AMC Visits "Sugar Hill"

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From The Hollywood Reporter...

"AMC is walking the "Sugar Hill" beat, developing a police drama from Alex Winter, Steven Pearl and Allan Loeb.

"Hill," from Fox TV Studios, centers on two police detectives, one black and one white, who team up on the turbulent and unpredictable streets of late-1960s Harlem. Winter and Pearl are writing. Loeb and Pearl, who have a first-look deal at FtvS, are exec producing. Winter also is co-executive producer.

"As with all our other projects, this seemed to lend itself to unique and interesting characters and the promise of a really cinematic series that could stand side by side with our library of films," AMC vp original programming Jeremy Elice said, adding that the project is intended to be serialized with the potential for closed-ended stories as well.

FtvS executive vp programming David Madden said the project will deal with more than just crime stories.

"With this being set in Harlem and the late '60s, we felt like this was a way to also deal with the crux of how the culture was changing at the time," he added, dismissing comparisons to ABC's "Life on Mars," a police drama set in the 1970s. " 'Sugar Hill' is after much more of the massive sociological and psychological changes the country and world was going through at that time."

AMC has been ramping up its development slate, including the recently announced "Rectify," a legal drama from Ray McKinnon, and "Red Mars," a sci-fi project from Jonathan Hensleigh. Elice said execs have no set time frame in mind for pilot pickups, nor are they ready to commit to a specific number of pickups.

APA-repped Winter began his career as an actor ("Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," "The Lost Boys") before moving to writing and directing. He most recently directed Cartoon Network's movie "Ben 10" and is working on the sequel.

Pearl (A&E's upcoming "The Beast") and Loeb ("New Amsterdam") are repped by CAA."