Amazon Greenlights Its First Original Sci-Fi Pilot, The After, From Chris Carter

Amazon has been working for some time now to break into the original scripted series game, which over the past year its competitor Netflix has proven to be both commercially and critically viable. Last week the company announced that it has given the go-ahead to its first two original, scripted dramas — including its first science fiction series.

The After comes from a prime genre pedigree: the pilot’s writer and director is Chris Carter, the man who gave us The X-Files.

Carter is doing his best to keep a lid on just what the story is about, so details are vague. The After is said to chronicle the lives of eight strangers, “who are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation.”

The cast includes Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue) as Francis, Jamie Kennedy (Ghost Whisperer), Aldis Hodge (Leverage) as D. Love, Andrew Howard (Burn Notice) as McCormick, Arielle Kebbel (90210) as Tammy, Jaina Lee Ortiz (The Shop) as Marly, Adrian Pasdar (Heroes) as Wade, and Louise Monot (The Avignon Prophecy) as Gigi Generau.

“I’m very superstitious about talking about what I’m working on before it’s finished,” Carter said, “and it’s more fun if it’s kept a mystery! So let me just say that this is a show that explores human frailty, possibility, terror, and the triumph of the human spirit. I’m so excited to be telling this story with Amazon in this new frontier of television.”

Amazon spent its first development cycle focusing on comedies and children’s shows. Meanwhile, Netflix has won critical acclaim for original dramas such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. Netflix has also done a horror series, Hemlock Grove.

The pilot episode of The After will be available for viewers to watch online for free in 2014. Amazon relies in part on customer feedback to determine whether to commission a full series from its pilots.

(Via Deadline)