AMC’s Sci-Fi Pilot Line Of Sight Has Flatlined
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The cable network AMC will be running into tough times in the future. While The Walking Dead is a massive hit, the loss of Breaking Bad last year and the impending conclusion of Mad Men will leave some big holes in the cable network’s programming. So far, AMC has yet to find another show that has won over critics and the viewing public like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead have. AMC needs new, noteworthy series, but one show we won’t get to see is their science fiction pilot Line of Sight, which has drifted out of sight and into oblivion.
According to Deadline, AMC has officially passed on Line of Sight. The series would have centered on Lewis Bern (The Walking Dead‘s David Morrissey), a National Transportation Safety Board investigator who survives a mysterious plane crash. His survival brings him on a disorienting journey to discover the truth behind the accident. His fixation on the force that brought down the airplane, and how he survived, soon begins to unravel his life.
TV writer/producer Blake Masters (Rubicon, Brotherhood) created Line of Sight and it was a co-production with Fox TV Studios and AMC Studios. The TV pilot also starred Sarah Clarke, Kai Lennox, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Omar Metwally, Samantha Mathis, and Chinasa Ogbuagu. It’s unclear if another network might ride to the rescue, or if Netflix could pick it up for a straight-to-series run. The premise sounds interesting and the cast looks great, so it would be a shame if audiences didn’t get a chance to watch the pilot.
While AMC didn’t say why they passed on the series, the cable network has other science fiction shows in the works, including Joseph Kosinski and Travis Beacham’s Ballistic City and the post-apocalyptic Galyntine. Ballistic City is described as a hybrid between Chinatown and Blade Runner, taking place aboard a giant spaceship en route to…somewhere (shades of Battlestar Galactica). Of course, Joseph Kosinski directed Tron: Legacy and Oblivion, while Beacham co-wrote Pacific Rim with Guillermo del Toro.
As for Galyntine, writer/producer Jason Cahill created the series with The Walking Dead‘s Greg Nicotero for Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Productions. It’s described as “a survival tale in a world without technology,” which sounds like a mix between The Walking Dead and Revolution. Jason Cahill is best known for writing episodes of Fringe, Surface, and Profiler.
AMC has a few new TV shows on the horizon. In 2015, they’ve got the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul; the 18th-century-set Knifeman, which is described as being in the vein of Sweeney Todd; and the yet-to-be-titled Walking Dead “companion” spinoff that will take place in the same time and universe as the current Walking Dead series. I’m sorry to say, but it looks like the Golden Age of AMC is about to come to a close.
