After launching Michael Crichton‘s 1973 film and reimagining the concept for a four-season HBO series, the rough-and-tumble playground of Westworld is returning for another mosey on the silver screen. According to Deadline, Jurassic Park and Disclosure Day screenwriter David Koepp is revisiting Westworld, the Crichton story that depicts an adult fantasy theme park where wealthy guests with a love of the Old West live out their wildest dreams amid gunsmoke, barmaids, and bandits. Populated by advanced robots, the vacation destination quickly turns into a nightmare when a bot with a six-shooter aims at guests, for real.
The original film, starring Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin, is considered a classic of the sci-fi and Western genres. Meanwhile, HBO turned Crichton’s story into a four-season series, with Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, Thandiwe Newton, James Marsden, Anthony Hopkins, and more, leading the charge. Koepp is writing the latest take on Westworld for Warner Bros, with the studio looking for an A-list filmmaker to direct.
Koepp’s latest script is Disclosure Day, an upcoming alien-invasion film directed by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg has said that he made this film because “I’ve always been fascinated with things that cannot be explained. When I was just a little kid, I remember developing a real curiosity about the sky at night, and what’s happening up there. And, also, not the possibility, but the guarantee that there is life off this planet.”
There has been speculation that Disclosure Day could be some secret follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Speaking with Empire, Blunt said, “There are definitely questions posed by Close Encounters that are answered in Disclosure Day.”
Empire also confirmed that Blunt’s character is “Margaret Fairchild, a journalist who career-pivots into weather presenting; where, as the Disclosure Day trailers show, she’s at the centre of a bizarre on-air incident, vocalising in unsettling seemingly-inhuman clicks. Margaret is swept into the orbit of Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner – a cyber-security expert who’s stumbled upon highly-classified knowledge, placing a target firmly on his back. Also caught in the crossfire is Eve Hewson’s Jane Blakenship, Daniel’s girlfriend, facing her own fallout from his quest for the truth. Hot on Margaret and Daniel’s tail is Colin Firth’s antagonist, Noah Scanlon – leader of Wardex, contracted by the government to keep the biggest secret in the cosmos, well, secret. As sinister as Scanlon is, he’s a man with a job to do, with major consequences if he fails. Also fresh out of Wardex – with a different agenda – is Colman Domingo’s Hugo Wakefield, an advocate for disclosure.”
Are you game for another interpretation of Westworld? Who should direct Koepp’s script? Let us know in the comments section below.