Amazon confirms drama pilot pair

Amazon has confirmed its first two drama pilots – an adaptation of Michael Connelly’s best-selling Harry Bosch crime novels, and a project which marks The X-Files creator Chris Carter’s return to series.

Bosch went into development last year after Red Arrow Entertainment-owned US prodco Fabrik Entertainment (fka Fuse) picked up rights.

Now Amazon’s moving ahead with a pilot based on a script by Eric Overmyer (Treme, The Wire), who will also act as showrunner. Jim McKay (The Wire, Boss) will direct. Fabrik’s Henrik Bastin and Mikkel Bondesen, both of whom worked on the US version of The Killing, will exec-produce.

Titus Welliver (Argo, The Good Wife, Lost) will take on his first series lead role – should Amazon Instant Video customers give the project the thumbs up – portraying the LAPD homicide detective whose exploits span 18 novels.

Even if the pilot bombs, Amazon should see a nice uptick in Harry Bosch book sales, something that will also help amortize production costs should the thing move to series – an advantage rival Netflix cannot lay claim to.

Meanwhile, Carter is returning to episodic storytelling with The After, which he has written and will direct. The exec producer is Marc Rosen of Georgeville Television and Gabe Rotter is the producer.

The show follows “eight strangers who are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation,” according to Amazon, which kicked off its pilot program in the comedy and kids’ genres last year.

Having received 5,000 scripts from 111 different countries the company’s LA-based studio arm selected 14 projects. From these it’s taking two comedies (Alpha House and Betas) and three children’s shows (Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumbleaf) to series.

Eleven more pilots are due to debut in the first quarter of next year, Amazon Studios director Roy Price said during a keynote at Mipcom in Cannes earlier this month, with Bosch and The After now set to be among them.

Amazon reportedly hired former ABC Studios head of drama Morgan Wandell recently to lead its push into this area.