AMC is moving forward with its series adaptation of Invitation to a Bonfire and sci-fi drama Demascus.
The cable network has handed series orders to both projects, which had writers’ rooms opened last August as part of the broadcaster’s ‘scripts-to-series’ model.
Both series have been given six episode orders and will launch next year on AMC and AMC+.
Based on the novel by Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire is a psychological thriller set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school in New Jersey. Inspired by Vladimir and Vera Nabokov’s codependent marriage, the series follows Zoya, a young Russian immigrant and groundskeeper, who is drawn into a lethal love triangle with the school’s newest faculty member – an enigmatic novelist – and his bewitching wife.
The series is from creator, showrunner and executive producer Rachel Caris Love (Physical) with Robin Schwartz and Kyle Laursen as executive producers and Carolyn Daucher as producer.
Demascus is a comedic sci-fi series from playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm and exec produced by Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul exec producer Mark Johnson, via his Gran Via Productions banner.
Created by Chisholm, Demascus follows Demascus, a 33-year-old Black man on a mission of self-discovery and the burgeoning field of digital psychiatry that may be the key to defining his truest self. The series is a comedic genre-fluid coming-of-age story with a reality-bending premise that explores the gulf between Black male perspectives, while also attempting to answer Demascus’ personal question: “Who am I?”
American Crime’s Kirk Moore is showrunner with Myki Bajaj of Gran Via producing.
Both series come from AMC Studios.
“These are two unique, different and highly emotional series we can’t wait to share with viewers next year, both with compelling characters at the center driving the storytelling in distinct and very personal ways,” said AMC Networks’ president of entertainment and head of AMC Studios Dan McDermott. “Demascus is a real and engaging exploration of being a Black man in America, with a rich and full character as our guide. Bonfire gives us a world of love, loss, identity and complication that we know viewers will find themselves lost in.”