HBO’s Westworld Gets Down and Dirty

If you are a science fiction buff, you may already know about a TV version of the classic film, Westworld, coming out soonon HBO. If you are not a fan of sci-fi, you may have heard about the latest scandal. If you haven’t heard of either, let us educate you. Westworld is a movie that came out in 1973. The movie is about a high tech, old west amusement park that malfunctions after a power surge and the android actors cause problems. The original movie was directed Michael Creighton, and starred Yul Brynner. The movie was pretty successful, grossing almost 10 times what it cost to make.

Westworld

The controversy comes from the release form the extras were required to sign for the new TV show. It speaks of “various acts” the extras may be required to perform. Anyone familiar with HBO’s series, Game of Thrones, has an idea of what those types of acts could be. Extras for this show would be compensated $600 for those acts.

In light of this document, the Screen Actors Guild scolded HBO, and sent thema request to correct the document immediately. A union spokesman for the guild stated “HBO had every opportunity to rectify this situation, and it was only after their direct refusal to remedy this that we posted the notice on our website. The union is very pleased to hear that HBO is doing the right thing now, but it is disappointing that we had to take such public measures to ensure compliance with our contracts and protect our background actors.”  Here is a screenshot of the document in question.

Extras Document

HBO then put out a public statement that attempts to distance itself from this document. In a move that sounds like “It wasn’t us”, they stated that this document was put out by a vendor and the things mentioned were not written or approved by HBO, Warner Brothers TV, or the producers. They also said they were going to do whatever they had to do to rectify the situation.

HBO knows sex sells, and throwing someone else under the bus is a wise move in this case. It is my opinion that HBO knew exactly what was going on and they got caught. If you live in the US, it should be fun to check out this show next year and see what all the controversy is about. If you live outside the US, you can still investigate the show by subscribing to HBO NOW, and by using a SmartDNS service. Our guide will show you how.