In one of the biggest commitments ever for HBO, the pay cable network has nabbed Westworld, a drama series inspired by Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi movie. The project, from J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot, Person Of Interest creator Jonathan Nolan, producer Jerry Weintraub and Warner Bros TV, has received a pilot production commitment. It marks the first major cable sale for Bad Robot, which had been focused 
on broadcast TV for the past few years with such series as Fringe, Person Of Interest, Revolution and the upcoming Believe. Written by Nolan and Lisa Joy (Burn Notice), Westworld is described as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. WME-repped Nolan is set to direct the pilot, which he and UTA-repped Joy will executive produce with Abrams, Weintraub and Bryan Burk. Kathy Lingg is co-executive producing, while Athena Wickam serves as a producer. Warner Bros TV is producing with Bad Robot, Jerry Weintraub Prods. and Kilter Films.
This marks the second series inspired by Westworld, which starred Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin and James Brolin and introduced new digital visual techniques (check out the trailer for the movie below). The first, the short-lived 1980 drama Beyond Westworld, was a continuation of both Westworld and its movie sequel Futureworld. Warner Bros., which owns the rights to Westworld, had been looking to exploit the property, originally exploring a feature remake over the past few years.
J.J. loves to do reboots.
When I first glanced at your comment, I thought it read “J.J. loves to do robots” – which also applies!
Westworld is about doing robots.
I hope they do this right, I’m sick of Zombies, Sexy Vampires and Serial Killers. Killer robots might be fun, and of course if it’s a hit all the networks will come up with killer robot shows of their own…sexy killer robot shows :(
I love this movie, have since I was a kid and saw it with my dad at the local theater. I hope they do a remake, I know its kind of cheesy now but Yul is/was awesome and it would be cool to see them superimpose his likeness onto one or more of robots if they did.
I didn’t realize that WESTWORLD was written by Michael Crichton. No wonder it reminded me of JURASSIC PARK.
How about Andromeda Strain ?
Yeah same plot.
They build a theme park (robots or dinosaurs)
They (robots or dinosaurs) get loose and go after the customers and scientists of theme park.
This as a series sounds boring and tiring. How far can you carry it?
Oh ho ho! I could not be more excited!!!
This sounds really compelling I am a big fan of Jonah Nolan. It will be interesting to see how Jonah and Lisa’s writing together will turn out. I have seen her Burn Notice episodes that she has written which were of a good quality. In short I am excited for this as anything Jonah Nolan does is great. Also Person of Interest is my favourite show on TV so I will be watching on whatever channel it will be on here in the UK.
Wel, it’s HBO, so that means if it does become a series, it will automatically be on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
Well Since Jonah and Lisa are married, I’m gonna guess (hope anyway) they will make a good partnership.
Abrams and Nolan are sci fi kings now. Pure genius. Abrams with his brain and Nolan with his intelligence i mean come on! And Nolan is such quality. His script is like from parallel universe compare to orci/kurtzman script.
Even without star wars and dark knight these two will be immortal for sci fi community all over the world!
Abrams and “brain?” Really? If he was so smart he’d never be working with Orci or kurzman. And can anyone name anything Abrams wrote/directed that was a huge hit without being a pre-existing franchise?
All his channeling of Spielberg hasn’t paid off.
All Abrams TV shows are originals. This is first adaptation.
Hits? Well LOST is biggest sci fi drama/tv series in history of TV even critics name it top 10 drama of all time! What bigger hit than that? Alias 100+ episodea. Fringe 100+ episodes. Both great sci fi shows. Person of interest is beyond amazing and will easly be 100+ episodes. And making sci fi shows on mainstream media is hardest sell! Broadcast is not like netflix/cable with all freedom etc.
Adapation is not bad thing. Most hits these days are adaptations. Game of throns Walking dead are all ADAPTATIONS
I agree that he just must get rid of kurzman and orci. Jonathan Nolan is his best TV script writter. I am happy that now is working with michael arndt too. They both are true quality like writters.
Fully agree.
“Westworld” and “Futureworld” are among my guilty pleasures and, although I usually rant against these types of “re-imaginings”, the premise behind these movies lends itself better to a television series than most of the recent film-to-TV attempts.
And, on HBO, it could be a really dark version of “Fantasy Island”, another of my guilty pleasures from the 70s.
I just hope Abrams does a better job adapting Crichton than Spielberg.
Or than JJ did of STAR TREK…
Thanks for reminding me.
Now, I’m worried.
well he didn’t “adapt” Star Trek…it was a re-imagining…not based on a book
A great movie but I don’t see how it can go for more than 13 episodes. Once the robots go crazy then you have to escape and it will become repetitive. The resort also had Roman World and Medieval World which you saw glimpses of in the trailer but even with those extra worlds how does this go beyond 13 episodes and still maintain excitement? Under The Dome is going to struggle to do a 2nd season it will become repetitive for them to stay trapped in there. I’m already bored with The Dome and the people stuck inside.
Then the crucial thing for Westworld: The Series is – create characters who are interesting enough that we won’t get bored. Like that crazy bunch stranded on the island on that other JJ Abrams show. They were fascinating enough to keep me watching for years. Sure, the ending sucked but we didn’t know that then.
Basically it’ll be The Walking Dead but with robots instead of zombies. And just as repetitive.
Simple twisting of the original: not all the robots go crazy, or perhaps none do. Maybe there’s factions of robots, one that thinks humans suck and need to be destroyed before they themselves are destroyed by them, one that believes human, their creators aka fragile parents, need their protection from the kill all humans robots, another could be a band of genuinely crazy reaver robots that the other two factions loathe because they give robots a bad name. And, of course, there could be cyborgs fighting their programming through their humanity, and undercover robots infiltrating each others inner circles.There’s plenty of ways to make this more interesting and longer lasting than Under the Dome, which is getting sillier by the episode.
Totally agree with you on the Dome. It was not very good but we were looking forward to the resolution promised as a MINI series. Now that they decided to erroneously cash in on what they thought was big numbers, they will see more people like us, who have stopped watching it. There was very slim pickings this summer. The Dome was mediocre at best. I just went ahead and read all the spoilers online and I am done now. zzzzz
It’s excting, yes ! But I’m starting to worry about “The Leftovers” and “Open”. There won’t be enough place for everybody, considering there are also “The Money” and “The Missionary” in competition…
HBO has lots of room.
The biggest surprise is that it has taken this long. This material has been ripe for the pickings in the proper hands. Let’s see if these hands are the right ones.
Since the project’s for HBO, with a theme of artificial intelligence and “the future of sin,” I’m guessing there’s gonna be some hot robot-human love scenes…
Now we will have all creatures/factions on cable TV – vampires(true blood HBO), zombies(Walking dead AMC), robots(Westworld HBO)!
So why nobody watch broadcast TV anymore!? All cool shows are on cable now that is why.
Person of Interest growing strong on CBS.
How does HBO plan to fit all these new shows on their schedule? Are they going to try and experiment with Mondays again? They did recently with Enlightened and blamed its poor ratings on its Monday time slot but that show was just a ratings dud no matter what day it aired. If Game of Thrones aired on Mondays I doubt its ratings would be very different from what it gets on Sundays. Its seems that with all these comedies and dramas in production they’re going to have to start using other days of the week to air them.
“Westworld is described as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin…”
I always thought it was about a Yul Brynner robot with a gun.
Between this show and Almost Human, looks like robots are the new zombies (which in turn are the new vampires).
I like JJs Star Trek reboot, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this one.
you are an ASS. jj’s star trek remakes ARE NOT STAR TREK, his star wars WILL NOT BE STAR WARS,
ABrams&Nolan are best sci fi team EVER! They create(Nolan) and develope/produce(Abrams) best scripted show on broacast TV – Person of interest.(must be example how crime drama should be written and acted) i expect at least Game of Thrones level even more.
ps Althou after NSA surveillance scandal and revelations about PRISM now POI looks more like real crime drama than sci fi crime drama.
ps What happen with stranger – rod serling last script?
I just saw Westworld a couple of nights ago and it still holds up. I think clearly they would have to make it harder to detect who the robots are. A premise where you have multiple worlds and each of them with its own dangers. A sword might be a useful weapon in one world and pretty much useless in the next. I agree that it’s probably best as a limited episode series.
Does anybody notice the Irony of “Bad robot” productions producing a series about robots gone bad?
What if Westworld was real and one of the robots created the identity of J.J. Abrams?
It must have been Abrams’ master plan all along.
~
Coat
How about a “Magnus The Robot Fighter” show…that would be sooooo-eeeeeeet!
Michael Crichton’s other robot movie, Runaway, could have been the robot equivalent of Ghostbusters had someone else directed it. Both Runaway and Looker have remake potential.
I had never heard of those two movies before. Just looked them up and found them online. Will be watching them shortly. Thanks!
game of thrones could air at 13 o’ clock on February 29th only and it would still rock your face. drakarys motherfu$&er
Muna zaldrizoty rulez !
How Great that Westworld is being done again as a series & I’m sure J.J Abrams will do a great job with it. I wish he had produced the series I starred in…BEYOND WESTWORLD. I was so excited with the project in 1980 when Michael Creighton approached me to play the white suited robot hunter, John Moore. We made a pretty exciting pilot show but the scripts got worse & worse till it was pulled by the network after 5 shows. I
was disappointed as I loved the concept & my character.
I think J.J Abrams knows who I am as I lived in Pacific Palisades for 40 yrs. John Platt & Shawn Sheridan just alerted me to the GOOD news that you are set to make the pilot. I’m still around & would love to be a part of the new WESTWORLD series even if it was in a cameo for old time sake..Best, Jim McMullan
This property is quite special – a lot of people have watched the Westworld movie over the years as kids and remember it very fondly.
As others noted upthread, the movie/theme park had multiple ‘worlds’, include ‘West’, ‘Medieval’ and ‘Roman’, and along with ‘Future’, etc., there are many interesting directions this HBO series could find itself if done well and placed in the right hands. ‘A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin’ – indeed. Many directions that this series could take.
One key point – at least for me, when I saw this movie as a young child, what sold me on it was Yul Brynner. I’d seen him on a TV broadcast rerun of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ movie, so I completely bought into the Westworld concept right away – it was Yul Brenner in a black hat with a gun. Even as a young boy, I understood the connection to the prior movie and the ‘theme park’ concept immediately. I think if the HBO series can carefully cast some actors/actresses in these key ‘West’/ ‘Medieval’/’Roman’/’Future’ roles, that would help guide the series. I don’t know if they will try to recast the Brenner role (or just use CGI), but it would be great to cast someone like a Harrison Ford to play a ‘black hat’ villan/robot. Bring in someone who people/viewers and the ‘theme park’ visitors know and trust, and then turn their world upside down.
Is that Bad Robot or Bad Reboot? :)
If Abrams now made and rod serling last show on cable – AMC, FX or even netflix will be best news of the year. But this time he can direct the pilot(2 part pilot). If stranger is really that show looks more like sci fi/horror show than just sci fi which is even better news.
I loved Lost and Fringe, but have been disappointed with the most recent JJ Abrams/Bad Robot TV series. I’m hopeful for Almost Human and now these two projects for HBO sound fantastic. HBO has done fantasy, it’s about time they tried sci-fi. I hope both The Leftovers and Westworld go to series. Then, if successful, I’m praying HBO will decide to remake Dune.
@ Sareeta
I am with you. But even more want to see JJ direct not only develope/produce rod serling show/last script. If is stranger trailer look like outstanding sci fi/horror show. Lost is best sci-fi drama of all time. Critics name it top 10 drama of all time. And i love fringe too. I will add and ALIAS but Person of interest is best crime drama now.
By the way HBO and now has sci-fi – Game of thrones. True blood is also in fantasy genre. Both are best HBO dramas at the moment ay better ratings than anything else on HBO these days.
Very disappointed with that whole Bad Robot TV department. They don’t bring in anyone with an original idea or voice. They are immune to female writers or writers of color. It’s all fan boys and more fan boys. JJ is too busy to notice. Successful TV means bold story telling from visionary writers. This company is not writer friendly or writer centric anymore. It’s all about derivative ideas hatched over a conference table with too many executives onboard. TV doesn’t work when you dilute a writers vision or ask him to connect dots in your head. Breaking Bad and Mad Men are what they are because the writer was given the creative freedom to do his job. You can’t game the system. You just can’t. The audience figures it out. Not sure what this company aspires to be anymore.
Since Jonathan Nolan and his wife (both writers) are not only going to be the show runners, but will be writing it and Jonathan will also be directing the pilot and I assume some other episodes, your comment is completely ignorant and contains no truth what so ever.