Tag: Prime Video

Posted on in News

Amazon Studios Nearing Deal To Turn Sci-Fi Video Game ‘Mass Effect’ Into A Series

Amazon Studios is behind a wave of high-profile fantasy series with Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time and a new take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth franchise with The Lord of The Rings (taking place in the Second Age before events of the two trilogies).

They are seemingly pivoting towards sci-fi shows based on video games after previous plans to turn Fallout into a show as well at Amazon from Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, another one is said to be on the horizon.

Deadline is now claiming the streamer is attempting to adapt the beloved sci-fi action video game series, Mass Effect, into a new television series. Amazon is reportedly “nearing a deal” but without mentioning potential showrunners or writers that would be adapting the project.

One of the company’s newest hopefuls in the arena is Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is nearing a deal to develop a series based on the best-selling sci-fi video game franchise from Electronic Arts.

A potential television series was teased over the summer by Mass Effect’s project director Mac Walters.

“It’s such an expansive world, and so many people I know in the TV and film industry have reached out to ask me when we’re going to do it and saying we’ve got to do it,” Walters told Business Insider.

In a technologically advanced future, an elite human soldier takes command of a prototype starship and works to defend the galaxy from danger.

At one time, a feature film based on Mass Effect had been in the works for ages, but for various reasons never came together. Legendary (Dune) got their hands on the film rights back in 2010. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll attempt to adapt the universe or try to do something brand new set in that world.

The Halo series has been shooting for two years during the pandemic and will debut next year on Paramount+, setting the stage for more expensive shows based on popular video games. Other live-action projects on the horizon include The Last of Us at HBO and Assassin’s Creed at Netflix.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Live-Action ‘She-Ra’ Series Being Developed By Amazon

A new report from Variety has revealed that a new live-action series with Masters of The Universe character She-Ra is in very early development at Amazon Studios with DreamWorks Animation producing the potential show.

Sadly, we’re not getting anything concerning potential creatives such as writers, directors or even who they’ll want to play She-Ra. It’ll be interesting how they’ll approach the character after Netflix’s recent animated series She-Ra & The Princesses of Power.

She-Ra & The Princesses of Power is set on the planet Etheria and follows the stories of Adora and Catra, orphans who were raised to be soldiers in the Horde. They are part of an evil army led by Hordak, a tyrannical despot who dreams of conquering the planet.

This would be the first time She-Ra was given a live-action adaptation, while He-Man has a feature film previously and a new one has stalled multiple times to the point it seems unlikely that will come together anytime soon.

It’ll be curious to see if She-Ra series happens before a He-Man movie goes into production.

She-Ra isn’t the only fantasy hybrid projects in the works with an animated ThunderCats film from Adam Wingard (Godzilla Vs. Kong) and Millennium Films is taking a crack at a brand new Red Sonja film with Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man & The Wasp, Residential Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City) playing the female warrior.

Amazon is also behind two high-profile fantasy series The Wheel of Time and Lord of The Rings, both have multiple season commitments. It’ll be interesting to see if Amazon’s version of She-Ra will skew as a mature incarnation or be developed for younger audiences.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in News, Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ To Debut Weekly Episodes Starting September 2022; Season 1 Wraps Filming

Amazon made waves when they announced they had secured the television rights to tackle a new Lord of The Rings series, even more incredible have already agreed to a five season commitment which makes it one of the most expensive shows to be ever produced. Lord of The Rings takes place many many years before the events of Peter Jackson’s films, in the Second Age of Middle-Earth.

Season 1 is expected to take place before the rise of The Dark Lord Sauron and Mordor, focusing on multiple ancient kingdoms that eventually fell before the events of The Hobbit/Lord of The Rings. One of the most anticipated elements will be the exploration of the ancient island kingdom of Númeno, J.R.R. Tolkien’s take on the Atlantis myth, a sect of men that would be twisted by Sauron leading to the island to sink into the water.

The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.

Amazon has announced today that Season 1 has wrapped filming in New Zealand and will start airing weekly episodes on September 2, 2022. So we’ll have quite the wait before we get to watch these episodes.

The highly anticipated, yet-to-be titled Amazon Original The Lord of the Rings television series will premiere Friday, September 2, 2022 on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, with new episodes available weekly. Filming of Season One completed today in New Zealand.

It’s cast consists of Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

https://twitter.com/LOTRonPrime?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Wheel Of Time’: Amazon Announces Fantasy Series Will Debut In November

Finally, Amazon has announced that their series adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy novels The Wheel of Time will be heading to Prime Video on November.

The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.   

Adapted for television by executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hemlock Grove). Larry Mondragon and Rick Selvage of Red Eagle Entertainment (Winter Dragon), Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Winter Dragon), Darren Lemke (Shazam!, Goosebumps, Winter Dragon), Marigo Kehoe and Uta Briesewitz will also serve as executive producers, with Briesewitz set to direct the first two episodes. Rosamund Pike will serve as Producer and Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson as consulting producers. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.

Wheel of Time’s cast consists of Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Barney Harris, Zoë Robins, Daniel Henney, Álvaro Morte, Hammed Animashaun, Johann Myers, Priyanka Bose, Taylor Napier and Emmanuel Imani.

The project is such a priority for Amazon as they’ve already started filming Season 2 this week and Radar Films (Amazon’s partner on the show) is also developing a trilogy of feature films. Amazon must be seeing something with the dailies or Season 1 episodes that they believe enough in the show to move forward with Season 2 even though audiences haven’t seen a trailer for the first season.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Wheel Of Time’: Amazon Announces Season 2 Has Started Shooting With Director Thomas Napper

We’re still waiting on a trailer and release date for Season 1 of Amazon’s big fantasy series The Wheel of Time, based on the series of Robert Jordan novels. The streaming service announced plans to move forward with Season 2 even before anyone has got a real good look at the show and even crazier they have officially started filming the next season this week.

The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.   

Season 1 only just wrapped production in the Czech Republic back in May.

Wheel of Time’s cast consists of Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Barney Harris, Zoë Robins, Daniel Henney, Álvaro Morte, Hammed Animashaun, Johann Myers, Priyanka Bose, Taylor Napier and Emmanuel Imani.

The official Wheel of Time series account on Twitter announced on Monday that they started shooting Season 2 with Thomas Napper behind the camera as that episode’s director.

It’s still unclear when Amazon will begin airing Season 1 of the show, but they have been stating it will hit Prime Video sometime in 2021. The amount of money involved is insane to jump forward with a second season without even knowing if audience will even embrace the series.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this month that Radar Pictures is also moving forward with a planned film trilogy set in the fantasy world of author Robert Jordan. Screenwriter Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class, Thor) will tackle the first installment, Age of Legends, that takes place thousand years before the events of the Amazon series.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Rogue’ Director M.J. Bassett Joins Amazon’s ‘Jack Reacher’ Series Reboot

The Ronin can confirm that British director M.J. Bassett is part of the directing team of Amazon’s series reboot of Jack Reacher, previously a film franchise led by Tom Cruise and will have Alan Ritchson (slightly more aligned with Reacher’s stature/size) taking over the role in the show.

Bassett had been once involved with Amblin’s new Halo series but dropped out and recently she was behind the recent Megan Fox actioner Rogue. Her others credits include Altered Carbon, Iron Fist, Nightflyers, Strike Back, Endangered Species, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Silent Hill: Revelation.

Bassett joins The Wachowskis as part of the growing club of trans women directors tackling action projects, the more the merrier.

We previously first reported Amazon hired Bodyguard director Thomas Vincent for Jack Reacher.

The first season is reportedly based on Lee Child’s novel Killing Floor.

Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.

Skydance and Amazon are already partners on their popular Jack Ryan series based on the Tom Clancy novels led by John Krasinski, which is heading into it’s third season.

Posted on in Television News

‘Game Of Thrones’ Costume Designer Michele Clapton Confirmed For Amazon’s Cyberpunk Series ‘The Peripheral’; From Co-Creators Of HBO’s ‘Westworld’

Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan (Westworld) are producing a new Amazon series The Peripheral, an adaptation of the William Gibson cyberpunk novel with Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, Shadow In The Cloud) and Irish actor Jack Reynor (Midsommar, Free Fire) set to play the show’s leads.

The William Gibson novel centers on Flynne (Grace Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder.

The Ronin can confirm the cyberpunk series has indeed added six-time Primetime Emmy-winner Michele Clapton to the production team as their costume designer, who previously worked on Seasons 1-8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones and The King’s Man directed by Matthew Vaughn. 

We previously reported the show’s production designer will be Jan Reolfs (Ghost In The Shell, F9: The Fast Saga, 47 Ronin). 

Production will take place around London with Vincenzo Natali set to direct the show’s pilot. Natali’s extensive credits include The Stand, Westworld, American Gods, The Strain, Lost In Space, Locke & Key, Luke Cage, Hannibal, Orphan Black, Splice, and Cube.

Gibson, alongside Philip K. Dick, is considered one of the fathers of the cyberpunk genre. Dick’s work, of course, inspired feature films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. The Peripheral isn’t the only William Gibson adaptation in the works as we’ve previously reported that Luther creator Neil Cross is looking to turn his novel Pattern Recognition into a project as well and has yet to be officially announced.

Lisa Joy is making her feature film directorial debut with the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson dystopian cyberpunk film Reminiscence, which will hit both theaters and HBO Max on August 20.

REMINISCENCE – Nick Bannister (Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae’s disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

Posted on in Television News

EXCLUSIVE: Russo Brothers’ Action-Packed Spy Series ‘Citadel’ Adds Veteran Director Jessica Yu

The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame) are behind a new action-packed spy series at Amazon Prime Video, called Citadel with a cast that consists of Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard, Eternals), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The Matrix 4, The White Tiger, Quantico, We Can Be Heroes ), and Stanley Tucci (Spotlight, Captain America: The First Avenger, Road To Perdition, The King’s Man), Ashleigh Cummings, Roland Møller, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Susan Lynch, Sara Martins, Leo Woodall, Gráinne Good, Osy Ikhile, Caoilinn Springall, and Leo Ashizawa.

The Ronin can now confirm that seasoned director Jessica Yu is helming at least two episodes of Citadel. Yu’s varied television career includes credits such as In Treatment, Billions, This Is Us, American Crime, Fosse/Verdon, Ratched, Hollywood, The Affair, I’m Dying Up Here, Scandal, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, West Wing, and directed the pilot for Walker.

Jessica Yu is also an Oscar-winner earning a statue for Best Documentary Short in 1997 for Breathing Lessons, which was presented to her by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Joe and Anthony Russo are producing via their production company AGBO and are expected to direct episodes alongside fellow executive producer Brian Kirk (21 Bridges, Game of Thrones, Luther, Boardwalk Empire, Dexter). Josh Appelbaum (showrunner), André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio serve as writers and executive producers.

Citadel is assumed to drop on Prime Video sometime in 2022.

The sibling pair is also working on The Gray Man, another high-profile spy project at Netflix, which is said to be budgeted at over $200 million, making it their most expensive production to date. The Gray Man’s impressive cast includes a heap of well-known names such as Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys, Drive), Chris Evans (Snowpiercer), Ana de Armas (Knives Out, Blade Runner: 2049, No Time To Die), Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton, Dungeons & Dragons), Jessica Henwick (The Matrix 4, Knives Out 2), Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage), Billy Bob Thorton (Fargo), Wagner Moura (Narcos), Deobia Oparei (Dredd, Game of Thrones, Independence Day: Resurgence), Robert Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Dhanush, Scott Haze (Venom, Antlers), Callan Mulvey (The Outlaw King, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Batman v Superman), and Julia Butters (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Fabelmans).

Posted on in News

Amazon Officially Announces Agreement To Purchase MGM For $8.45 Billion – Will “Reimagine” Their Deep Catalog

It’s been reported for days that Amazon was looking to spend almost $9 billion to acquire MGM, a major Hollywood studio that has a heap of IP titles and legacy films. The studio also has a partnership with EON Productions for the James Bond franchise.

Well, the streaming giant made the merger official this morning and dropped a press release confirm it’s going ahead, paying an impressive $8.45 billion for MGM. The press release also mentioned Amazon’s intention to “reimagine” the deep catalog, which likely means turning properties into films and television shows.

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. 

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and MGM today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon would empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling.

The studio’s film catalog includes 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, RoboCop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many films, over 4,000 of them. Not to mention 17,000 television shows as well.

MGM is already looking to soft-reboot RoboCop with RoboCop Returns from Aussie director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters). The Russo Brothers are producing a new incarnation of the romantic crime flick Thomas Crown Affair led by Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther, Without Remorse) as the charming thief. Jordan is about to direct and star in Creed III, making his directorial debt on the boxing drama. A new James Bond is expected to be hired for Bond 26, once No Time To Die ends the Daniel Craig era. Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider reboot movie is set to get a sequel from director Misha Green (Lovecraft Country). Something like Stargate would be prime for a franchise reboot as it was a feature film that spawned multiple television shows. Those are just some examples that are just the tip of the iceberg and we should expect more projects announced in the coming weeks/months given the deep pockets of Amazon Studios/Prime Video.

Amazon getting their hands on a legacy Hollywood studio should help boost their film/television library but also allowing them to create new original IP content, allowing them to become more competitive against the Netflix originals and could see Amazon attempt theatrical distribution on a larger scale as they could add global box office to their revenue stream.

Some of the high-profile Prime Video shows on the horizon are the expensive Lord of The Rings that is expected to land at least five seasons and at least two seasons of Wheel of Time series led by Rosamund Pike that is based on the Robert Jordan fantasy novels.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Film News

Amazon’s Purchase of MGM For $9 Billion Could Be Announced This Week

There have been reports circulating for a while now that streaming giant Amazon is looking to buy Hollywood studio MGM Studios, it would be their first entry into making a huge push into major feature film development.

A deal could be announced as early as this week according to a report from The Wall Street Journal and point towards a figure close to $9 billion. People have pointed out that valuation is a bit steep as the company was valued at around $5.5 billion back in December.

Amazon.com Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion, said people familiar with the matter, a pact that would turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant. An agreement could be announced as early as this week, people close to the situation said, assuming the talks don’t fall apart at the last minute.

MGM is the partner of EON Productions on the James Bond franchise and could mean that Amazon could become the streaming home of the franchise. They’re also behind the Candyman remake from Nia DaCosta (The Marvels), the Creed films with Michael B. Jordan set to direct Creed III, and they’ve been developing a new RoboCop film as well.

Amazon landing a real and established Hollywood studio means that the streaming service could branch-out to global theatrical distribution, as I don’t imagine EON would want to see their Bond franchise become some Prime Video exclusive and could see Amazon originals turn into box office earners.

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL