AMC Developing Sci-Fi Drama From Joseph Kosinski, Hollywood Witch Hunt Project

AMC has put in development Ballistic City, a futuristic drama directed and executive produced by Oblivion helmer Joseph Kosinski and written/executive produced by Travis Beacham, co-writer of another upcoming tentpole sci-fi movie, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim. Ballistic City is expected to be among the projects in development announced at AMC’s upfront event in New York today, along with Ashland, from writers Allison Anders and Terry Graham.

Ballistic City is described as “Blade Runner meets Battlestar Galactica” and tells the story of a former cop thrust into the criminal underworld of a city housed in a generational space ship destined for an unknown world. I hear the project is eyed as a potential companion to AMC’s genre blockbuster The Walking Dead. Kosinski, who previously directed Tron: Legacy, and Beacham, who also co-wrote Clash Of The Titans, executive produce with Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin, Bard Dorros and Michael Sugar. Following a strong international start with a $61 million haul last weekend, Tom Cruise–starrer Oblivion opens this Friday. Pacific Rim is being released in July. Kosinski is repped by Verve and Hirsch Wallerstein; Neacham is with WME, Anonymous Content and Hansen, Jacobson.

Set against the backdrop of the early 1950s Hollywood witch hunt, Ashland tells the story of Del, the destitute and desperate wife of a blacklisted screenwriter who moves the family to Ashland, a tiny mining town in Kentucky, where she must hide her family’s secrets and find a way to support her three children at the height of the Red Scare. The project was written on spec by Anders and Graham who will executive produce, with Anders attached to direct. Former UTA agent Shana Eddy-Grouf is co-executive producing. This marks the second project at AMC for Anders and Graham, repped by APA and managed by Ragna Nervik, who wrote another drama script, Western Quanah, in 2009. Anders’ episodic directing credits include Southland, The Mentalist and Sex And The City. She recently directed the upcoming Lifetime biopic Ring Of Fire: the June Carter Cash Story.