#SmallScreenScenes AMC NETWORKS AND AMC STUDIOS ANNOUNCE PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Entertainment Networks and AMC Studios Developing Broad Range of Projects Reflecting Fresh Ideas and Strong Voices
At the Television Critics’ Association (TCA) Press Tour, AMC Networks and AMC Studios announced a partial list of current projects in development. The broad slate, which includes potential AMC Studios series being developed for the company’s Entertainment Group and also projects being developed for potential sale to other content companies, reflects fresh ideas and strong voices from creators and talent including Scott Z. Burns, Katie Couric, Owen and Stephen King, Megan Mostyn Brown, Armadu Garba, Eliza Clark, Mark Johnson, Zack Whedon, Scott Gold, Ilana Glazer, T Bone Burnett and many others.
“We’re looking for highly original visions and voices as we think about how AMC Networks evolves. The projects in development both on the Entertainment Group side and at AMC Studios all embrace people with singular and surprising points of view,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “We will prioritize creative risk-taking that doesn’t rely on the shock and awe of sheer size, but instead delivers the surprise and delight of brilliant storytelling in our quest to stand out with human-scaled brands in this dynamic and changing content environment. There is so much phenomenal talent to discover and so many new, different, electric stories to be told.”
Select projects under development include:
AMC Networks Entertainment Group Development
MORE AS THIS STORY DEVELOPS – Producers Katie Couric and Wendy Walker.
Inspired by the friendship between Katie Couric and Wendy Walker, two young women begin their careers in broadcast news in the ‘80s, charting the incredible moments in history that they were able to be a part of.
NATIONAL ANTHEM – Writer Scott Z. Burns (The Report, Contagion), Executive Producer Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Rectify, Halt and Catch Fire), music and lyrics by Craig Finn (The Hold Steady). Music produced by T Bone Burnett.
A musical dramedy following the Nordstrom Family who, after falling down the ladder of American life, need to figure out what actually makes life worth living.
SLEEPING BEAUTIES – by Owen King, based on the novel by Owen and Stephen King. Executive Producers Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta for Sugar23, Owen King and Stephen King.
In a small Appalachian town, there’s a strange mystical occurrence that causes all the women to fall asleep, leaving the men to try and rescue them. But do the women want to be rescued?
BUNNY – by Megan Mostyn Brown (NOS4A2, Gotham) based on the novel by Mona Awad.
A lonely student is drawn into a mysterious clique of girls called The Bunnies and begins to partake in their strange off-campus ritual – conjuring boys from rabbits, where the good ones stay as romantic partners and the bad ones are mercilessly axed.
PANTHEON – one-hour animated drama series written by Craig Silverstein (Turn, Bones) based on short stories by Ken Liu, award-winning sci-fi writer. Silverstein is an executive producer. Titmouse will serve as the animation production company and is also producing a 10-minute animated short.
In this animated drama set in a world where uploaded consciousness is not just science fiction, a young woman begins receiving messages from an unknown number that claims to be her deceased father. Trying to uncover the truth, she stumbles upon a larger conspiracy involving the singularity.
NIGERIA 2099 – Ahmadu Garba (The Sinner, Happy!) will serve as writer. Mo Abudu and Heidi Uys of Nigeria’s EbonyLife TV will executive produce.
Set in a futuristic world, NIGERIA 2099 tells the story of Sgt. Charles Opkara, a local police officer in a poor district of Lagos. Assigned to protect a visiting American businessman staking out his district, Sgt. Charles begins to unravel a global conspiracy over depleting resources.
SILVERBIRD – Award-winning journalist and screenwriter Scott Gold (Shooter, Under the Dome) will serve as writer and executive producer. Harriet Gavshon and Tim Greene of South Africa’s Quizzical Pictures will executive produce.
An Army veteran who needs to disappear in a hurry falls in with a ragtag collective of mercenaries on their way to Africa with a dangerous and unusual mission: to protect the most iconic animals on earth by entering into armed conflict with poachers. This provocative, fast-paced, one-hour drama follows the superhighways of wildlife trafficking, a $10 billion-per-year, global enterprise of kingpins, corrupt governments and criminal syndicates, all of them determined to cling to power and money at any cost.
AMC Studios Development for Potential Sale to Content Companies
THE SPARROW – Based on the science-fiction novel by Mary Doria Russell, Executive Producer Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Rectify, Halt and Catch Fire). Johan Renck as director and executive producer (Chernobyl, Breaking Bad, Bloodline, and The Last Panthers).
In the near future, humans on Earth receive their first evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life when a radio telescope picks up a strange signal, sounding like exquisite music, from a distant planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible expedition, the Jesuit leadership quietly organizes an eight-person scientific mission of its own, comprised of a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. What they find is a world so far beyond comprehension that it will lead them to challenge the very notions of humanity and faith itself.
FATES AND FURIES –Based on the novel by Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies is written and produced by Eliza Clark (Y The Last Man, Animal Kingdom, The Killing, Rubicon) and Zack Whedon (Come and Find Me, Halt and Catch Fire, The Red Road, Rubicon)
An examination of a marriage and creative partnership, Fates and Furies explores two perspectives of a marriage, from the husband and the wife, and the truths and secrets that evolve over 24 years.
I RUN HOT – Executive Producer/Writer/attached to star – Eliot Glazer (Broad City), Director/Executive Producer – Ilana Glazer (Broad City)
I Run Hot follows the unlikely friendship between Eliot, a gay curmudgeon who never quite fit in with the community, and Colton, a famous #instagay who can’t help but exemplify it.
WORK IT OUT – Executive Producer/Writer – Becca Gleason (Summer ’03), Executive Producer/attached to star – Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect, True Blood), Executive Producer/attached to direct – Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) of Semi-Formal Productions, Executive Producer – Jordana Mollick (The Good Time Girls) of Semi-Formal Productions
It’s 1994 in Myrtle Beach, and Kayla Tate — a long-time Jane Fonda devotee and aspiring aerobics superstar — will do whatever it takes to establish her workout empire in this darkly comedic half-hour.
About AMC Networks
Known for its groundbreaking and celebrated original content, AMC Networks is the company behind the award-winning brands AMC, BBC AMERICA, IFC, SundanceTV, WE tv, and IFC Films. Its diverse line-up of popular and critically-acclaimed series and independent films include Killing Eve, Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead, which has been the #1 show on cable television for nine consecutive years, as well as Portlandia, Brockmire, Love After Lockup, and the films Boyhood, Death of Stalin, and many more. Its original series Mad Men and Breaking Bad are widely recognized as being among the most influential and acclaimed shows in the history of TV. The Company also operates AMC Studios, its production business; AMC Networks International, its international programming business; the subscription streaming services Shudder, Sundance Now, Acorn TV and UMC (Urban Movie Channel); and Levity Entertainment Group, the Company’s production services and comedy venues business. For more information, visit http://www.amcnetworks.com.
About AMC Studios
AMC Studios is the in-house studio, production and distribution operation for AMC Networks Inc. AMC Studios’ first series, The Walking Dead, is the highest-rated series in cable history. Since then, AMC Studios has produced several critically acclaimed, award-winning and culturally distinctive originals for AMC including scripted series Fear the Walking Dead; The Terror anthology, Lodge 49, NOS4A2 and the upcoming Dispatches From Elsewhere, Soulmates, 61st Street and Kevin Can F**k Himself, as well as unscripted series: Ride with Norman Reedus, James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction, Eli Roth’s History of Horror and Hip Hop: The Songs that Shook America. The Studio has also produced for SundanceTV the Peabody Award-winning Rectify, original series Hap and Leonard, as well as the unscripted true crime franchise including Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders and The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park.
