Back in December of 2015, we shared the news that AMC had started developing a television series based on Joe Hill's supernatural horror novel NOS4A2. The project was set to be produced by AMC Studios and Michael Eisner's Tornante TV, but at the time they were still looking for a writer to crack the adaptation. Last August, the network hired writer/producer Jami O'Brien, who worked on the network's show Hell on Wheels for five seasons, to write and executive produce the potential series.
AMC must be impressed with the script O'Brien wrote for the pilot episode, because rather than just put the pilot into production and see how that goes they have assembled a writers room to start working on scripts for further episodes. This is called the "scripts-to-series" model.
Under the approach, AMC foregoes the traditional pilot process and instead opens writers’ rooms to develop scripts for several episodes and a detailed look at a potential first season before deciding whether to move to a straight-to-series order.
If AMC likes what these writers put together, they'll be giving a greenlight to NOS4A2's first season rather than just the first episode.
NOS4A2 has the following synopsis:
Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. Charles Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides, transporting them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.” Vic, with her gift, is the only one able to track the superhuman Manx. But finding him is the easy part. Defeating Manx and rescuing his victims will take everything Vic’s got and nearly kill her in the process.
The set-up sounds interesting, and I have no idea how it plays out because I haven't read Hill's book yet. If you'd like to know how things go down between Victoria and Manx, you can pick up a copy of NOS4A2 on Amazon.