Futureworld Review - The Bad '70s Sci-Fi Sequel to Westworld
6Movie review / rant on Futureworld. This less than stellar sequel to Westworld features the first 3D CGI model made for a feature film.
Futureworld is a 1976 American science fiction thriller film directed by Richard T. Heffron and written by Mayo Simon and George Schenck. It is a sequel to the 1973 Michael Crichton film Westworld, and is the second installment in the Westworld franchise. The film stars Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill, Stuart Margolin, John Ryan, and Yul Brynner, who makes an appearance in a dream sequence; no other cast member from the original film appears. Westworld's writer-director, Michael Crichton, and the original studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were not involved in this production. Composer Fred Karlin was retained.
The film attempted to take the plot in a different direction from Westworld, but it was not well received by U.S. critics. French critics appreciated the film more, appearing on the list of best science fiction films ever made in Demain le Science Fiction. It was made by American International Pictures (its predecessor was made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which later bought AIP's successor Orion Pictures). A short-lived television series titled Beyond Westworld followed.