HBO’s “Westworld” has made a name for itself as a 22-time Emmy nominated show that garnered the network’s highest ever first season viewership. But the intricate plots, haunting writing and western-future hybrid production design of the genre program do not exist in a vacuum.
“Westworld” showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan took inspiration from several other works to build their perfect dystopian theme park, including — but not limited to — the show’s cinematic source material. Here are some of the projects that influenced the hit series.
“Westworld” and “Futureworld”
While the plot of the premium cabler drama is only loosely based on the plots of its filmic source material, several homages and easter eggs to the movies are planted throughout the series. The show does borrow directly from the Michael Crichton films’ original concepts, which include a western theme park run by robotic gunslingers, cowboys, and natives. However,...
“Westworld” showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan took inspiration from several other works to build their perfect dystopian theme park, including — but not limited to — the show’s cinematic source material. Here are some of the projects that influenced the hit series.
“Westworld” and “Futureworld”
While the plot of the premium cabler drama is only loosely based on the plots of its filmic source material, several homages and easter eggs to the movies are planted throughout the series. The show does borrow directly from the Michael Crichton films’ original concepts, which include a western theme park run by robotic gunslingers, cowboys, and natives. However,...
- 4/20/2018
- by Christi Carras
- Variety Film + TV
Leading up to the Oscars on Feb. 22, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Damon Smith interviewed Man on Wire director James Marsh for our Summer '08 issue. Man on Wire is nominated for Best Documentary. James Marsh has wrestled before with subjects — both fictional and real life — whose obsessions have fueled eccentric and, at times, even extreme behavior. In The Burger and the King (1996), based on David Adler‘s book, he chronicled Elvis Presley‘s lifelong habit of compulsive eating. Wisconsin Death Trip (2000), based on the nonfiction book by Michael Lesy, traced the origins of a bizarre strain of murders, suicides and odd happenstances in a small...
- 2/10/2009
- by Jason Guerrasio
- Filmmaker Magazine_Web Exclusives
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Michael Lesy's cult classic 1973 book, "Wisconsin Death Trip", a collection of period photographs and newspaper clippings, details the lurid, nightmarish aspects of a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century, where poverty and extremely harsh living conditions fostered an environment in which madness, death and crime flourished. The most surprising aspect of this impressionistic film adaptation, written and directed by James Marsh, is that David Lynch didn't get to the material first.
Recently showcased at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the film is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
There's enough raw material in the archives of the aptly named Black Falls, Wis., for a dozen "Blair Witch Projects". As recounted here through voluminous period photographs and dramatic re-enactments, the hardships inflicted on the residents, chiefly German and Scandinavian immigrants, gave rise to an amazingly high preponderance of murders, suicides, crimes of passion and infant mortality. Among the colorful characters are a cocaine-crazed woman who spent her time smashing every window she could find, a pair of young runaways who shot a local farmer to death and occupied his property, a European opera singer who went crazy after failing to translate her talents to her new surroundings, and a 74-year-old man who committed suicide after his romantic overtures to a 77-year-old woman were rebuffed.
Some of the stories presented here are luridly fascinating, and director Marsh utilizes the photographs taken by a particularly intrepid newspaper photographer to good effect, but context and depth are in short supply. Too often the film comes across like a turn-of-the-century version of "Cops", with poorly staged re-enactments, shot in black & white, that are less than convincing. And the particularly Lynchian modern segments, filmed in color and clearly attempting to illustrate the parallels between the past and present residents, seem mean-spirited. Still, at its best, "Wisconsin Death Trip" -- narrated with the proper solemnity by British actor Ian Holm -- displays a weirdness and intensity that puts you under its spell.
WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP
A Cinemax Reel Life/BBC Arena release
Director-screenwriter: James Marsh
Producers: Maureen A. Ryan, James Marsh
Executive producer: Anthony Wall
Director of photography: Eigil Bryld
Editor: Jinx Godfrey
Color/black & white/stereo
Cast:
Narrator: Ian Holm
Mary Sweeney: Jo Vukelich
Pauline L'Allemand: Marilyn White
Newspaper editor: Jeff Golden
Young Anderson: Marcus Monroe
Asylum clerk: John Schneider
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Recently showcased at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the film is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
There's enough raw material in the archives of the aptly named Black Falls, Wis., for a dozen "Blair Witch Projects". As recounted here through voluminous period photographs and dramatic re-enactments, the hardships inflicted on the residents, chiefly German and Scandinavian immigrants, gave rise to an amazingly high preponderance of murders, suicides, crimes of passion and infant mortality. Among the colorful characters are a cocaine-crazed woman who spent her time smashing every window she could find, a pair of young runaways who shot a local farmer to death and occupied his property, a European opera singer who went crazy after failing to translate her talents to her new surroundings, and a 74-year-old man who committed suicide after his romantic overtures to a 77-year-old woman were rebuffed.
Some of the stories presented here are luridly fascinating, and director Marsh utilizes the photographs taken by a particularly intrepid newspaper photographer to good effect, but context and depth are in short supply. Too often the film comes across like a turn-of-the-century version of "Cops", with poorly staged re-enactments, shot in black & white, that are less than convincing. And the particularly Lynchian modern segments, filmed in color and clearly attempting to illustrate the parallels between the past and present residents, seem mean-spirited. Still, at its best, "Wisconsin Death Trip" -- narrated with the proper solemnity by British actor Ian Holm -- displays a weirdness and intensity that puts you under its spell.
WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP
A Cinemax Reel Life/BBC Arena release
Director-screenwriter: James Marsh
Producers: Maureen A. Ryan, James Marsh
Executive producer: Anthony Wall
Director of photography: Eigil Bryld
Editor: Jinx Godfrey
Color/black & white/stereo
Cast:
Narrator: Ian Holm
Mary Sweeney: Jo Vukelich
Pauline L'Allemand: Marilyn White
Newspaper editor: Jeff Golden
Young Anderson: Marcus Monroe
Asylum clerk: John Schneider
Running time -- 76 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/6/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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