TCA press tour: AMC orders two series, ‘Turn’ and ‘Halt & Catch Fire’

AMC has greenlighted two new scripted series, President and General Manager Charlie Collier announced Friday during the Television Critics Assn. press tour.

The network, whose marquee dramas “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” are both coming to an end in the near future, has ordered “Halt & Catch Fire,” a 1980s-set series that dramatizes the dawn of the personal-computing era, and “Turn,” a Revolutionary War period piece. It is the first time the network has ordered two series concurrently.

PHOTOS: TCA press tour 2013: The scene

“Halt & Catch Fire” is created by Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers from a pilot directed by Juan Campanella. Jonathan Lisco, fresh off of the recently canceled “Southland,” will serve as showrunner. Starring Lee Pace, Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Rio Davis, Kerry Bishe and Toby Huss, it is told “through the eyes of a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time,” according to the network.

“Turn,” based on the book “Washington’s Spies” by Alexander Rose, is set in the summer of 1778. It is centered on a New York farmer named Abe Woodhull, who forms a group of spies who help turn the tide in the fight for independence. Developed and written by “Nikita’s” Craig Silverstein, who will also serve as show runner, “Turn” stars Jamie Bell, Burn Gorman and Kevin McNally.

Both projects are from AMC Studios.

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