Chris Carter’s Apocalyptic Pilot Finds A Home At Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios is trying to make as big an impact in the TV business as they possibly can. There’s no testing the waters or wading in, they’re going full cannonball. They’ve recently picked up a number of new shows, including Betas, Transparent, The Outlaws, and Alpha House, as well as a ton of kids shows. Now it’s been announced that the monolithic, Seattle-based company is going to put their considerable might behind a new series from X-Files creator Chris Carter. The fledgling content producer is looking to put the sting of failed pilots like Zombieland behind them and have ordered up one called The After from Carter, who is teamed up with Georgeville TV.
In reality, there isn’t all that much to tell you about the drama pilot at the moment. What we do know is that the episode takes place at the moment of the apocalypse, which means if it’s picked up, the action will be, by strictest definition, post-apocalyptic. What kind of end of days scenario we’re talking about remains to be seen. We could be in for a nuclear winter, a deadly plague that decimates the human race, or maybe we’ll take it back to Dark Angel with an EMP that shuts down the world (though that avenue may be a little too similar to NBC’s Revolution). There will probably be more news on this front down the road, but for now, this is all we have to go on. We’ll have to wait and see if the world descends into full on Mad Max style mayhem, or something different. My guess, given Carter’s track record, would be that we’re in for a more thoughtful, conspiracy-driven kind of Armageddon, but I could be wrong.
The only other tidbit of information that we know for sure is that Carter wrote the script for The After, and he reportedly plans to direct the first adventure. Aside from working on various X-Files related projects, and occasionally pausing to hint at a third movie, he hasn’t been up to a whole lot. He did, however, write and direct a thriller called Fencewalker, which is supposedly in some stage of post-production, but doesn’t have a release date set at this point in the game.
This isn’t the first time The After has been shopped around. Carter and company took the project to a few places last fall, but didn’t find a home. In the interim, Carter first teamed up with Georgeville after that, so there’s no telling if they’ve done any major tinkering with the formula or retooled elements of the story at all to try and make the sale. Right now we don’t have a timetable for production, let alone release, but considering that Amazon isn’t held to the traditional television seasons like the big networks, we could potentially see The After any time.
