UnReal’s Noxon behind Dietland plan for AMC

US cable channel AMC has given the greenlight to Dietland, the latest drama from UnReal showrunner Marti Noxon.

News of the series first emerged last year, and a ten-part series is now going ahead following successful execution of AMC’s writers’ room development model.

This sees writers work on scripts for several months ahead of a potential greenlight.

The series, based on Sarai Walker’s 2015 novel of the ame name, will launch on AMC next year, with Noxon as executive producer, showrunner and writer.

She previously worked with AMC on ad drama Mad Men, and also counts Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sharp Objects and Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce on her credit list.

Dietland is billed as a “part-character drama and part-revenge fantasy” that explores “society’s obsession with weight loss and beauty”.

AMC Studios and Skydance Television are coproducing, with Noxon, Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross, Tiny Pyro’s Maria Grasso and Bonnie Curtis, Jackie Hoyt, and Mockingbird Pictures’ Julie Lynn as executive producers.

“Day in and day out, we work to refine our search for unique voices and never-before-seen worlds,” said Charlie Collier (pictured), president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “It is in that context that we proudly bring Marti Noxon back to AMC for the first time since her work on Mad Men, as the executive producer, writer and showrunner of Dietland.

“This series, populated by unforgettable characters and unique storytelling approaches, will focus a wickedly entertaining lens on issues as diverse and divisive as dieting, dating, beauty and the many societal expectations thatcontinue to dominate our culture and consciousness.”

AMC is also working on a slate of new scripted programmes.

These include a one-hour drama from Rainn Wilson about an alien that takes over the body of a polysubstance-addicted man from San Francisco. Odenkirk Provissiero Productions is producing.

Shock Theatre is a sci-fi horror anthology in the style of B movie classics that counts The Walking Dead’s Greg Nicotero as executive producer and director. The Jackal Group is attached.

Underbelly is billed as a “deep dive into the darkside of pop culture” and has having a “darkly funny, shocking, subversive and trippy” feel. Prodco Fish Ladder is attached.

In the Middle of the Street, based on a play from Fear the Walking Dead star Colman Domingo, is from Collider Entertainment Production, while Liking What You See comes from Eric Heisserer (Arrival) and has Chernin Entertainment attached.

Liking What You See follows a near future world in which residents of a community voluntarily have a medical procedure that leaves them unable to perceive beauty.

Other new efforts include sci-fi series The Age of Miracles, Victor LaValle’s novella-inspired Ballad of Black Tom, and Blumhouse Television’s non-fiction horror anthology Wicked West.