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HBO trailer for ‘Westworld’ promises bloody robot drama and Anthony Hopkins

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Behold the first teaser for HBO’s TV adaptation of the 1973 Michael Crichton movie “Westworld,” set in a future pleasure-island-type amusement park where lifelike androids re-create various scenes for paying park guests. An exceedingly talented collection of actors including Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins and Thandie Newton has assembled to reboot this sci-fi classic. This is the first real glimpse we’re getting at the new vision.

Jonathan Nolan (creator of “Person of Interest”) co-wrote and directed the pilot, so fingers crossed for lots artificial-intelligence-type fun. The teaser blends slick, futuristic hallways with dusty saloons, bloody pianos and robot skeletons but is (sadly) scarce on plot details.

The official synopsis is pretty vague as well, labeling the one-hour dramas series as a “dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.”

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There’s no telling just how close the new adaptation will stick to the 1973 source material, but it looks like a few of the characters appear to be similar. For example, Ed Harris has been cast as the mysterious robot gunslinger the Man in Black, which sounds fairly similar to the role originally portrayed by Yul Brynner.

There are a few other details about the rest of the cast: Anthony Hopkins is playing Dr. Robert Ford, creative director of Westworld. Evan Rachel Wood (centerpiece of this trailer) appears to be playing a confused android. And Thandie Newton is the Westworld madame Maeve Millay.

No clue if “Westworld” will remain in the fantasy world constructed to resemble the American frontier (the original movie also had Roman- and medieval themed “worlds”), but we can’t wait for more details. The series will debut on HBO sometime in 2016.

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