GDT, Legendary and Amazon Studios Develop “Carnival” TV Series

Waaaay back in February of 2006, The Hollywood Reporter reported that GDT was developing an unknown film property called Killing on Carnival Row at New Line Cinema, about a detective investigating a serial killer in a world where humans and mythical creatures live side-by-side.

At the time, the script for this fantasy noir (written by Pacific Rim‘s Travis Beacham)was heralded as a risky gamble. In fact, it languished in development hell for many years, bouncing around from one director to the next, from Guillermo to Neil Jordan to Tarsem Singh.  Unfortunately for interested fans of the project, the project never saw a green light. Until now, that is.

Carnival Row has landed at Legendary Pictures and Amazon Studios and will be developed into streaming episodic series.

Legendary acquired the script last year for Guillermo, who will co-write a pilot version of the feature with Beacham and Rene Echevarria.  In addition, he will direct the pilot, possibly in the spring before Pacific Rim 2 starts shooting.

Del Toro has been a huge fan of the script, calling it one of the best he has ever read.  He told THR:

We tried to do it for so long as a film that the rights reverted back to Travis as a basic story. And I’ve always talked about it to anyone that would listen.

When Legendary suggested that he consider developing the story as a series, del Toro thought it was a good fit. THR quotes del Toro:

We always had too many ideas to fit into the feature. We can now really focus on the world and the politics of what it is to be a magical being in Victorian steampunk atmosphere where you are seen as a lesser being.”

Del Toro will executive produce the series with Gary Ungar and Beacham.

Echevarria’s career includes writing and producer credits on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Castle and Terra Nova.