Mark Lafferty Inks Two-Year Overall Deal with AMC Studios, Launches Steady State Productions
Mark Lafferty has signed a two-year overall deal with AMC Studios — an arrangement where a writer-producer is paid to develop projects exclusively for the studio rather than shopping each idea around individually — and he is bringing a new company with him.
Lafferty has launched Steady State Productions, which will be based at AMC Studios. Under the pact, he will develop and produce series for AMC as well as other broadcasters and streamers, according to Deadline.
To staff the new venture, Lafferty has hired Lajoie St. George as Head of Development, where she will oversee scripted development. St. George arrives from Condé Nast, the publisher of Vanity Fair and GQ, where she was VP of TV and Film at the company's studio arm. Her earlier résumé includes a stint as Head of Development at 7th Sun Productions, the company founded by actor Yara Shahidi and her mother Keri Salter-Shahidi, plus a period at NBCUniversal International Studios (Deadline).
Lafferty is currently co-showrunner and executive producer on AMC's Talamasca: The Secret Order, the third series in the network's Anne Rice universe, sharing those duties with John Lee Hancock. AMC Networks greenlit the drama in June 2024, with Lafferty and Hancock attached as writers, co-showrunners and executive producers (The Hollywood Reporter; AMC).
His wider credits give a sense of why AMC wants him in-house. Lafferty created Disney+'s The Right Stuff, wrote on AMC's Halt & Catch Fire, WGN's Manhattan and Nat Geo's Genius: Einstein, and wrote and directed the indie comedy Lower Learning. He has also directed segments for Jimmy Kimmel Live! (Deadline).
The deal lands as AMC Studios has been expanding its footprint beyond the AMC channel itself. The studio recently struck a co-production deal with Netflix to jointly develop and produce series, leading with Bannerman, a drama from Shane Black and Craig Silverstein. AMC Studios also landed The Headlands House, a thriller starring Colman Domingo, at Netflix. Its biggest non-AMC project is Silo, renewed for a fourth and final season at Apple TV+. Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios, oversees the division's slate (Deadline).
For viewers, the practical effect of an overall deal is straightforward. A showrunner locked to a studio on a multi-year contract has a pipeline, a development executive, and a building to work out of — the kind of setup that turns a pitch into a pilot and a pilot into a series order. Lafferty now has all three at AMC.
