminiscence” is a complete package of great story and entertainment for the audiences.

    “I love a movie that on one level is entertainment, it’s a great story, it takes you away. But I also love the movie that stays with you, and when you get out of the cinema you’re looking at the world outside in a different way,” Jackman said.

    “Reminiscence” also features Cliff Curtis, Marina de Tavira, Daniel Wu, Mojean Aria, Brett Cullen, Natalie Martinez, Angela Sarafyan and Nico Parker.

    The movie, produced by Jonathan Nolan, Michael De Luca and Aaron Ryder, will release in India on August 27 in select cities.

  • I’m done living in fear: Evan Rachel Wood says Marilyn Manson ‘abused her for years’

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: “Westworld” star Evan Rachel Wood has claimed that heavy metal and rock singer Marilyn Manson was the person she has referred in the past when she has talked about being in an abusive relationship.

    The 33-year-old actor made the allegations in an Instagram post on Monday.

    Wood and Manson went public with their relationship in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 38. The duo got engaged in 2010, but broke up later that year.

    “The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson. He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail,” she wrote.

    “I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent,” the actor added.

    Wood first spoke about being a survivor of rape and domestic violence in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, but did not mention specific name.

    In 2018, she testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee as part of an effort to get the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights passed in all 50 states.

    The following year, she testified before California legislators on behalf of the Phoenix Act, legislation that altered the statute of limitations for crimes involving domestic violence from three to five years.

    The same year, she once again opened up about the abuse in a Twitter post, using the #IAmNotOk hashtag in an attempt to raise awareness about domestic violence.