BBC America puts Poehler drama in development

Amy Poehler (second left) in Parks & Recreation

US cable network BBC America has put a raft of drama projects into development, including one from comic actor Amy Poehler.

The projects come from the lies of Poehler (Parks & Recreation), Red Production Company, Neal Baer (Under the Dome), Adam Barken (Killjoys) and See-Saw Films (Top of the Lake).

Poehler is executive producing Zero Motivation with Brooke Posch from Paper Kite Productions, Natasha Lyonne, Eilon Ratzkovsky from July August Productions, Israeli filmmaker Talya Lavie and Tami Sagher (Girls).

The series is based on a comedy-drama film from Lavie looking at the Israeli army through the eyes of an eclectic group of young women stationed in a remote human resources office in the middle of the Negev desert.

Other shows in development at the AMC Networks-operated channel include Barken’s Memoria, which is about a man who begins to unravel after his memories conflict with technology. Temple Street Productions, the Orphan Black prodco now part of Boat Rocker Media, will produce.

Quartermass is from Studiocanal-owned UK producer Red (Happy Valley) and Simon Oakes’ Hammer Films. The show is billed as a remake of the British series of the same name, and has Jeremy Dyson (League of Gentlemen) attached to write.

Studiocanal will bethe studio and has international distribution rights.

Junk is a satirical look at the soda and junk food industries from Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral), who will write, and Baer, who executive produces.

Further international efforts include Trip, which comes from Australian writer Louise Fox (ABC’s Glitch). The series will be a “thrilling reimagining” of Chinese novel Monkey: Journey to the West. UK-based See-Saw will produce.

Foreign Babes in Beijing is from Rachel DeWoshin and Zayd Dohrn, and based on DeWoskin’s memoir of the same name. The series will chronicle her experiences as a soap actress on Chinese television.

Manage-ment’s Dan Halsted is producing along with Andre and Maria Jacquemetton (Mad Men).

BBC America, still majority owned by BBC Worldwide, is soon to launch scripted efforts such as Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Undercover and The Living and the Dead.