AMC on Saturday greenlit a slew of projects, including an alien-themed dramedy starring The Office‘s Rainn Wilson, ahead of its portion of the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
The cabler also extended a formal series pickup to Dietland, from executive producer Marti Noxon (Mad Men, UnREAL), and AMC Visionaries, a year-round documentary series.
Wilson’s as-yet-untitled pilot centers on a polyamorous, middle-aged man (played by Wilson) living in the San Fernando Valley whose body is taken over by an alien entity. The potential series counts Wilson, in addition to Naomi Odenkirk and Marc Provissiero (Better Call Saul), among its EPs.
RELATED STORIES
Noxon’s Dietland, based on the 2015 novel by Sarai Walker, has received a 10-episode order. “Set against the backdrop of the beauty industry, this part-character drama and part-revenge fantasy will explore society’s obsession with weight loss and beauty,” the official logline reads. It will bow in 2018.
AMC Visionaries, a docuseries focused on masters of their craft, will premiere its first two installments next year: Eli Roth’s History of Horror and Rap Yearbook (the latter of which is a chronicling of hip-hop, executive-produced by The Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney). Also in the Visionaries pipeline: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics, James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, as well as installments focused on the history of video games, martial arts and Internet outlaws.
The basic cabler’s development slate also includes…
* Shock Theatre, a science-fiction/horror anthology from Walking Dead EP Greg Nicotero, in which every episode is inspired by different B-movie classics.
* Horror anthology Underbelly, written by The Son‘s Dan Connolly, which aims to expose the dark side of pop culture.
* In the Middle of the Street, a family drama about parents, marriage, sexuality and politics, adapted from the Colman Domingo (Fear TWD) stage play Dot.
* Oscar-nominated Arrival scribe Eric Heisserer is behind Liking What You See, a futuristic sci-fi entry about a community whose inhabitants willingly undergo a procedure that eliminates their ability to perceive beauty.
* The Age of Miracles, in which Earth’s rotation is suddenly slowed down, causing humans to contract a mysterious new illness as both gravity and the length of day and night are affected.
* The Ballad of Black Tom, about a street musician/hustler in jazz age New York who gets caught up in a Lovecraftian conspiracy after delivering a supernatural object to a sorceress.
* Wicked West, a non-fiction anthology from Blumhouse Television (The Jinx) about disturbing tales out of the Wild West.
