HBO is developing a Westworld series with Jonah Nolan and JJ Abrams.

If you’re in a any way a sci-fi fan then you probably know how awesome Westworld is and if you don’t please go out and watch it because it’s fantastic. Yul Brenner plays a robot sheriff in an amusement park designed to simulate different places in time. I’m actually not surprised that Abrams has joined this collaboration because the man dips his hands in everything. I don’t understand how he does it really. The man must never sleep. The fact that it’s being backed by HBO is a great sign that we’re going to get a polished well put together series that should make any sci fi fan happy. Here’s a description of the show brought to us by Dealine who broke the news…

…a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.

That sounds awesome.

That is the awesome news. Now for the sad news…

Hayao Miyazaki will retire from feature film directing

This pains my heart. Miyazaki has made arguably five or six of the ten best animated films of all time. From what I’ve noticed from most people who aren’t fans of anime (which include myself) that most of his films still haven’t reached a big audience. Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo are some of the prettiest and moving animated films I’ve ever seen and it’s a sad day that we won’t be getting any more after his new film The Wind Rises hits theaters next year.

The announcement was made by the president of Studio Ghibli, Hoshino Koji, at the Venice Film Festival where The Wind Rises is in competition. This is taken with a grain of alt thought because the man has expressed interest in retiring before but has never been able to leave the craft he loves. I hope that even if he does, that he’ll still be able to contribute to films in some way even if he isn’t directing because that man’s mind is a valuable piece of Japanese film culture that really would be tragic to lose.

Look for The Wind Rises next year to see a master of cinema’s final work.