WESTWORLD in Singapore & San Diego Comic Con 2019

The "biggest" media happening in Singapore for the past week (news-cycle-wise, anyways), was the filming of HBO's WESTWORLD Series 3 on our island country! We certainly LOVE it when Hollywood/overseas productions happen in our country (Past Western films include "Equals" (2016), "Hitman: Agent 47" (2015), and the latest "Crazy Rich Asians" - which constantly are on folks' lips in film school...).

And while casting had first subtly spread online much earlier, the press managed to interview Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan during their filming here, understandably without the paparazzi hounding the cast and crew (No worries, SG is pretty low-key enough, I think LOL)

"We needed to get on a plane and travel 19 hours (to Singapore) because there’s nowhere else like this,” she told CNA Lifestyle during Westworld’s recent shoot. “It’s the ways in which nature entangle with modernity here." said Lisa Joy on cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com, "Your architecture is so spectacular and quite singular and unique. There is a poetic shape to the skyline of Singapore that no other city has. There is a beautiful curvature to it that is really unique and interesting.

We needed to create a world of fiction that was immersive, new, beautiful, gripping and fascinating. Looking outside the window at Singapore right now, where else would we go after seeing this?"

View this post on Instagram

‘Til next time, Singapore. Fascinating, complex place you are, but you view progress thru a 100-year lens looking forward. Small brains in America now think progress is 2 ½ years of trying to undo past advances and guarantees. They think that makes us ‘great.’ Good luck to us.

A post shared by Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) on Jul 9, 2019 at 5:47am PDT

Filming took place between July 1st to 9th, and included Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and Season 3 newcomer Aaron Paul "had been spotted in and around Singapore during the 10-day shoot."

Filming locations included Chinatown’s Smith Street, Orchard Road, the National Gallery, Esplanade Park, SOTA (School of The Arts), Helix Bridge, Marina One, the hotel Parkroyal on Pickering, LASALLE College of the Arts, Oasia Hotel Singapore, Robinson Road in the Central Business District (CBD) and Pulau Ubin.


And while I can better "imagine" the locations and their aesthetics, I am wondering if they included DAY and NIGHT shoots. From the first trailer shown, it looked particularly dusk-ish, leading to night times, and as well I am intrigued to see how the "colors" of the visuals are, compared to the twilight sepia-esque hue of the American plains...

Regardless, I am only speculating and have zero connection to info, besides this post-happening impressions of a "archival"-post LOL

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It was here all along.

A post shared by Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) on Jul 9, 2019 at 5:11am PDT

They have since left our shores, but not without leaving behind eternally online multiple snaps posted/uploaded on the casts' Instagrams, most notably @evanrachelwood ("Dolores Abernathy"), @jfreewright ("Bernard Lowe") and @hemsworthluke ("Ashley Stubbs") - which is extremely "interesting", as all three played SPOILERS >>>>>> "Host+Androids" in Season 1 & 2 ... hhhmmm

Besides the embeds, I've screen-grabbed their pages (for archival purposes ~ *cough*) and sprinkled them judiciously here, Cheers :)

Bring yourself back online, @Comic_Con. #WestworldSDCC pic.twitter.com/F686i1AFWn

— Westworld (@WestworldHBO) June 27, 2019

Before the show airs on HBO in the year 2020, we can look forward to the WESTWORLD Panel at the coming San Diego Comic Con 2019! And who knows if we'll get some new footage to gawk at> I highly doubt we will see MORE of Singapore, unless the turnaround time for "television" is THAT insane?!

Here is the description found on medium.com;

Saturday, July 20:
Autograph Signing @ 11:45 a.m.
"The autograph signings will take place in the DC Warner Bros. booth #4545. Attendees wishing to participate in autograph signings may log in to their Comic-Con Member ID account to submit their interest via the Exclusives Portal. WBTVG follows Comic-Con’s selection process and wristband distribution procedures. For more information visit www.comic-con.org/cci/exclusives."

Saturday, July 20:
"The WESTWORLD panel in Hall H at 1:15 p.m. will include creators, executive producers and directors Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and cast members (in alphabetical order): Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, Aaron Paul, Tessa Thompson, Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright."