Amazon orders 3 YA pilot series including College, Panic, and The Wilds
The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Amazon has ordered three YA (Young Adult) drama pilots as part of their effort to expand their YA selection. Jennifer Salke, the new head of Amazon Studios, had previously stated that the YA genre was one of her top priorities when she took on her new role. Now she has approved the pilot order of College, Panic, and The Wilds. You can read more information about the three YA series below.
Created by Marja-Lewis Ryan, College digs beyond the headlines that make college campuses ripe for drama and steps inside the shoes of six roommates as they hook up, mess up and grow up on their own terms. Producers Channing Tatum and Jill Soloway (Transparent) bring style and relevance to this unabashed peek into the lives of the next generation.
College is a joint production between Free Association and Topple Productions, with Tatum (6 Balloons), Soloway, Reid Carolin (6 Balloons), Andrea Sperling (Transparent) and Peter Kiernan (6 Balloons) as executive producers. The project falls under Soloway’s overall deal with Amazon Studios and comes as the showrunner is mulling the future of Transparent without fired star Jeffrey Tambor.
Based on Lauren Oliver’s New York Times best-selling novel, Panic brings viewers to a forgotten rural town where every year the graduating seniors risk their lives in an illegal, high-stakes game to win life-changing money — and a chance to escape. Anonymous judges force the players through a series of challenges that will compel them to confront their deepest fears and upend their ideas of who they are, who to trust and who they might become. This year, 47 players will compete for the biggest pot ever. All of them will be changed. Only one will win.
Panic is written and created by Oliver, executive produced by Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum of Roth Kirschenbaum Films (Maleficent 2) with Alyssa Altman serving as co-executive producer. Oliver will also be executive producing and Lynley Bird co-executive producing both for Glasstown Entertainment, and Elle Triedman (Siren, Revenge) also executive producing.
The Wilds follows a group of teenage girls from radically different backgrounds find themselves stranded on a remote island, unaware that they have just become the subjects of an elaborate social experiment. Part survival drama, part dystopic slumber party, The Wilds explores the past and present struggles of these young women, offering a vivid portrayal of what it means to grow up female in our time — whether you are lost in the wilderness or not.
The Wilds is a co-production with ABC Signature and is written and executive produced by Sarah Streicher and executive produced by Jamie Tarses’ Fanfare and Dylan Clark Productions.