Amazon Developing Sci-Fi Drama ‘The Peripheral’ With ‘Westworld’ Creators

Amazon wants a piece of the mastermind duo behind HBO’s sci-fi smash Westworld, which returns for a second season this Sunday.

The streaming giant, under newly-tapped studio head Jennifer Salke, is developing a drama called The Peripheral from Kilter Films and Warner Bros. Television. Kilter is the production company formed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (pictured above), the married couple who adapted Michael Crichton‘s Westworld for the small screen. The script for The Peripheral will be based based on a William Gibson novel about a woman in a near-future society who discovers a hidden connection to a different reality, according to Deadline. Amazon has optioned the project for a straight-to-series order.

The Peripheral is being written by Oscar nominee Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) and will be directed by Vincenzo Natali, who has also directed a handful of Westworld episodes. Nolan, Joy, and Kilter Films’ Athena Wickham will serve as executive producers alongside Smith, Natali, and Steven Hoban.

Deadline notes that in addition to the illustrious team behind the series, The Peripheral falls squarely in line with a recent course correction at Amazon Studios, as the streamer has moved away from indie series toward blockbuster genre dramas — like a forthcoming Lord Of The Rings prequel series — that aim to have a broader, international appeal.