The basic cable network has handed out a series order for a scripted series based on the beloved Anne Rice title.
Johnson, who has his own overall pact with AMC Studios, will be charged with overseeing the Vampire franchise as AMC plans to build a multiple-show universe as part of the Rice deal.
“The challenge of adapting for television the groundbreaking and immensely compelling work of Anne Rice is both intimidating and exhilarating,” Johnson said in a statement Thursday.
AMC landed rights to Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches series as part of the deal with the author and her writer son, Christopher Rice, last year.
“In 1973, a grieving mother and extraordinary writer began what would become the finest vampire novel ever written ,” said Jones, who most recently served as showrunner on season one of HBO’s Perry Mason.
The formal AMC series order comes nearly five years after Rice regained the theatrical rights to Vampire and was planning to adapt the series for television.
AMC, under former network head Sarah Barnett, swooped in and scored rights to both Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches last summer with the goal of turning the books into a TV franchise.
In today’s Peak TV world, IP continues to become more valuable as networks and streamers alike look for content with built-in fan bases that have global appeal in a bid to cut through a cluttered landscape and deliver multiple shows that help platforms stand out from the crowd .
With The Walking Dead, this Anne Rice collection and our majority stake in Agatha Christie Limited through our own Acorn TV, we are proud to have the stewardship of three unique, fan-forward and beloved franchises and universes, which we are only just beginning to explore.
The Vampire Chronicles joins a roster of AMC originals including The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead untitled Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride offshoot, Tales of the Walking Dead and Killing Eve, with the latter set to end as the cabler explores turning that series into a franchise as well.