Cobwebs, Walkers and Lace: AMC Networks Has Franchise Fever With Anne Rice and ‘The Walking Dead’
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business EditorAMC Networks is a few months away from launching what programming chief Dan McDermott calls “the biggest venture we’ve ever embarked upon from the ground up.”The company that proudly bills itself as a high-end TV boutique is preparing to unleash this fall a TV series adaptation of “Interview with the Vampire.” AMC hopes it will become the cornerstone in a prosperous content franchise rooted in the Southern Gothic milieu based on the works of the well-loved novelist Anne Rice.On the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” McDermott details the world-building process that began after the company struck a wide-ranging rights deal in May 2020 to develop all manner of content from 18 notable Rice books.
The pact is a good example of how TV has become so competitive that art of development is fielding Marvel-level interconnected storytelling universes involving multiple series and other content extensions, from gaming to podcasts to internet shorts.
It’s not the pilot season of old anymore. “I envision us getting five to seven series over the next five or six years up on their feet, each one running four to six seasons, with primary main characters featuring significant stars that will get our universe up and on its feet for the next five to 10 years,” McDermott says.Also in production at present is “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” another one of the better-known titles from the famously eccentric scribe who died in December 2021 at the age of 80.
McDermott said “Mayfair,” will be out “pretty soon” after “Interview.” It’s a brick-by-brick development process that is “thrilling” for an executive who came up through Fox Broadcasting Co.
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