HBO Shuts Down ‘Westworld’ To Allow More Time For Script Rewrite

The new science fiction HBO show, Westworld, has caught an apparent snag in production. Executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy need more time to fine tune the final four scripts for the show’s first season.

HBO released a statement shortly after Variety announced the delay from an unknown source. “As we head into the final phase of production on Westworld, we’ve made the decision to take a brief hiatus in order to get ahead of the writing.”

The network initially called for a pilot in 2013 with the first season set to film in 2014 and ultimately premiere in 2015.

This isn’t the first time HBO has pulled out all the stops for a show before premiering it. Before Game of Thrones premiered, the pilot was completely scrapped, partially recast and reshot.

HBO describes Westworld as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The show is adapted from the 1973 film with the same name and directed by Michael Crichton. The concept of the show will also adapt the same structure as the movie: an immersive theme park inhabited by robots which eventually go out of control. This idea is similar to Crichton’s massive movie hit Jurassic Park.

Nolan described the show similar to “what keeps you up at night,” he told EW in 2014. “It’s a place where you can be whoever you want to be and there are no consequences—no rules, no limitations. What happens in Westworld, stays in Westworld. What we can tell you is that we intend to make the most ambitious, subversive, f–ked-up television series. The things that keep you up at night, any of those things that trouble you—that is exactly what the show is about.”

Westworld also has a star studded cast with Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden and Thandie Newton.

The show set to air this year but remains without a confirmed date.