NEW YORK, NY, March 10, 2020 – AMC today announced that it has greenlit “Pantheon,” an ambitious one-hour animated drama based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu about Uploaded Intelligence, or, human consciousness uploaded to the ‘cloud.’ Craig Silverstein (“Turn,” “Nikita,” “Terra Nova”) will serve as the series writer/creator and showrunner, Ken Liu will serve as a consulting producer and the independent Emmy-award winning animation production company, Titmouse is also attached. Produced by AMC Studios, AMC has placed an initial order for two seasons of the speculative fiction series, consisting of eight one-hour episodes each.
In its first season, “Pantheon” focuses on Maddie, a bullied teen who receives mysterious help from someone online. The stranger is soon revealed to be her recently deceased father, David, whose consciousness has been uploaded to the Cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan. David is the first of a new kind of being: an “Uploaded Intelligence” or “UI”, but he will not be the last, as a global conspiracy unfolds that threatens to trigger a new kind of world war.
“‘Pantheon’ is an entertaining and provocative series about personal relationships and what happens to them when the boundary of life is removed from the human condition. And we’re looking to push other boundaries here too, in making an animated drama that aims to be every bit as moving, immersive and visceral as any premium, live-action scripted series,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “We are fortunate to have incredible source material from Ken Liu, one of the most celebrated science fiction writers at work today, and we are delighted to once again be working with Craig Silverstein. Both of these writers know how to weave the intimate and the epic into a powerful tale.”
As audiences continue to consume television in new ways, “Pantheon” is one of multiple projects from AMC Networks that experiment with genre and format. The Emmy-award winning “State Of The Union,” a premium short-form series from Nick Hornby and starring Chris O’Dowd and Rosamund Pike, launched on Sundance to acclaim last year, and AMC will debut two new series, “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” in April and “61st Street,” starring Courtney B. Vance, as closed-ended two season series. AMC is also set to debut its first episodic anthology, “Soulmates,” starring Sarah Snook, Charlie Heaton and Malin Akerman and as well as “Kevin Can F**k Himself” starring Annie Murphy, that turns the conventional format of the sitcom on its head.
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About AMC
AMC is home to some of the most popular and acclaimed programs on television. AMC was the first basic cable network to ever win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series with Mad Men in 2008, which then went on to win the coveted award four years in a row, before Breaking Bad won it in 2013 and 2014. The network’s series The Walking Dead is the highest-rated series in cable history. AMC’s current original drama series are Better Call Saul, Dispatches from Elsewhere, Fear the Walking Dead, NOS4A2, Quiz, The Terror, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond and the forthcoming Soulmates, 61st Street and Kevin Can F**k Himself. AMC also explores authentic worlds and discussion with original shows like Talking Dead, AMC Visionaries and Ride with Norman Reedus. AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, SundanceTV, BBC America and WE tv. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile.
About AMC Studios
AMC Studios is the in-house studio, production and distribution operation for AMC Networks Inc. AMC Studios’ first series, The Walking Dead, is the highest-rated series in cable history. Since then, AMC Studios has produced several critically acclaimed, award-winning and culturally distinctive originals for AMC including scripted series Fear the Walking Dead; The Terror anthology, Lodge 49, NOS4A2 and the upcoming Dispatches From Elsewhere, Soulmates, 61st Street and Kevin Can F**k Himself, as well as unscripted series: Ride with Norman Reedus, James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction, Eli Roth’s History of Horror and Hip Hop: The Songs that Shook America. The Studio has also produced for SundanceTV the Peabody Award-winning Rectify, original series Hap and Leonard, as well as the unscripted true crime franchise including Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders and The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park.