J.J. Abrams’ ‘Westworld’: Anthony Hopkins & Evan Rachel Wood Are On Board?

JJ Abrams – currently filming Star Wars Episode VII – has been eyeing Westworld as a potential project for a long time, and now it seems as if the project is actually coming to life on HBO.

Deadline has confirmed that mega-star Anthony Hopkins and True Blood alum Evan Rachel Wood have signed on to star in Westworld.

Westworld was originally a 1973 sci-fi flick set in an amusement park called Westworld, starring Yul Brynner, James Brolin and Richard Benjamin. The original film was written and directed by Michael Crichton, the legendary writer behind such great films as Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere and the ER television series.

Joblo reports that Westworld will be presented as a mini-series on HBO. Abrams, Bryan Burk and Jerry Weintraub will produce. Jonah Nolan will direct Westworld based on a script that Nolan and his wife, Lisa Joy, have co-written, according to Film Divider.

Anthony Hopkins will play Dr. Robert Ford in Westworld – an appearance that will mark Hopkins’ first ever role in an ongoing television series in a long and lucrative career. Ford is the creator of Westworld – a western-themed amusement park – and it’s robot inhabitants. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Crichton story if Westworld’s robots didn’t go all haywire, attempting to kill the guests a-la Jurassic Park.

The original Westworld starred Yul Brynner as a robotic cowboy that was attempting to kill the humans in the park. That version of Westworld focused on the human survivors, but Abrams‘ version seems to focus on the robots themselves. According to reports, Evan Rachel Wood will play Dolores Abernathy in Westworld – a farm girl who doesn’t realize that she’s a robot sex slave. James Mardsen is also attached to Westworld. He’ll play Teddy Flood, a cowboy who’s in love with Wood’s character.

Producers Weintraub and Burk have described this updated version of Westworld as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.”

Back in 1976, Westworld was popular enough to garner a sequel film, entitled Futureworld. And in 1980, Beyond Westworld, a television series directed again by Michael Crichton, only survived for five episodes.

The major difference between the original Westworld and the new HBO series is that Westworld’s robots will be seen as more sympathetic. The robots in Westworld won’t even realize that they’re robots at the beginning.

With a heavyweight cast headed up by Oscar-winning, Golden Globe-winning, BAFTA-winning Hopkins, Westworld looks like a series that may indeed be must-see.

Take a look at the trailer from the original Westworld: