By Rick Porter
July 25, 2019
AMC has begun development on two projects from its Scripted Inclusion Initiative, its effort to bring more diverse voices to the network.
The initiative, overseen by Into the Badlands co-executive producer LaToya Morgan, launched in 2018. Morgan, who has an overall deal with AMC, is mentoring emerging writers in an effort to make the cabler’s development slate more inclusive in addition to working on her own projects.
The first two projects are Farmhand from Rob Guillory, about a farmer who grows plant-based organ transplants, and Of Two Minds from Morgan Dover-Pearl, centered on a woman who has to rebuild her life after a traumatic brain injury. Both are in active development at AMC, the network announced Thursday at the Television Critics Association’s press tour.
“The question of who gets to tell stories in television is a critical one, and a key thing I’m focused on is inclusivity, finding diverse writers, creators and talent on both sides of the camera so that we can better reflect the lives and experiences of our audiences,” said Sarah Barnett, AMC Networks’ entertainment group president. “These projects both have incredible promise: They come from smart writers and have a totally original point of view.”
Farmhand is based on Guillory’s graphic novel and follows Jedidiah Jenkins, a farmer who grows fast-healing, plug-and-play human organs. Jed’s transplants have helped many people, but something sinister has also taken root at his farm.
Of Two Minds is a dark comedy about a woman who suffers an injury that results in a severed corpus callosum, meaning the left and right sides of her brain no longer communicate. She tries to navigate having two brains that are constantly at odds while rebuilding her life.
“What has always been important to me as a creator is not just the kinds of stories that get told, but who gets the opportunity to be storytellers,” said Morgan, who is also behind the #WGAStaffingBoost hashtag for agentless writers. “With this initiative I wanted more writers of color and women to have seats at the creative table and AMC has been a great champion. These projects by Morgan and Rob, as well as a few others we are developing, are as unique, moving and powerful as the voices behind them.”
Morgan is repped by attorney Rob Szymanski.