Amazon has made a couple of Prime announcements:
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apr. 19, 2018– (NASDAQ: AMZN)– Amazon Studios announced today that it has greenlit a straight-to-series order for Utopia, a nine-episode series from award-winning Gillian Flynn, the best-selling author and screenwriter of Golden Globe nominated Gone Girl and HBO’s highly anticipated Sharp Objects. Flynn has also inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios across television, marking Utopiaas the first project. Utopia will be available exclusively on Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories.
Utopiais based on the British series of the same name written by Dennis Kelly. The series is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America and Kudos, an Endemol Shine Group UK production studio, and Amazon Studios.
A group of young adults, who meet online, are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come in to possession of a near mythical cult underground graphic novel – they discover the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and are forced in to the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.
“We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work,” said Nick Hall, Head of Alternative Series for Amazon Studios. “She crafts stories that hold her audience in a constant state of suspense and subverts the expectations behind her characters. She will deliver Prime Video members a series they won’t forget, and Utopia‘s relevance is sure to connect with viewers around the globe.”
“Utopia is pure creative catnip to me. Dennis Kelly’s show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling–it’s a series that’s urgent and current and a little holy-crap!, but a hell of a lot of a fun,” said Gillian Flynn.
Diederick Santer, CEO of Kudos said; “Dennis Kelly and the team at Kudos created a unique, dark and gripping British thriller, and we are incredibly excited that it has been so brilliantly reimagined by Gillian Flynn for a new global audience.”
Flynn is the creator, executive producer and showrunner of Utopia, and executive producers include Jessica Rhoades (who Flynn collaborated with on Sharp Objects), Sharon Hall, Karen Wilson, Dennis Kelly and Diederick Santer. Sharon Levy, President, Unscripted & Scripted Television, Endemol Shine North America, will oversee production for Endemol Shine.
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apr. 24, 2018– (NASDAQ: AMZN)–Amazon today announced it has greenlit season two of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan ahead of its global series debut set for August 31 on Prime Video. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, from Paramount Television and Skydance Television, is a reinvention with a modern sensibility of the famed and lauded Tom Clancy hero played by John Krasinski (A Quiet Place, 13 Hours). The creators of the series, Executive Producers Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) and Graham Roland (Fringe, Prison Break), will continue to serve as Co-Showrunners. Additionally, Krasinski, who also serves as an Executive Producer, will be reunited with Wendell Pierce (The Wire) who will reprise his role as James Greer in the eight-episode second season.
In season two, Jack Ryan confronts the forces in power in a dangerous, declining democratic regime in South America. The second season commences production this summer in Europe, South America and the United States.
After Amazon’s Super Bowl ads, Amazon saw a more than 400% increase in Prime members placing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on their watchlist.
“With so much early anticipation for Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan from our customers and personally having the pleasure to preview the exhilarating, action-packed first season, we are excited to greenlight a second season of the series months ahead of its debut,” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “The new season will take our unexpected hero to a new, exciting and dangerous world.”
“We’re thrilled that the first season has generated so much enthusiasm,” stated Cuse. “We couldn’t be happier to be working with Amazon and to be filming very near the Amazon to tell the next great Jack Ryan adventure.”
“From day one we only had one actor on our casting board for this series – John Krasinski,” said Amy Powell, President of Paramount Television. “We are so excited that he is our Jack Ryan and we get to make another season with this incredibly talented team. We have been blown away by what our whole team has delivered for season one and we can’t wait for everyone to see it this summer.”
The show is produced by Paramount Television, Cuse’s Genre Arts, Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes and David Ellison‘s Skydance Television. Executive producing along with Cuse, Roland and Krasinski are Platinum Dune’s Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. Additionally, Lindsey Springer, Mace Neufeld, Vince Calandra, Andrew Bernstein and Skydance’s Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross will also executive produce the second season with Allyson Seeger serving as a co-executive producer.
