Moviefone Editorial

Tag: amazon-original-series

  • Viola Davis Is Developing a ‘Fast Color’ Series For Amazon

    Viola Davis Is Developing a ‘Fast Color’ Series For Amazon

    ABC/Codeblack Films

    As part of her production deal with Amazon, Viola Davis is giving new life to little seen indie “Fast Color.”

    The film, which was written by Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz and directed by Hart, follows three generations of black women, Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), her mother Bo (Lorraine Toussaint), and Ruth’s daughter Lila (Saniyya Sidney), all of whom have extraordinary powers.

    It premiered to critical praise at SXSW in 2018, but never expanded beyond its limited release of 25 theaters. It’s getting some overdue love now that it’s on BluRay and DVD.

    Hart and Horowitz will write the pilot and Hart will direct. Davis will be an executive producer with her JuVee Productions partner, Julius Tennon.

    “Since the day we premiered at SXSW, there has been an incredible outpouring of grassroots support for this film” Hart said. “We couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to continue living in this world, with these women, and can’t imagine better partners than Viola and Julius and Mickey and Pete and everyone at Amazon.”

    “Our commitment at JuVee as artists is what fuels our imagination. We want to play. We want to challenge. We want to ask, “What if….,” said Davis and Tennon. “”Fast Color’ allows us to live in a world that fullfills all of the above. It’s a story and world that reminds us that not only do we have a soul, but we have extraordinary, unlikely women who fiercely protect it.”

    [Via Deadline]

  • James Wan Will Direct the ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Series

    James Wan Will Direct the ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Series

    Warner Bros.

    James Wan is a busy, busy guy: Besides overseeing the “Conjuring” universe, prepping “Aquaman 2,” doing a big-screen version of “Salem’s Lot,” and directing the first episode of “The Magic Order,” he just signed on to direct the Amazon series “I Know What You Did Last Summer.

    This newsworthy detail was buried in a story about producer Neal Moritz‘s deal with Sony. Moritz was a producer on the original 1997 movie and its 1998 sequel, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.”

    At this point, Wan is said to be “attached to direct,” which may very well not pan out. Or he could be directing just a few episodes, not the entire season.

    No production start was mentioned, but it would great for headline writers everywhere if he started shooting it this summer. Or next summer.

    [Via Deadline]

     

  • ‘Jack Reacher’ Series in the Works at Amazon

    ‘Jack Reacher’ Series in the Works at Amazon

    Paramount Pictures

    Action hero Jack Reacher is making the leap to the small screen, with Amazon nabbing the rights to turn author Lee Child’s bestselling books into a TV series.

    Deadline reports that the project will be spearheaded by Nick Santora, who previously created CBS series “Scorpion.” Santora will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner on the new drama.

    For those keeping track at home, yes, the Reacher character has already appeared on the big screen, in a pair of films starring Tom Cruise as the titular ex-Army investigator. And while 2012’s “Jack Reacher” and 2016’s “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” performed well at the box office, Child admitted late last year that he didn’t entirely agree with Cruise’s casting, thanks to the actor’s diminutive height.

    “The size of Reacher is really, really important and it’s a big component of who he is. The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute,” the author explained at the time. “And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.”

    Presumably, the search will now be on for a much taller actor to fill Reacher’s shoes. But the creative team appears to be aiming for a similar vibe to the films, securing original studio Paramount as a producer, and director Christopher McQuarrie as an executive producer.

    There are more than 20 books in Child’s bestselling series. Stay tuned to find out which ones make the cut for the TV drama.

    [via: Deadline]

  • Netflix, Amazon Trade Jokes Over ‘Good Omens’ Cancellation Petition

    Netflix, Amazon Trade Jokes Over ‘Good Omens’ Cancellation Petition

    Amazon

    Hey, everyone who signed a petition to get Netflix to cancel the supernatural series “Good Omens,” congrats. The streaming service tweeted that they’re pulling the plug on the show… which is hilarious since it’s on Amazon, not Netflix.

    Netflix UK tweeted, “OK, we promise not to make any more,” in response to the petition signed by 20,000 people who protested that the show would “make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable.”

    The prompted Amazon to respond: “Hey, Netflix, we’ll cancel ‘Stranger Things’ if you cancel ‘Good Omens.’”

    Series creator Neil Gaiman (who cowrote it with the late Terry Pratchett) was also amused by the mix-up.

    And please don’t tell anyone that Gaiman already has another series called “American Gods” on Starz, featuring several ancient and new gods. The horror!

    “Good Omens,” which stars Michael Sheen as angel Aziraphale and David Tennant as demon Crowley, debuted on May 31 on Amazon Prime Video.

    [Via The Mary Sue]

  • Rosa Salazar Might Be Losing Her Mind in First Trailer for Amazon’s ‘Undone’

    Rosa Salazar Might Be Losing Her Mind in First Trailer for Amazon’s ‘Undone’

    Amazon
    The first trailer for “Undone,” a genre-bending animated series starring Rosa Salazar of “Alita: Battle Angel” and Bob Odenkirk of “Better Call Saul” is here.
    Salazar stars as Alma, a 28-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas. After getting into a car accident and nearly dying, Alma finds she has a new relationship to time. She uses this new ability in order to find out the truth about her father’s death.
    It’s not clear if Odenkirk is playing her father or her therapist, but he does tell
    her at one point that yes, she just might be losing her mind.
    It’s from Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg of “BoJack Horseman” and reminds us a lot of Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly.”
    The series premieres later this year on Amazon.

  • Amazon Greenlights YA Desert-Island Drama ‘The Wilds’

    Amazon Greenlights YA Desert-Island Drama ‘The Wilds’

    If you wished “Lost” were nothing but teenage girls, then upcoming YA drama “The Wilds” might be just what you were looking for.

    The series is about a group of teenage girls from radically different backgrounds who fight to survive after an airplane crash strands them on a deserted island.

    The series is from writer and executive producer Sarah Streicher, who was a staff writer on the now-canceled Marvel-Netflix series ‘Daredevil.”

    Susanna Fogel (who wrote the screenplay for “Booksmart” and directed and cowrote “The Spy Who Dumped Me“) directed and executive-produced the pilot. Amy B. Harris (“Sex and the City”) will serve as executive producer and showrunner.

    “Coming of age is not for the faint of heart,” said Streicher. “It can take as much grit and fire to survive our teenage years as it would to survive, say, on a deserted island. ‘The Wilds’ grew from that notion, and it’s afforded me an opportunity to explore teenage-hood in all of its perils, joys, and heartbreaks. I’m beyond thrilled that it’s found a home at Amazon.”

    Okay, so it sounds more like “Lord of the Flies” or “The 100” than “Lost.”

    No word yet when we can expect it to debut.

    [Via Variety]

  • Amazon’s ‘Good People’ Adds Martin Short to Talented Cast

    Amazon’s ‘Good People’ Adds Martin Short to Talented Cast

    Martin Short in Inherent Vice
    Warner Bros. Pictures

    Amazon’s upcoming comedy pilot “Good People” just keeps adding good actors.

    Comedian Martin Short has boarded the project from Lee Daniels and Whitney Cummings, THR reports. He joins a cast the already includes the likes of Lisa Kudrow and Greg Kinnear. Cummings, too, has a role.

    The potential series centers on three generations of women working in a college ombudsman’s office, meaning they look into complaints against maladministration. As they do so, they’ll navigate today’s cultural climate, dealing with issues such as sex, race, class, and gender, per Amazon. They’ll also contend with different understandings of feminism across generations.

    Short’s character is one who will have plenty of dealings with the ombudsman’s office. He’ll play the university’s dean, an administrator described as having “no concept of what’s appropriate.” He, as well as Kinnear’s philosophy professor character, will cause trouble for the woman who heads the office (Kudrow).

    Short is well-known for his work as a comedian, including on “Saturday Night Live.” He recently did a comedy special for Netflix with Steve Martin, “Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life.” Meanwhile, his most recent film is the 2014 neo-noir “Inherent Vice,” and he has continued to have guest spots on various TV shows.

    Daniels and Cummings co-wrote the pilot for “Good People,” and Daniels will direct. The two are executive producing alongside Kudrow.

    [via: THR]

  • ‘Happy Death Day’ Star Jessica Rothe Joins Amazon Series ‘Utopia’

    ‘Happy Death Day’ Star Jessica Rothe Joins Amazon Series ‘Utopia’

    Universal

    Jessica Rothe, the breakout star of horror-comedy “Happy Death Day,” has just been recruited for the Amazon series “Utopia.”

    She joins already cast John Cusack, Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane (“American Honey”) in the sci-fi thriller where everyone’s fate might be determined by a cult comic book.

    She’ll have a recurring role as Samantha, a comic-book nerd who is extremely idealistic, sharp-witted and a natural-born leader.

    The series is a remake of the British drama of the same name.

    Rothe also stars in the musical adaptation of the 1983 romantic comedy “Valley Girl.” (Like, OMG!)

    You may remember her (briefly) as one of Emma Stone’s dancing BFFS in “La La Land.”

    [Via Deadline]

  • Viola Davis Producing ‘Wild Seed’ Sci-Fi Series For Amazon

    Viola Davis Producing ‘Wild Seed’ Sci-Fi Series For Amazon

    ABC

    Viola Davis is co-producing “Wild Seed”, a drama for Amazon Prime Video, based on the first book in Octavia E. Butler’s award-winning “Patternist” sci-fi series.

    Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, whose acclaimed film “Rafiki” was the first Kenyan film to be shown at the  Cannes Film Festival, will co-write and direct.

    Her writing partner: Sci-fi novelist Nnedi Okorafor, whose works include “Binti,” the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella. Her book “Who Fears” is in development at HBO with George R. R. Martin and Michael Lombardo.

    “Wild Seed” follows two African immortals — Doro the killer and Anyanwu, the healer — from pre-Colonial West Africa to the distant future.

    “Wild Seed is a book that shifted my life,” said Davis. “It is as epic, as game-changing, as moving and brilliant as any science fiction novel ever written. [producing partner Julius Tennon] and I are proud to have this masterpiece in our hands. It fullfills our promise and legacy to be disrupters. Octavia Butler was a visionary and we look forward to honoring the scope of her work and sharing it with the world.”

    Kahiu and Okafor promised, “You’re going to see shape-shifting, body jumping, telepaths, people born with the ability to defy the laws of physics, all in the context of our past, present and future world.”

    Ava DuVernay is currently developing another Butler novel, “Dawn” for television.

    [Via Deadline]

  • ‘American Honey’ Star Sasha Lane to Headline Amazon Series ‘Utopia’

    ‘American Honey’ Star Sasha Lane to Headline Amazon Series ‘Utopia’

    FilmRise

    Sasha Lane of “American Honey” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” will star in “Utopia,” the new YA series for Amazon.

    Gillian Flynn (author of “Gone Girl” and “Sharp Objects”), is adapting the British series for Amazon.

    “Utopia” is about a group of young adults who are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of the cult underground graphic novel, “Utopia.”

    Lane will play “tough and feral” Jessica Hyde, who believes all the answers may lie in the mysterious graphic novel.

    “As I’ve been writing Utopia and trying to imagine the actor who could possibly embody Jessica Hyde, Sasha Lane has constantly kicked her way into my mind,” said creator, executive producer and showrunner Flynn. “She has the shape-shifting ability to feel at once raw, unpredictable and a little unnerving while also making you want to wrap your arms around her. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her play this utterly unique character.”

    Flynn got involved in the project when it was set up at HBO with “Gone Girl” director David Fincher. But Fincher and HBO were reportedly unable to come to terms on the show’s budget. With Amazon throwing large sums of money at projects including the massive “Lord of the Rings” series, budget doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

    Lane’s breakthrough role came in Andrea Arnold’s 2016 Cannes-winning indie “American Honey.” You can see her next in the “Hellboy” reboot.

    [Via Deadline, Variety]