Woody Allen working for Amazon? No, don’t go expecting him to show up when you order that copy of The Goldfinch online from the cyber-shopping behemoth: the man behind films such as Manhattan, **Annie Hall **and Blue Jasmine has agreed to create a TV series for the company’s increasingly successful Prime Video service.
It’s just another coup for the service, which scored a big victory this weekend when its buzzed-about drama Transparent picked up awards at the Golden Globes.
And while Amazon has been using a pilot system that lets viewers/customers decide which shows go ahead – locking the likes of X-Files man Chris Carter and director Whit Stillman into the process – convention is being thrown to the wind for Allen, who will go straight to series with his show. Beyond the fact that it’s being aimed at a release slot next year, nothing has been revealed about the show, not even a title (since when does Allen ever reveal those until as late as possible?), so expect casting and plot news to follow along soon. Could it be the story of love and life between an older man and a younger woman?
“Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honour to be working with him on his first television series,” says Amazon Studios vice president Roy Price in an enthusiastic statement. “From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn’t be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year.”
Allen himself was typically self-deprecating. “I don’t know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I’m not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Price will regret this.” Allen got his start writing for TV series such as The Sid Caesar Show and General Electric Theatre, so it’s not like he doesn’t know how TV works... And it’ll be fascinating to see what he comes up with.