What can't HBO do when it comes to bagging A-listers for their TV shows? The network has brought us the likes of True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson (and an insane amount of other great shows) and now they have gone and landed the legend that is Anthony Hopkins for their new pilot Westworld.
The show has taken inspiration from the Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi movie set at an amusement park and has the likes of J.J Abrams executive producing along with veteran producer Jerry Weintraub, Bad Robot's Bryan Burk while husband-and-wife duo Jonah and Lisa Joy Nolan wrote the script and are also executive producing.
So of course, with talent like that working behind the camera, you are going to need a fairly heavyweight star in front, but Anthony Hopkins? They've almost set the bar too high for themselves now. The Oscar winner has never had a regular role on TV before, but clearly he is catching on to the trend amongst Hollywood stars that the small screen is now the way forward for the juicy roles.
He will play Dr. Robert Ford who is described by HBO as the 'brilliant, taciturn and complicated creative director, chief programmer and chairman of the board of Westworld, who has an uncompromising creative vision for the park — and unorthodox methods of achieving it'.
He will be joined by True Blood actress Evan Rachel Wood who will play Dolores Abernathy, 'the quintessential farm girl of the frontier West — who is about to discover that her entire idyllic existence is an elaborately constructed lie.'
The show is only at pilot stage yet but safe to say, with that lot on board, we are guaranteed to be seeing more of it. If picked up for a series, the show will join a heavily talented drama roster on HBO as is, alongside Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Leftovers and Utopia.
HBO wha'? It's no joke.
