AMC announced a number of potential series in development on Thursday, including new projects from Katie Couric, Stephen King and Ilana Glazer among others.
Couric will produce “More as This Story Develops” alongside colleague and friend Wendy Walker, a series about two young women beginning their careers in broadcast news in the 1980s. King will produce “Sleeping Beauties,” an adaptation of the novel he wrote with his son, Owen King. Glazer is also collaborating with a family member — her brother Eliot Glazer — on the comedy “I Run Hot.”
Other projects in the works at AMC Networks and at AMC Studios for third parties include a musical dramedy from T Bone Burnett, the futuristic cop drama “Nigeria 2099” and an adaptation of Lauren Groff’s acclaimed novel “Fates and Furies” from Zack Whedon and Eliza Clark.
“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.”
See the complete slate below.
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.