They’re hyping it as the next Game of Thrones which is a bit worrying. I’m always a bit cautious when anything is hyped as the ‘next’ anything as it should be able to stand on its own two feet.
But I think what they are trying to say in their garbled marketing speak is that this will be the next ‘event’ TV series that will suck you in and then spit you out in about Season Eight with a smile on your face
So what exactly is it? Well it’s basically the TV series of the 1973 Yul Brynner film where robots made to look like humans run amok at a theme park. If this sounds a bit similar to Jurassic Park’s plot, swapping dinos for robos, then you’d be right as it’s written by the same man Michael Crichton.
In the original film it was Yul Brynner’s menacing Man in Black from the ‘wild west’ part of the theme park that became the unstoppable killing machine on the rampage - he came across as the Terminator but in a stetson.
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London Fashion Week seemed a little quiet for Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jeffrey Wright[/caption]
And they’re chucking more dollars at the new TV series than Trident and have even managed to get ‘best actor in the world’ (TM) Anthony Hopkins involved as the boffin behind it all.
But the impressive cast list doesn’t stop there as Ed Harris will be playing the Yul Brynner character and Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Jeffrey Wright and Thandie Newton are also along for the ride.
It all kicks off at the start of October on Sky Atlantic and will have a 10 episode run.
I’ll be honest with you, from the initial trailers, it looks bloody good with some pretty thought-provoking stuff going on that will mean you will have to use the ol’ grey matter a lot when analysing each episode.
But there’s still a lot to do before this enters the world of boxset frenzy that series like The Wire, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones have enjoyed.
It might even be a bit presumptive on the parts of the marketing team to suggest that this could be the next Game of Thrones having us all gathering around the watercooler as each episode is dissected.
Apart from the cast, the fact that it’s only got a ten episode run is quite a good sign as hopefully there won’t be any of the filler episodes that blight longer series like The Walking Dead or the 23 episode-a-series norm of the US TV industry.
It will definitely be one to watch. Here’s hoping it’s more AI than Bicentennial Man!
