Westworld finally gets launch date

HBO’s troubled TV adaptation of the Westworld movie has been given an autumn launch date.

The much-anticipated ten-part series was originally expected to launch last year, before production was halted so that showrunner and writer Jonathan Nolan, and fellow writer Lisa Joy could finish the scripts.

At that point, the launch was expected to be pushed back until 2017, but HBO said yesterday that it will debut later this year.

Based on the eponymous 1973 movie, HBO’s Westworld has an all-star cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris and James Marsden. HBO said the show is ‘set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged’.

It has been a period of upheaval in the HBO executive ranks, with programming president Michael Lombardo stepping aside ,and Casey Bloys, until recently HBO’s comedy chief, filling his shoes.

The US premium cabler also announced launches for several other new series yesterday. New Sarah Jessica Parker comedy Divorce will also launch in the autumn, as will relationship comedy Insecure, and pot-dealing comedy High Maintenance.