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Apple Lands Untitled M. Night Shyamalan Psychological Thriller Series as Wayward Pines is Cancelled
Riding high off of the unexpected success of the James McAvoy-starrer Split and currently finishing work on combined Split/Unbreakable sequel Glass, M. Night Shyamalan looks to be the next beneficiary of Apple's major push into scripted series development. In what's being described as a "competitive situation" among cable networks and streaming services, the tech company has given a straight-to-series order for an untitled psychological thriller series from the filmmaker; with the order consisting of 10 half-hour episodes.
Created and written by Tony Basgallop (Hotel Babylon, Outcast), details on the series' premise or a series overview are being kept under wraps so no details were made available at the time of the announcement. Shyamalan is expected to direct the pilot episode; and executive produce alongside Basgallop. Shyamalan's Blinding Edge Pictures will be handling production responsibilities; with Ashwin Rajan (Split, Wayward Pines), Escape Artists' Jason Blumenthal (The Equalizer), Todd Black (The Magnificent Seven) and Steve Tisch (Forrest Gump) executive producing.
This project isn't Shyamalan's first venture into television; with one of his more recent being Fox's Wayward Pines, which will not be returning for a third season after a number of issues including difficulty in casting a new lead for the drama. The Sixth Sense director has also been working with TNT since January 2016 to develop a two-hour Tales From the Crypt horror block for cable channel.
Under the direction of Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, Apple has seen their scripted programming slate grow by leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time. Some of the projects in development include: a Jennifer Aniston/Reese Witherspoon morning news drama; a mystery series from La La Land's Damien Chazelle; Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories anthology remake; Octavia Spencer's Are You Sleeping; a comedy series starring Kristin Wiig; a space drama from Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore; and Steven Knight's See.