If you’re one of those people who prefer a good book to the boob tube, AMC is about to make you feel conflicted.
On Monday, AMC Networks announced it is developing a new TV franchise produced by AMC Studios and “built on iconic American stories.” Up first: John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
“Each season of the anthology series will be devoted to a different celebrated work, historical moment, or individual narrative celebrating and highlighting the American spirit,” the company said. The Great American Stories anthology will air on the AMC cable channel and stream on AMC’s primary streaming service (out of a bunch), AMC+.
If you want to Anne Rice-ify classic American literature, who better to adapt the novel than Rolin Jones, who did the same thing with Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (and Friday Night Lights, and Boardwalk Empire)? Jones will take on Grapes and then “manage the franchise” from there, “working with acclaimed creative talent connected to individual seasons,” per AMC.
“I actually look at it as big and epic as what we’ve seen with Walking Dead, the Anne Rice universe and Dark Winds,” says AMC chief commercial officer Kim Kelleher in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Even if you haven’t read the book since high school, there’s a lot of expectation and build up around this. And I feel like the roster of talent he’s put around it is going to do it justice.”
Kelleher says that the company is planning to roll out a new edition of the anthology each year, based on different tales, though she declined to comment on any future literary inspirations.
Jones, a playwright and television writer, will have some help in the form of Mark Johnson, who oversees the entire Anne Rice Immortal Universe. Johnson’s got the résumé, his film and TV-producing credits include Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Natural, Rain Man, Diner, Donnie Brasco, The Notebook and a bunch more.
“For more than a year we have been searching for the perfect story to launch our next big television franchise, and we found it in The Grapes of Wrath, which is as timely and relevant today as it was when first published in 1939,” Dan McDermott, the president of entertainment for AMC Studios and AMC Networks, said in a statement to press. “Our country is built upon so many unforgettable historic and dramatic moments, tales of bravery and courage, classic novels, short stories, and chronicles well known and never-before-told. As a network that began its life as American Movie Classics, this is the franchise we’re destined to bring to the screen.”
“We’re thinking about Great American Stories like one of those resolute car factories in Michigan — bring in visionary creators, give them an assembly line of singular talent to build the thing, hand them the keys and get the hell out of the way,” Jones added. “This is Dan McDermott’s big, bold, torpedo bat swing at AMC. He’s hired me to roll a beauty off the factory floor every year. I hope to never have another job for the rest of my career.”
A timely “torpedo bat” reference there out of Jones; clearly an MLB fan.
“Never have I felt more professional pressure than in accepting this challenge to help translate some legendary American stories to the television screen,” Johnson said. “I am utterly grateful to AMC for this invitation and truly indebted to Rolin for his trust in me. What a terrifying opportunity!”