Image Credit: WireImage.com
Ed Harris is coming to series TV: The Abyss and Apollo 13 actor has signed on as the Big Bad in HBO’s Westworld reboot.
The four-time Oscar nominee’s character is called The Man in Black, and is described as “the distillation of pure villainy into one man.” He joins previously cast star — and fellow series television newcomer—Anthony Hopkins, along with Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, and Shannon Woodward.
The Warner Bros.-produced sci-fi pilot produced by J.J Abrams, Jerry Weintraub, and Bryan Burk updates Michael Crichton’s 1973 classic film about a theme park where androids fulfill dark human desires. Harris’ description might sound like he’s playing the Yul Brynner killer-cowboy robot role, but it seems like actor Rodrigo Santoro was tapped for that part—and online production rumors suggest The Man in Black is actually a human character who sadistically abuses the androids.
Harris will soon be seen the feature film Run All Night, starring opposite Liam Neeson and Joel Kinnaman. Harris won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for his work in HBO’s Game Change. [Reply]
Rewatching episode. I just realized that a lot, if not most of the episodes have begun with Hosts waking up. This episode began with Bernard waking up. Should have seen that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buck:
Shit there's another solid theory.
There is a certain balance to it. It was interesting to me that Ford and the rep from corporate both said 'blood sacrifice.' Makes me think that Ford and corporate are working together more closely than has been hinted at so far, coupled with the speech he gave about the relationship he has with them. Perhaps the worry about lost code if Ford goes renegade is a bullshit cover story. Perhaps they just don't want anyone to find out what Ford is really doing. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buck:
Rewatching episode. I just realized that a lot, if not most of the episodes have begun with Hosts waking up. This episode began with Bernard waking up. Should have seen that.
The thought popped into my head as soon as Bernard realized that he was dreaming but it was confirmed with 'What door?' [Reply]
I don't know if you heard about this, but production in this show stopped mid-season "to give the writers more time to write the last 4 episodes." This was the 4th from last episode.
I'm wondering if HBO execs just didn't like what was already written or if they legit didn't have full story flushed out. I'm glad they took the time though because that was a really good episode. [Reply]
You knew (and I think I may have posted) after the first episode, with the head fake they do to introduce Ed Harris, that they would go here but they did it a way that was genuinely surprising. Well done.
I still vote for Ed Harris being related to Arnold in some way -- the idea that the brains are more complex via the lobotomy scene again leads me to believe that Arnold uploaded himself into one of the hosts... [Reply]
Another odd thing that keeps sticking in my head. Well, two things:
Theresa asks if Ford had Bernard kill Arnold. Ford says something like 'Oh, no. You weren't around back then-were you, Bernard?' Bernard doesn't reply. So...either that's true and Bernard is not a manifestation of Arnold, or Ford was fucking with him because he just found out he's a host and it's still possible. I would believe either one. Remember that Bernard always says he's been around forever.
Dolores wakes up and creates a landscape drawing. She says that it's the first time that she has created art from within her rather than merely copying what she sees. Later, it is apparently shown that the picture she created is based on a landscape that actually exists. And the picture was done from a specific point of view. To me this means that the flashes that show her journey to be repetitive are flashes back to events from before William was there. So, no multiple timelines. It seems more like she was involved with an event with the MiB some time ago before William visited the park. [Reply]
Originally Posted by listopencil:
Here is something kind of fun from the wiki page on the original Westworld movie:
The technicians running Delos notice problems beginning to spread like an infection among the androids: the robots in Roman World and Medieval World begin experiencing an increasing number of breakdowns and systemic failures, which are said to have spread to West World. When one of the supervising computer scientists scoffs at the "analogy of an infectious disease," he is told by the Chief Supervisor (Alan Oppenheimer), "We aren't dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment, almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they've been designed by other computers. We don't know exactly how they work."
They had this moment in the episode tonight. Ford said that they don't really understand how the hosts work. I think he was saying because even he doesn't understand exactly what Arnold did, I don't recall it that specifically. [Reply]
Benard was a real man before. He got killed because he knew too much and was replaced by a machine that downloaded his "essence" or memories.
When the woman got murdered by Benard, the camera showed her replacement being made. The perfect murder can be pulled off when the dead person never goes missing. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buck:
Rewatching episode. I just realized that a lot, if not most of the episodes have begun with Hosts waking up. This episode began with Bernard waking up. Should have seen that.
