This is a first for Amazon Studios — the digital platform, which ventured into original series programming two years ago, has rescinded its series order to The After, a new drama from The X-Files creator Chris Carter.
The After, along with Bosch, were the first two drama series orders for Amazon made in March 2014. While the online retailer’s programming unit has had critical/commercial success with original comedies, including Alpha House, Transparent and Mozart In the Jungle, it has yet to launch a drama series. With The After gone, Amazon has two hourlong new series in the pipeline, Bosch and recently ordered Hand of God.
“We have decided to not move forward with The After,” Amazon Studios VP Roy Price said in a statement released to Deadline. “We would like to thank Chris Carter, the phenomenal cast, crew and producers for all their efforts.”
The demise of The After, first reported by Variety, marks the latest setback for Carter’s return to television. A couple of years ago, he teamed with MRC to shop his female-driven mystery thriller spec Unique, which ultimately didn’t sell. The After, which shares the supernatural DNA of The X-Files, follows eight strangers who are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation. The pilot starred Aldis Hodge, Andrew Howard, Arielle Kebbel, Jamie Kennedy, Sharon Lawrence, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Adrian Pasdar and Louise Monot.
Amazon has two other drama hopefuls, which will be part of the company’s next pilot showcase, The Man In the High Castle, from Carter’s X-Files cohort Frank Spotnitz, and Point of Honor, from Lost‘s Carlton Cuse.
Amazon is employing a development model similar to that used by the traditional networks. It involves a pilot stage, but the company makes its pilots available to the public, with viewer feedback taken into account when decisions are made on which pilots go to series.
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