Amazon Announces Lineup for its 2016 Comedy Pilot Season
Three new half-hour pilots will debut August 19 on Amazon Video and
customers are once again invited to stream and review the shows to help
determine which will become an Amazon Original Series
Pilots come from noted creators including Peter Atencio, Ben
Edlund, Barry Josephson, Ridley Scott, and Jill
Soloway, and star prominent actors including Kevin Bacon, Jean-Claude
Van Damme, Kathryn Hahn, and Jackie Earle Haley
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced the lineup for its 2016 comedy
pilot season which will debut August 19 in the US, UK, Germany, Austria,
and Japan. Amazon customers can expect more variety than ever in an
Amazon pilot season, including shows I Love Dick, based on the
renowned feminist novel about a couple’s marital struggles in the
artistic and academic community of Marfa, Texas; Jean-Claude Van
Johnson, where martial arts film star Jean-Claude
Van Damme operates under the alias of “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” to
serve as the most dangerous undercover private contractor in the world;
and The Tick, an offbeat and dark superhero tale based on the
acclaimed comic.
All Amazon customers are invited to stream and review the pilots in
order to help choose the next Amazon Original Series that are then
available to Prime members. The pilots will be available via the Amazon
Video app for TVs, connected devices including Fire TV, and mobile
devices, or online at Amazon.com/amazonvideo.
Amazon customer feedback on pilots have helped make some of the most
critically-acclaimed and popular series to date, including multi Golden
Globe– and Emmy-winning series Transparent, multi Golden
Globe-winning series Mozart in the Jungle, and the
most-streamed Amazon Original Series ever by Prime members globally, The
Man in the High Castle.
The new pilots feature prominent actors that include Kevin
Bacon (The Following), Griffin
Dunne (Dallas Buyers Club), Kathryn
Hahn (Transparent), Jackie
Earle Haley (Watchmen), Phylicia
Rashad (Creed), Peter
Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Jean-Claude
Van Damme (JCVD). They come from noted creators that include Peter
Atencio (Key and Peele), Ben
Edlund (Supernatural), Barry
Josephson (Bones), Ridley
Scott (The Martian), and Jill
Soloway (Transparent).
“Nowhere else will voices as influential as Jill Soloway and Jean-Claude
Van Damme share a stage,” said Joe Lewis, Head of Half-Hour Series,
Amazon Studios. “And that’s just the Js. We’re excited to bring such a
diverse slate of pilots to customers and we can’t wait to hear what they
think.”
Amazon’s fall comedy pilot season includes the following shows:
I Love Dick
Adapted from the cult classic I Love Dick—referred to as “the most
important book about men and women written in the last century” (Emily
Gould, The Guardian)—is set in a colorful intellectual community
in Marfa, Texas. Chris (Kathryn
Hahn, Transparent) and Sylvere (Griffin
Dunne, Dallas Buyers Club), arrive in Marfa when Sylvere is
offered a fellowship to finish a book he’s been writing on the
Holocaust. When they meet Dick (Kevin
Bacon, The Following), he taunts their imaginations and
upends their preconceptions about love and monogamy. An exploration of
the female gaze and how we tell stories about love and desire, I
Love Dick charts the evolution of a marriage, the awakening of an
artist and the deification of a writer named Dick. I Love Dick is
executive produced by Jill
Soloway (Transparent), Andrea
Sperling (Transparent), and Sarah
Gubbins (Ten Aker Wood). The pilot is directed by Soloway and
written by Gubbins.
Jean-Claude Van Johnson
If you need to eliminate a political rival, debilitate a
multinational corporation, or overthrow an entire government—and you
need it done with the utmost secrecy—there’s only one person to turn to:
one of the most internationally recognizable movie stars in the history
of film. Jean-Claude Van Johnson stars Jean-Claude
Van Damme (JCVD) playing “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” a global
martial arts and film sensation…and, operating under the simple alias of
“Johnson,” the most dangerous undercover private contractor in the
world. Lucky for the world’s bad guys, he’s been retired for
years…unlucky for them, a chance encounter with a lost love is about to
bring him back to the game…and this time, he’ll be deadlier than ever.
Probably.
Jean-Claude Van Johnson stars Van Damme along with Kat
Foster (Your Family or Mine), Moises
Arias (The Middle), and Phylicia Rashad
(Creed). The show is executive produced by Peter Atencio
(Key and Peele), Ridley
Scott (The Good Wife), David
W. Zucker (The Man in the High Castle) and Van Damme.
From Scott Free Productions, the pilot is directed
by Atencio and written by Dave Callaham
(Mortal Kombat).
The Tick
In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an underdog
accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a
global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this
conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. The
Tick stars Peter
Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy),
Griffin
Newman (Vinyl), Jackie
Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie
Curry (House of Lies), Yara
Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan
Hines (Scorpion). The Tick is executive produced by Ben
Edlund (Supernatural), Barry
Josephson (Bones) and Barry
Sonnenfeld (A Series of Unfortunate Events), directed by Wally
Pfister (The Dark Knight), and written by Edlund. The Tick is
a co-production with Sony Pictures Television.
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