HBO’s ‘Westworld’ Will Premiere This Year After All
Back in January, HBOtemporarily halted productiononWestworld,a TV series based onMichael Crichton’s 1973 film. The sci-fi western series, produced byJ.J. Abramsand run byJonathan Nolan, was reportedly running behind schedule and in need of reshoots. The ambitious project was speculated to debut this summer, and then there was the rumor that wewouldn’t see the show until 2017.
Contradicting early reports, HBO has announced theWestworldpremiere has been scheduled for later this year. Below, learn more about the series.
Westworldhas joined the cable network’s fall schedule, which also includesDivorce,High Maintenance, andInsecure. It was said that HBO and Jonathan Nolan were dealing with some creative differences after the show wasn’t coming in on time. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the network convinced theInterstellarscreenwriter to “put his ego aside,” as one source told them, and brought in two new writers and producers to get the show back on track.
Two months ago, J.J. Abramscommentedon the production troubles:
At the heart ofWestworldis this story of consciousness and oppression and discover. It’s one of the projects I feel most grateful and lucky to be a part of. What [the directorial team has] done is so stunning and cool and they’re not rushing it because of business matters and the network is giving them the time. That is never a bad move. Westworld is one of those things I’ve wanted to work on for so long. I had a meeting probably 21 years ago with Michael Crichton about doing this. And it’s taken a long time to get this going.
From what I’ve heard, the pilot forWestworldwas very good but overlong and in need of serious trimming down. The word was that show hadn’t quite found its footing, that the story hadn’t been fully cracked. Perhaps Nolan and all involved have worked out the kinks, considering we’ll now see the show sooner than we expected a few months ago.
Here’s the brief but alluringWestworldteaser trailer HBO released last August:
HBO ordered the pilot in 2013 and greenlighted season one a year later, hoping the show–whichLisa Joyis also heavily involved with, as a writer and executive producer–would premiere in 2015.WestworldstarsAnthony Hopkins,Ed Harris,Evan Rachel Wood,James Marsden,Thandie Newton,Jeffrey Wright,Tessa Thompson,Rodrigo Santoro,Ben Barnes,Clifton Collins, Jr., and more. The exact premiere date for the series is currently unknown, but we’ll let you know when it’s announced.
