Woody Allen is doing a series for Amazon
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Version 0 of 1. It’s been an exciting week for Amazon. The company’s original show “Transparent” made history by becoming the first online series to win a Golden Globe for best series. (The show’s lead, Jeffrey Tambor, also took home an award.) And now, there’s more big news: According to Hollywood Reporter, Amazon has signed prolific auteur Woody Allen to write and direct a series. Details are scarce so far, except that it will be a half-hour show, and it will be available next year for Amazon Prime subscribers. (Here’s where we make the obligatory disclosure that Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post.) **RELATED: Why has Woody Allen’s career survived and Bill Cosby’s has not?** The news seems to indicate that Amazon is trying to corner the market on bringing the art house to your living room with high-quality shows that have more of a niche appeal. In addition to “Transparent,” which focuses on a transgender woman (Tambor), whose kids are coming to terms with the fact that their father is now their mother, Amazon’s other original shows include “Mozart in the Jungle,” written by frequent Wes Anderson collaborators Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, plus Alex Timbers. Last year’s pilots also included “The Cosmopolitans,” a show written and directed by indie favorite Whit Stillman, and “Red Oaks,” a comedy executive-produced by Stephen Soderbergh. Netflix, meanwhile, seems to be more focused on finding a broad audience. Last year, the streaming service inked a multi-film deal with Adam Sandler. Allen was in the news a lot last year for reasons unrelated to his movies, after Mia Farrow’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, took to the editorial pages of the New York Times to publicly accuse Allen of sexual molestation. Allen later refuted the accusation. But none of the controversy has slowed down Allen, who releases roughly one movie a year. In 2014, that movie was the tepidly-received romantic comedy “Magic in the Moonlight,” starring Colin Firth and Emma Stone. (Allen releases roughly one good movie every two years.) Stone is once again collaborating with Allen, on his 2015 movie. That untitled film co-stars Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey and Jamie Blackley. Allen is generally secretive about his plot details, though photos taken during filming in Connecticut last summer seem to indicate a romantic plot. What to expect from the Amazon series? We’ll go out on a limb and predict a neurotic lead character, a May-December relationship and possibly some psychic visions or old-Europe tourism. |