AMC Opens Writers Rooms For Dramas From ‘Halt And Catch Fire’ Team, Rashida Jones & Will McCormack

AMC has opened up writers’ rooms for two projects that will be considered for greenlights under the network’s “scripts-to-series” development model, Rainy Day People, from Halt and Catch Fire creators/executive producers Chris Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers and exec producers Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein, and Kevin Can F*** Himself (working title), from writer Valerie Armstrong and producers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack.

AMC in the past couple of years has set up writers rooms twice a year, in spring and fall, for a couple of projects at a time that it picks from its scripts in development. Earlier this year, AMC opened rooms for Pantheon, an animated drama series, and St. Luke’s. Recent AMC series that have taken that path to screen are Dietland, Lodge 49 and the upcoming NOS4A2.

Rainy Day People, from Chris Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers and executive producers Melissa Bernstein and Mark Johnson through Gran Via (Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Halt and Catch Fire) is a workplace drama set in a wellness center-style mental health and rehab facility. The series will focus on both the patients and the family and staff who have run the center in its various incarnations for the past 50 years. Through the lens of treatment, perhaps the last place left in our fractured modern society where all races, creeds and demographics intersect at their messiest and most raw, the series will examine the diversity and costs of the way we live now.

Kevin Can F*** Himself, (working title) from creator Valerie Armstrong (Lodge 49, SEAL Team) and executive producers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack through Le Train Train (Claws, A to Z) explores the secret life of a woman we all grew up watching: the sitcom wife. A beauty paired with a less attractive, dismissive, caveman-like husband who gets to be a jerk because she’s a nag and he’s “funny.” Our series looks to break television convention and ask what does the world look like through her eyes? Alternating between single-camera realism and multi-camera zaniness, the formats will be constantly informing one another as we ask what happens when this supporting character is presented as a real person? And what if that person is pissed?

David Madden, president of programming for AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios, gave thumbs up to the two selected projects and to the network’s development model.

“These are two genuinely inventive pieces of material from terrific creative teams whom we’ve had great experiences with,” said Madden. “We like writers’ rooms. We like the opportunity to write multiple scripts, to explore the dynamics of how a season will work, to really figure out who the characters are and how their behavior guides story. We’re very much looking forward to opening these rooms and seeing what these talented creators produce.”

Johnson is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham. Rogers and Cantwell are repped by UTA, Management 360 and Bloom Hergott. Jones is repped by UTA and Schreck Rose. McCormack is repped by UTA and Loeb & Loeb. Armstrong is repped by UTA and Industry Entertainment.