HBO's Westworld series is heating up. The J.J. Abrams re-imagining has had several casting announcements lately, none more notable than this one - Ed Harris will be portraying an ultimate villain called The Man in Black (paging Stephen King...), referred to by the producers as "the distillation of pure villainy into one man." Harris joins Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Wright and James Marsden for producers Jerry Weintraub, Bryan Burk and Jonathan Nolan (Person of Interest) who is also writing and directing.
While this sounds a bit more like The Stand or Lost than Yul Brynner's infamous Gunslinger, we have to presume Harris plays some incarnation of a similar killing machine. Michael Chrichton's Westworld is an underrated gem, without which there never would have been a Terminator or a Jurrassic Park. While story elements are bound to differ, given that it's called Westworld, we have to figure there'll still be a Gunslinger, and there was no black hat more unstoppable than Brynner's incessant automaton - so let's assume this Man in Black is a cold-blooded cousin.
I'm pretty sick of "re-imaginings" in general, but this casting has me excited. Harris is always fantastic, and brings a formidable blue steel glare that takes on all comers.
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