AMC Moves Forward with Dietland Drama, Stocks Development Slate

AMC has greenlit the new drama Dietland, from Marti Noxon (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, UnREAL), based on Sarai Walker’s 2015 novel of the same name.

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. A co-production between AMC Studios and Skydance Television, Dietland will premiere on AMC with ten episodes in 2018.

The network has also revealed a slew of projects in development for potential series pickups. Among them is an Untitled Rainn Wilson Project that follows an alien entity which takes over the body of a poly-addicted, middle-aged man living in the San Fernando Valley. Greg Nicotero (Fear The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead) is attached to Shock Theatre, an anthology wherein each episode will be a brand-new sci-fi horror tale in the style of the B movie classics. Underbelly by Dan Connolly (The Son, Into the Badlands) takes a deep dive into the dark-side of pop culture using the lens of the horror genre. In the Middle of the Street by Colman Domingo (Selma, Fear The Walking Dead) is about a family in fading West Philadelphia who must confront old secrets in order to face the challenges of their present. Liking What You See is based on a short story from Ted Chiang (Arrival). Also announced were The Age of Miracles, which comes from Sinead Daly (The Get Down); Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (The Changeling, The Devil in Silver); and the nonfiction horror anthology Wicked West from Blumhouse Television (Get Out, The Jinx, Split).

AMC will be producing a year-round documentary series AMC Visionaries, partnering with prolific artists to unveil the untold stories and fascinating histories of pop-culture genres from the masters themselves. Two new installments under the AMC Visionaries umbrella are “AMC Visionaries: Eli Roth’s History of Horror” (working title) and “AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics.”