AMC won't be venturing into original scripted comedy anytime soon.
The cable network has passed on comedy pilot We Hate Paul Revere, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. This marks AMC's fourth pilot pass in a row, joining dramas Line of Sight, Knifeman and Galyntine.
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The comedy pilot was described as a twist on the period piece and told the story of brothers Hugh and Ebenezer Moody — both forced to strive for recognition in Colonial Boston among the bigger stars of history, including Paul Revere (Ron Livingston), the folk hero and subject of poetry for his midnight ride alerting Colonial military that British forces were approaching.
Written, executive produced and toplined by Ethan Sandler and Adrian Wenner as the Moody brothers, the half-hour pilot was produced in-house by AMC Studios. Matt Piedmont, most recently of sister net IFC's Emmy-nominated The Spoils of Babylon, directed the pilot. Troy Miller also served as an executive producer through Dakota Films.
Paul Revere marks the third scripted pilot that the cabler has passed on in the last month. The network also passed on dramas Knifeman and Galyntine, a surprising move given AMC's recent decision to exit the unscripted genre. As with Paul Revere, AMC owned and produced both dramas.
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Pilots still in the works at AMC include its Walking Dead companion series and Afghanistan drama White City, both of which are being developed on different cycles.
For AMC, the hard pass on three of its five pilots comes after the cable network home to The Walking Dead dropped nearly all of its unscripted programming to focus on rebuilding its scripted roster after the conclusion of Breaking Bad and with the end of Mad Men in sight. The cabler more recently has looked beyond the traditional in-house pilot process for its originals, picking up Sony Pictures Television's Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul straight to series.
The network also swooped in and picked up sci-fi drama Humans, a co-production originally developed for Xbox; and ordered Entertainment One's martial arts drama Badlands straight to series for late 2015 or 2016. AMC also recently returned to the miniseries space that helped launch it into scripted originals with the BBC co-production of Tom Hiddleston-Hugh Laurie starrer The Night Manager.
Meanwhile, the network has already renewed monster hit The Walking Dead for a sixth season and has a companion series in the pilot stage. AMC's original programming roster also includes the second seasons of dramas Halt & Catch Fire and Turn as well as Better Call Saul (already renewed for a second season after it was bumped from the fall to early 2015). Western Hell on Wheels was also renewed for a 14-episode final season split into two runs. Also in the works is a high-profile adaptation of controversial comic Preacher, which remains in development but has not yet been ordered to pilot.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
