Caffeinated Clint
Billy Ray writing remake of Crichton film
Seems the long-gestating remake of the campy western actioner Westworld is still vert much alive (You’ll recall that at one time Warners hoped to unite Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger for it – or so said that deceitful rumour mill) according to Sci Fi Wire.
The original 1973 was set in a futuristic amusement park which becomes a deathtrap when the androids and computer systems used in it begin to murderously run amok. James Brolin and Richard Benjamin played the heroes; Yul Brynner played the killer robot.
“Breach” writer/director Billy Ray tells the site that the brothers W have handed him a token for the Wild West amusement park. Though he’s writing the remake, he’s not necessarily going to direct it.
“I would resist the idea of directing it myself, not that they’ve offered it to me, because I don’t want the pressure of that kind of a budget sitting on my shoulders”, says Ray, who also helmed one of my favourite pics of the last five years, “Shattered Glass”.
“I love the basic idea of the movie, which is that our amusements can kill us,” Ray said. “I also think the movie provides a great platform for exploring how sometimes machines can behave like humans while humans can sometimes behave like machines.”
According to Ray, the director of the original “Westworld”, Michael Crichton, was offered the chance to do a remake a few years back.
“My understanding is that he was offered the chance to do the first draft of this remake a few years ago, and his response was, ‘I already remade that movie; the remake was called Jurassic Park,” Ray said. “In many ways, he was right.”
I’m not big on remakes, but I think a remake of “Westworld” could work – if only because the original is pretty damn mature now, and there are lots of possibilities with a contemporised redo.
Thanks to ‘Patrick’
