The remake of Westworld is back on track, after being shelved for a number of years due to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political career. The film will now be directed by Tarsem, a guy who I believe has been in director jail since he put Vincent D’Onofrio in fetishwear for The Cell.
The story is about a futuristic theme park, where futuristic people go to pretend it’s the Old West. The Old West of the park is inhabited by robots, who are programmed to get into fights at saloons and get plugged by the guests. But since this is a Michael Crichton story, something goes wrong with the park and one of the robots turns into a homicidal King of Siam.
The original Westworld was really notable for Richard Benjamin, the schmuck who pisses off the maniac bot. This was Benjamin’s last major role pretty much ever, unless you’re counting Saturday the 14th, and you know that I am.
Arnie wasn’t going to play the Yul Brynner killer android role, by the way. He was going to play James Brolin, although I doubt he could have ever bagged Streisand. The film will go on without him, perhaps starring someone who can actually act or govern.