AMC, those beautiful bastards who brought us both Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, have greenlit a new anthology series entitled The Terror, adapted from Dan Simmons’ bestselling novel. Set in 1847, the story tells of a Royal Navy expedition crew exploring the Northwest Passage that comes under attack from a mysterious and terrifying predator that stalks the ships and their crews.
The series is written by Blood Creek’s David Kajganich (also attached to the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s It) who is also co-showrunner along with Soo Hugh (The Whispers, The Killing). AMC Studios are producing the series in association with Scott Free, Emjag Productions and Entertainment 360.
The list of high-profile executive producers includes Alexandra Milchan (The Wolf of Wall Street), Guymon Casady (Game of Thrones), David W. Zucker (The Good Wife, Numb3rs) and none other than Ridley Scott.
Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV, says of this new venture:
“We’ve been focused on developing this incredible story for television with these great partners for a couple of years, and we think it provides rich dramatic material but also an opportunity to explore the anthology format, which is something we’re extremely interested in and offers some unique possibilities. Originality is still something that gets our attention every day, and the very unique mixing of historical non-fiction with a gripping and imaginative science fiction overlay in Dan’s novel is something that we hadn’t seen before. That, combined with an exceptional team behind the project made this something we really wanted to bring to air on AMC.”
“Dan’s novel is that rare combination of fascinating actual history, ground-breaking genre storytelling, and the complex character work of literature,” says writer Kajganich. “The chance to launch a series that will incorporate all of these elements going forward, and with a team of this caliber, is extraordinary.”
