Upon Transparent snagging a handful of Emmys – including Outstanding Lead Actor for Jeffrey Tambor – this past Sunday, Amazon has announced its slate of new pilots expected to debut this fall.
There are six pilots in total coming from creators Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3), Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator, Borat), Louis CK (Louie), Diablo Cody (Juno), Steven Conrad (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said), Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), Bob Nelson (Nebraska), Christine Vachon (Still Alice), Tig Notaro (Boyish Girl Interrupted) and Nicole Yorkin & Dawn Prestwich (The Killing).
Amazon’s slate, will be wide-ranging in genre — from comedy to western and everything in between — with Amazon customers invited to watch and divulge feedback on which shows they’d prefer turned into full series’ for the company’s Prime subscribers. All pilots will be made available online and via the Amazon Video app for TV.
Among the pilots debuting later this year is Highston, written by the above-mentioned Bob Nelson, exec-produced by Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The pilot centers on Highston Liggetts (newcomer Lewis Pullman), a 19-year-old with a large group of celebrity friends that only he can see. The pilot, which features guest appearances by Shaquille O’Neal and Flea, is being billed as “a comedy about what it means to be normal in a world that’s anything but.”
Edge is set in 1868 and follows Union officer-turned-cowboy Josiah “Edge” Hedges (Max Martini), who roams the post-civil War American West, dishing out vigilante justice. Edge is based on the best-selling book series of the same name by George G. Gilman and was developed, scripted and exec-produced by Shane Black and Fred Dekker (Tales from the Crypt).
Good Girls Revolt takes place during the cultural revolution of 1969 and follows a group of young female researchers at the “News of the Week” newsroom, whose revolutionary request “simply asking to be treated fairly” will ultimately provoke major changes within each of their lives. Good Girls Revolt stars Genevieve Angelson, Anna Camp, Erin Darke, Chris Diamantopoulos, Hunter Parrish, Jim Belushi and more.
One Mississippi is a dark comedy, loosely inspired by comedian Tig Notaro’s life as she deals with her difficult return to her childhood hometown of Bay Saint Lucille, Mississippi to lay her life-of-the-party mother to rest. The pilot co-stars Noah Harpster, John Rothman and Casey Wilson, was written by Notaro and Diablo Cody, directed by Nicole Holofcener and exec-produced by the trio, along with Louis CK, Blair Breard and Dave Becky.
The political thriller Patriot centers on intelligence officer John Tavner (newcomer Michael Dorman), whose latest assignment sees him attempting to help prevent Iran from going nuclear by going under cover as a mid-level employee at a Midwestern industrial piping firm. The pilot co-stars Terry O’Quinn, Michael Chernus, Kathleen Muroe and more and was written and directed by Steven Conrad.
Z is a bio-series pilot based on the life of a Southern Belle named Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, who becomes the original flapper and icon of the 1920’s Jazz Age. The pilot follows Zelda (Christina Ricci), who meets unpublished writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and the two subsequently have a wild love affair resulting in one of the era’s most iconic marriages. Z was written by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, directed by Tim Blake Nelson and exec produced by Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon and Ricci.
The above-mentioned pilots will stream exclusively on Amazon video in the U.S., UK, Austria and Germany later this year.
