Giant Freakin Robot

There’s a tidal wave of potentially incredible science fiction coming to our TVs over the next year or so, and one that we’re super excited for around these parts is HBO’s upcoming adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Westworld. It has a fantastic cast, the resources to pull off an ambitious project like this, and a strong creative team working behind the scenes. As it moves along, we’re seeing more and more pieces in the light of day, and learning more about what to expect.

Entertainment Weekly just revealed this grim new still of Ed Harris’ villainous Man in Black, a role originally played by Yul Brynner in 1973. They also sat down to chat with the husband and wife producers and writers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy discuss their project.

Earlier today we saw our first still photo from HBO’s upcoming adaptation of Westworld, and while that’s all well and good—it does feature a scuffed up looking western robot brandishing a classic style rifle, which is pretty cool—it’s only so exciting. (Some of the details that arrived with the picture were quite promising though.) But then, like magic, we stumbled across this video from the premium cable channel, and low and behold, there are a few snippets of actual footage from the sci-fi western, the first we’ve seen.

This video is a compilation of footage that offers a quick rundown of HBO’s year in 2014. As you can imagine, it is full of clips from continuing shows like Game of Thrones, new additions like The Leftovers, and departing favorites like Boardwalk Empire, among the various other things they show. There’s a decent amount of Manny Pacquiao for the boxing fans among us, concerts, and other random viewing options.

If you’ve always dreamed about going to a rough and tumble, grown up version of Disneyland where you can live out all of your movie western frontier daydreams, HBO’s upcoming Westworld is right up your alley. A remake of Michael Crichton’s 1973 film, the series imagines a theme park where you can go and play cowboy, even shooting high tech androids and bedding futuristic sexbots. Momentum has been building for a while, and now we’ve got our first photo from the show, as well as some additional details.

HBO isn’t afraid to go big on a project, and Westworld is definitely ambitious as hell. It’s also attracted a ton of high profile industry folks. Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, Interstellar) created, wrote, and will direct the pilot, J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will produce, as will Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk. Even the cast is full of big names. Anthony Hopkins plays the visionary creator of the park, while Ed Harris takes the villainous Man in Black role originally made famous by Yul Brynner. James Marsden and Evan Rachel Wood play a pair of star-crossed robot lovers, and Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman round out the rest of the call sheet.

I may not be sure of many things in this life, but one thing I am sure of is that the Japanese posters for some of my favorite science fiction films are straight-up bonkers, and in the very best way possible. Sometimes it’s just that the Japanese lettering plastered all over everything is actually perfectly consistent with the universe of the story, as with this Blade Runner poster.

Here in the States most of us are winding down a day spent eating too much, drinking too much, and likely experiencing more than a little family-related drama. Far be it from us here at GFR to play humbugs, so, as we’ve done in previous years, we sat down to ponder what science fiction developments we were most thankful for this year. So before you collapse back into a turkey-induced coma, take a moment to look back at the things that put the biggest smiles on our faces in 2014. And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Everything About Edge of Tomorrow
How is it that a movie involving an alien invasion and a weird form of time travel joined forces with polarizing megastar Tom Cruise and became one of the year’s most guiltlessly enjoyable movies? Whether the credit for the sci-fi magic goes to director Doug Liman, screenwriters Jez and John-Henry Butterworth and Christopher McQuarrie, or even Cruise and co-star Emily Blunt, the film’s sense of sheer fun and darkly comedic whimsy are undeniable.

Based on the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow could have easily crumbled beneath the weight of its time-looping narrative, but manages to steer clear of weary repetition. By sticking Cruise back into a learning recruit role instead of having him start the film as the almighty hero, Edge of Tomorrow gives its lead one of the weirdest character arcs in all of fiction, which can’t be derailed by the likes of co-stars Bill Paxton and Brendan Gleeson. By far the airiest, funniest, and most exciting blockbuster of the year, Edge of Tomorrow is arguably the only must-see tentpole film of the year for sci-fi fans. (That’s right, Godzilla and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I said it.) – Nick

When you hear that a classic film or TV show is being reworked, your initial reaction is usually a groan, or at least a half-hearted, “Why?” We’re often in same boat, skepticism wise (we could get into the “Why can’t Hollywood just make a new movie” debate, but that’s been done to death and is just a fact of the world we live in), but one that we’re actually pretty jazzed about is the upcoming Westworld revamp, which just got picked up by HBO.

For all of the fantastic programs the premium cable channel has on its dockets, they’ve never really done much in the way of science fiction. And given their track record of late, what with shows like Game of Thrones and True Detective, this is an enticing proposition. Yesterday, the network released this photo, as well as a series of twitchy videos via Vine and Twitter.