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HBO's 'Westworld' Return Ticket; 'Ghost in the Shell' Leans In to Controversy; Coppola's 'Godfather' Notebook Revealed

November 15, 2016

What's news: HBO's new programming chief has booked a return ticket to Westworld. Plus: Marvel and ABC set The Inhumans series, A Wrinkle in Time gets slated for 2018, Ghost in the Shell leans in to its whitewashing controversy and Francis Ford Coppola shares his Godfather notebook — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman.

HBO Plans 'Westworld' Return

The premium cable network has renewed the freshman drama for a second season of 10 episodes to air in either fall 2017 or 2018, Lesley Goldberg reports:

"Westworld is such a big, ambitious show. I don't know if it will be fall of 2017 or into '18," HBO programming president Casey Bloys told THR. "That will depend as we get up and running."

The star-studded sci-fi Western about a futuristic amusement park where visitors live out their wildest fantasies in a world populated by robots came in with high expectations — and budget in the $100 million range for its first 10-episode season.

The series opened to a promising start Oct. 2 with nearly 2 million viewers tuning in live-plus-same-day returns for the supersized premiere. Factoring in HBO Go and HBO Now streams, that spikes to 3.3 million total viewers. All told, an estimated 6 million watched the debut.

Season to date: Westworld is averaging a gross audience of 11.7 million total viewers — besting Game of Thrones and True Detective during their comparable first-season frames.

Elsewhere in TV...

↱ Nat Geo's Mars, reviewed. Produced by Ron Howard, the six-part event series that premiered last night is a documentary and a scripted drama rolled into one. The takeaway, from critic Daniel Fienberg: "The Martian this is not." ↲

► Marvel, ABC set The Inhumans series. The comic book studio — which previously abandoned plans for an Inhumans feature film — is now set to team with ABC Studios for an eight-episode live-action drama series set to premiere in fall 2017.

► CBS commits to three original series. The network has handed out full-season orders to first-year comedies Man With a Plan and The Great Indoors, while also ordering three more episodes of drama Code Black. The order brings the comedies to 19 episodes each, while bringing Code Black to 16.

↱ PBS' Soundbreaking, reviewed. The doc features a cross-pollination of artists and producers talking about the evolution of sound. The takeaway, from chief critic Tim Goodman: "shouldn't be missed if you love music." ↲

► Fox plans comedy with Fuller House star. The network is teaming with actor-writer Scott Weinger to develop an untitled family comedy about a married couple. Weinger will pen the script and exec produce the comedy alongside 3 Arts Entertainment's Jonathan Berry.

► CBS teams with Good Wife creators, Miss Congeniality writer for comedy. The single-camera project marks the first comedy sale for Robert and Michelle King. Written by Marc Lawrence, the half-hour show centers on a single mom who is promoted to Dean of Students at a high school.

► FX finds showrunner for Y: The Last Man. The cabler has tapped Michael Green to serve as showrunner on its planned adaptation of graphic novel. Green will co-write the script alongside comic book creator Brian K. Vaughan.

► Syfy taps Chris Meloni for new pilot. The Law & Order: SVU alum is set to star in the cabler's adaptation of Grant Morrison's graphic novel Happy!. Ordered to pilot in September, the project centers on an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop turned hit man.

► R.I.P., Gwen Ifill. The veteran broadcaster host passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. She was 61. "Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change," said NewsHour exec producer Sara Just. Full obit.

In THR, Esq: Flo & Eddie settle with SiriusXM on eve of California trial over oldies royalties ... Dr. Seuss Enterprises suing over Star Trek mashup ... Opposition raised to Donald Trump's bid to delay Trump U. fraud trial ... Google to prohibit fake news sites from using its ad software.

'Ghost In the Shell' Leans In to Controversy

If the vocal outcry over the whitewashing of the forthcoming Ghost in the Shell movie was heard by the filmmakers, their response so far has been to double down on the coded imagery, Graeme McMillan writes:

For a movie criticized so loudly for its racial politics for casting a white lead actor for a traditionally Asian character, it's surprising that the first image of the trailer is a robotic geisha. But the imagery of the opening sequence is filled with a curious racial subtext: it's a white man confronted by the geisha robot, and Scarlett Johansson's Major dives to the rescue past a neon sign reading "High Quality" in Japanese.

It's as if the trailer opens with a sequence specifically created to lean in to the existing controversy. The opening sequence colors the rest of the trailer, turning things that might otherwise seem innocuous problematic by association. For example, Johansson's skintight, breast-hugging outfit looks exploitative in real life in a way a drawn version doesn't.

Elsewhere in film...

► Imax CEO extends contract to 2019. The new three-year deal for Richard Gelfond follows the giant screen exhibitor expanding into China and elsewhere internationally beyond North America.

► Ryan Kavanaugh's ailing studio has a new partner. Relativity Studios is launching a $200M production pact with startup studio Storyoscopic Films, based in L.A.. The partners say they will finance five or more films per year, focusing on "family-friendly" content.

► Warner Bros., BuzzFeed enlist Jim Parsons for Brother Orange film. The Big Bang Theory actor will play editor Matt Stopera in the film, BuzzFeed's first feature project. Stopera is exec producing alongside Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer and Ellen DeGeneres.

↱ Trailer watch: Jackie. In the new clip from the awards season contender, Natalie Portman faces critics for planning JFK's ornate funeral. In the latest look at Patriots Day, Mark Wahlberg races to find Boston Marathon bombers amid tragedy. ↲

► Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time gets release date. The Disney adaptation, starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, will hit theaters on April 6, 2018. Shooting is set to begin later this month in Los Angeles.

► Brie Larson's Unicorn Store rounds out cast. Samuel L. Jackson, Joan Cusack and Bradley Whitford join the comedy based on an original screenplay by Samantha McIntyre. The film centers on a woman (Larson) who moves back in with her parents.

► Corduroy movie is in the works. Ride Along director Tim Story is in negotiations to direct the adaptation of the children's book, which CBS Films is developing. The book tells of a teddy bear who, over the course of one night, goes on an adventure to find his true home.

New: Oscar standings check in. In the latest heat index of awards contenders, analyst Scott Feinberg looks at which titles are benefiting as the race tightens (Mark Wahlberg's Patriot's Day is moving up). Full forecast.

Inside Francis Ford Coppola's 'Godfather' Notebook

Forty-four years after the mob drama earned a place as one of the greatest American movies, Francis Ford Coppola shares his original production diary, including never-before-seen photos and handwritten notes. What's new:

In 1969, Paramount asked Coppola to make Mario Puzo's The Godfather into a film. "I intended to turn the project down," he says. "It was more commercial and salacious than my own taste." But the young father ultimately needed a paycheck, and a second reading changed his mind about the book.

To organize his thoughts, Coppola made a "prompt book," a theater trick he learned in college. Into a three-ring binder he stuffed his annotated copy of the novel, scene-by-scene breakdowns, notes on the times and setting, cliches to avoid and casting ideas.

Now he's giving the public a peek into that creative process with The Godfather Notebook, an exact reproduction of his original plus rarely seen photos. "The script was really an unnecessary document," Coppola said, "because I could've made the movie just from this notebook." See Coppola's notes.