Previously I wrote a blog posting which questioned whether
Western mash-ups worked. I personally dislike mash-ups because they rely too much
on a clever big concept rather than on good storytelling. I suspect Hollywood likes mash-ups because they don't think a Western story can stand
on its own, especially with the younger crowd. So I openly displayed my prejudice against
projects that draped a popular genre disguise over a Western in order to make it more marketable.
Besides, I hated Cowboys and Aliens. I
prefer unalloyed Westerns.
Except I forgot one of my favorite Westerns. Part of the attraction
of Westerns is vicarious adventure, and no film caught this concept better than
the Yul Brynner classic Westworld, which
happened to be a science fiction/Western mash-up before someone coined the term. What would happen if an imaginary
adventure became life-threatening? How would a naïve observer react if make-believe
suddenly became real? Now that’s a theme for a great story.
All of this was brought to mind when I read that HBO has
committed to a Westworld series pilot
by Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Here
is the story in Variety. So I was
wrong. All mash-ups are not bad … only the ones I don’t like.
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