Lo and behold, now we have one which has sprung from the mind of Lisa Joy in the form of Reminiscence, a script that I believe has been in development for some time. (It seems to me that I've read about this one from a few years back.) With the release of the trailer, it's clear that Joy is staking out territory very, very, very familiar to Christopher Nolan ... who happens to be her brother-in-law as she's married to Chris's brother Jonathan.
Huh. Go figure.
Now, I'm not opposed to this on many levels. Good SciFi begats more good SciFi, and that's always a big plus so far as audience members like myself. Even when I've seen bad SciFi (and you folks know in reading in this space that I've seen plenty), I'm thankful for it largely because I know it's derivative of something else, something maybe superior or inferior, and it gives me something to watch. As I've always argued, I'd rather have more choices than less, so I've learned at my ripe old age to be thankful for small miracles.
But -- as I cautioned above -- there's a risk in going back to this memory-induced well too often; and I'm not sure this one has the legs to stand on its own.
Why?
Well, Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have (in my humble opinion) pretty much messed up the world of HBO's Westworld (which they're responsible for). As I've said, I've found quite a bit of the storytelling over there a bit incoherent: half-baked ideas desperately in need to greater fusion. It isn't as if the effort is unworthy: rather I don't think audiences should be made to -- ahem -- 'make up their own mind' about events that occurred and whether or not they're real in the context of the greater story. Westworld has an overwhelming nebulousness to it that I'm personally uncomfortable with ... so I'm going to just keep my fingers crossed with Reminiscence and hope for the best.
Trailer is below. If interested, check it, and feel free to sound off.
-- EZ