AMC has ordered its first original drama pilot, Mad Men, from Sopranos producer-scribe Matthew Weiner.

Variety reports the period drama follows the personal and professional lives of New York advertising execs in the 1960s.

Weiner penned the script and exec produces. Alan Taylor (Sopranos, Lost) will direct the pilot to be produced by @radical.media. Production begins next month in New York City; casting is under way.

Cabler will greenlight production on at least three one-hour pilots this year with the aim of premiering its first pair of original dramas in 2007.

Weiner wrote Mad Men while he was on the writing staff of CBS comedy Becker. the script found its way to David Chase, who hired Weiner on to Sopranos after reading it.

Mad Men follows thirtysomething Don Draper, creative director for the Sterling Cooper ad agency, which hawks everything from cigarettes to political candidates. Pilot episode centers on Don's fight to keep a major tobacco account from leaving the agency while juggling his increasingly complicated romantic life.