TCA: AMC Greenlights 'Badlands'

AMC has given a straight-to-series order for a new martial arts drama Badlands, the network announced Friday during its Television Critics Association summer tour session.

Badlands, loosely based on the classic Chinese tale Journey To The West, tells the story of a warrior who travels across dangerous land to find enlightenment, said network officials. AMC has ordered six episodes of Badlands to premiere in late 2015 or early 2016, said network officials.

The series was created by Al Gough and Miles Millar (Shanghai Noon and Smallville).The agreement marks the second straight to series deal for Gough and Miller today, following MTV's announcement to greenlight fantasy series Shannara earlier this morning,

Badlands is the third AMC straight-to-series order following The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul, said network officials.

“We are incredibly excited to help Al and Miles, as well as Stacey and Michael from Double Feature to bring Badlands to life,” said Joel Stillerman, AMC’s executive vice president of original programming, production and digital content in a prepared statement. “This creative team has so much expertise in bringing a fresh take to classic genres from their film and television experience, and their take on martial arts will be no exception. Along with a beautiful story, they've also assembled the A-Team of martial arts fight choreography in Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung.”

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.