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Amazon renews 'Jack Ryan' months before it premieres
Amazon is confident that Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan will be a success -- so confident, in fact, that it's not waiting for initial viewings to declare it a hit. The company has already renewed Jack Ryan for a second season despite a months-long wait for Prime Video show's August 31st premiere. If you ask Amazon, it's a combination of its reaction to watching the show (generally a good idea) with early hints of customer interest. Reportedly, there was a 400 percent jump in watchlist additions for Jack Ryan following Amazon's Super Bowl ad campaign.
Amazon Studios stops taking amateur scripts on June 30th
For years, Amazon Studios has held an open call for concept and script submissions. You could send an idea to the company and not only make it publicly available, but (if you were lucky) see it developed as an honest-to-goodness Prime Video production. However, you'll now have to scramble for an alternative. Amazon is closing the open call on June 30th, 2018. You'll still have access to the companion Storybuilder and Storywriter tools, but you won't be showing Amazon the fruits of that labor.
Amazon cancels 'Mozart in the Jungle' after four seasons
One of Prime Video's earliest successes is about to fade away: Amazon has canceled Mozart in the Jungle after four seasons. It's not certain what prompted the decision to axe the show, but it wasn't due to a lack of talent when the "sex, drugs and classical music" series won Golden Globes and Emmys during its stint. Amazon doesn't disclose viewership, so it's not clear that demand was an issue. However, it may be a reflection of the internet giant's evolving video strategy.
Amazon turns 'A League of Their Own' into a TV series
Amazon still isn't done turning classic movies into Prime Video productions. Hollywood Reporter has learned that the internet is turning the legendary baseball movie A League of Their Own into a half-hour comedy series. It's too soon to learn about the casting, but Broad City's Abbi Jacobson and Mozart in the Jungle's Will Graham are poised to both write and executive produce the show. It's still focused on the creation of the all-women pro baseball league in 1943 and the story of the Rockford Peaches, although it's safe to presume that the movie's cast won't be reprising their original roles. The series won't include the central characters of Dottie (played by Geena Davis) or Kit (Lori Petty), either.
Amazon may spend $1 billion to adapt hit Chinese sci-fi novels
Amazon's bid to create worldwide blockbuster shows may extend well beyond very familiar Western stories like Lord of the Rings. Investors speaking to the Financial Times claimed that Amazon is in talks that would let it spend up to $1 billion for the rights to Liu Cixin's massively successful sci-fi novel trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past, also known as The Three-Body Problem. The internet giant is reportedly hoping to acquire rights from Chinese game developer Youzu Interactive's Lin Qi and turn it into a three-season Prime Video series.
Netflix’s real advantage is that it’s a tech company first
Netflix hasn't been coy about its plans to take over Hollywood. The company has already said it could spend up to $8 billion on content this year alone. But, for all the awards House of Cards and Icarus rack up, one of the reasons Netflix has tasted success so rapidly is its streaming technology. That's an area it has been perfecting in-house since 2010, when it became more than a simple mail-order DVD rental shop.
Netflix isn't chasing the competition into sports or live TV
Fresh off of its Oscars win for Icarus, a documentary about Russia's doping epidemic in sports, Netflix held a press event at its Hollywood headquarters. There, inside a 280,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art studio that it just opened last year, CEO Reed Hastings talked about the state of Netflix and the industry as a whole. The setting seemed fitting, considering the company is planning an $8 billion investment in original content for 2018 alone. That programming strategy is what makes Hastings confident that Netflix's future is bright, especially as it faces increased competition from the likes of Amazon, Hulu and, soon, Disney. The latter of which is also a partner, since it owns all of the Marvel franchises that Netflix has built a mini-verse around.
Amazon taps 'BoJack Horseman' duo for new animated series
Amazon hasn't had much of an answer to Netflix's numerous animated shows, but that should change in the near future -- and it's even 'borrowing' from Netflix in the process. The internet giant has ordered its first half-hour animated series, Undone, with BoJack Horseman alumni Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy at the helm. It'll also have the executive production work of BoJack's Noel Bright and Steven Cohen, with A Scanner Darkly's Tommy Pallotta rounding things out.
Amazon backs Marie Curie biopic starring Rosamund Pike
Amazon's latest Prime Video production won't just rely on star power to reel you in -- it should also appeal to science fans. The internet giant is teaming with France's Studiocanal on Radioactive, a biopic covering the work and romance of pioneering radioactivity scientist Marie Curie (and by extension, Pierre Curie). Produced by Persepolis' Marjane Satrapi, it's the adaptation of Lauren Redniss' graphic novel Radioactive and will star Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike. The star of the show may be the science itself, however.
Amazon confirms Jeffrey Tambor won't return to 'Transparent'
Jeffrey Tambor's role in Transparent has been in limbo for months following sexual harassment allegations, but there's no ambiguity now: he's out. Amazon has confirmed that Tambor won't return to the series following an internal investigation into his conduct. Tambor had denied claims of intentional harassment and argued that the "politicized atmosphere" made it impractical for him to come back, but he had never gone so far as to formally depart.
Amazon's cop drama 'Bosch' returns April 13th
Amazon's longest-running TV show, Bosch, now has a premiere date for its fourth season: Friday, April 13th. The 10-episode season will address accusations of police brutality against the LAPD. When a civil rights attorney is murdered just before a case against the police department, Detective Harry Bosch is put in charge of a task force to find the truth, even if the responsibility lies with his fellow police officers. You can see a trailer for the fourth season below. The show has already been renewed for a fifth season.
Amazon renews ‘The Tick’ for a second season
Amazon decided to take on the quirky superhero spoof The Tick in 2016 despite the fact that the last live-action version of the comic was cancelled before it could complete a single season. But that risk seems to be paying off because Amazon has now greenlit a second season of the show even though the first season isn't yet finished.
Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' wins best TV drama at Golden Globes
Streaming shows are no strangers to picking up Golden Globe awards, and that trend is continuing at the 2018 ceremony. To start, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale has won awards for both the best TV drama and best TV actress (Elisabeth Moss). The wins weren't completely surprising given the strength of Margaret Atwood's story, Moss' performance and the all-too-timely subject matter, but it's still a significant victory.
Amazon TV shows are hopping aboard Eurostar trains
Thanks to our need for constant amusement, whether you're on a plane, train or automobile, these days you never have to look at a rubbish book again. The Eurostar high-speed train network has had a bring-your-own-device entertainment service of its own for a while now, but a new partnership with Amazon means Prime Video-exclusive TV shows are joining that catalog. Provided you've hopped onto one of Eurostar's newer e320 trains, you can connect to the on-board WiFi, load up the Eurostar app and you'll find shows like The Grand Tour, Transparent and Man in the High Castle ready for streaming. And whether you're going from London to Paris or Brussels to Lille, there'll be something on there to keep the kids quiet for an hour, too.
The Apple TV 4K has already sold out on Amazon
Well, that happened faster than expected: Amazon has begun selling the Apple TV 4K. And just as quick, both the 32GB and 64GB versions are already out of stock. Hopefully you got one overnight if you had some extra Prime reward points to burn. Two years ago, Amazon stopped selling Apple TVs in addition to Google Chromecasts. Its reasoning? Neither device offered easy access to Amazon Prime Video. For now, that's only reversed for Apple hardware; early this month the Prime Video Apple TV app finally launched. Chromecasts are expected to reappear in short order, especially since Mountain View has started blocking YouTube on Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV.
Amazon Prime Video will stream in HDR10+ on Samsung TVs
One of the perpetual gripes about Samsung's newer TVs is that they don't support Dolby Vision for high dynamic range content, limiting you to basic HDR10 for most video. They do offer the more comparable HDR10+ format, but who's using it? As of now, Amazon does. Samsung has announced that Prime Video will stream in HDR10+ on QLED and 'standard' 4K TVs as of December 13th. About 100 TV shows and movies will support the format from the get-go, including Amazon original shows like The Grand Tour and The Tick. Naturally, the intent is to make more of Amazon's catalog HDR10+ friendly over time.
OnePlus 5T needs an update to play Netflix in HD
The OnePlus 5T is defined by its cinematic 18:9 screen, but don't expect to get the full effect while you're watching your favorite streaming service... at least, not yet. Owners have learned that the 5T and its OnePlus 5 ancestor can't play Netflix or Amazon Prime Video in HD, since they both lack the Widevine rights management certification need to play at anything beyond standard definition. Yes, your $500 pride and joy currently plays video at a lower resolution than phones costing half as much. Thankfully, there's a solution in the works.
SiriusXM now streams radio stations to your Apple TV
SiriusXM is now available on 4th generation Apple TVs and Apple TV 4K. Subscribers with streaming access can use the SiriusXM app to access its over 200 channels, which can be customized with MySXM. Users will also be able to access archived programming on demand and the app's user interface has been optimized for Apple TV.
Amazon Prime Video finally arrives on Apple TV
Amazon might be fighting with Google over YouTube, but its own streaming service just got a big win. Amazon Prime Video has finally landed on Apple TV, around six months after Tim Cook first said it was coming. After downloading the app, you'll be able to watch Man in the High Castle and other shows provided you have a 3rd-generation or later Apple TV, according to iTunes.
Amazon’s ‘The Last Post’ will premiere in the US on December 22nd
Amazon has announced that Prime Video will be the exclusive streaming platform in the US of the six-part series The Last Post, which recently aired in the UK on BBC One. The show takes place during the mid-1960s in current-day Yemen where, at the time, the British were still occupying the colony of Aden. The Last Post tells the story of the Royal Military Police and their families stationed in Aden around the time that citizens of the region began to rise up against British imperialism.
