AMC has already shot the entire second season of the Michael B. Jordan executive produced legal drama series “61st Street,” but now the network has scrapped any plans to air the new run in an effort to cut costs across the company.
AMC announced last month in an SEC filing that it would take tax write-downs of up to $475 million, which included $400 million for “strategic programming assessments” and $75 million for “organizational restructuring costs”.
The savings on programming include the scrapping of the Courtney B. Vance-led “61st Street” and the series adaptation of Adrienne Celt’s novel “Invitation to a Bonfire”. The latter had filmed four of the planned six episodes of its run before AMC decided to cancel it.
‘Bonfire’ was a psychological thriller set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school in New Jersey about a lethal love triangle between a young Russian immigrant and groundskeeper, an enigmatic novelist who has become the school’s newest faculty member, and the novelist’s bewitching wife. Rachel Caris Love served as showrunner.
They join several other decisions made at AMC late last year, such as the sudden reversal of its decision to renew the drama series “Moonhaven” for a second season along with other cost-cutting measures like losing 20% of its U.S. staff.
The scrapped series may find life elsewhere as the filing indicated the company “may realize some future licensing and other revenue associated with some of the owned titles.”
Source: Variety
