David Farnor | On 26, Sep 2016

John Hawkes will play the lead in Amazon’s The Legend of Master Legend pilot.

Directed by James Ponsoldt and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, the show is based on Joshuah Bearman’s Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes and follows Master Legend and his sidekick, The Ace.

Now, we know who Master Legend is – Hawkes, who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting turn in Winter’s Bone, will play the eponymous man, who tries to defend justice and defeat wrongdoers on the Las Vegas Strip.

Shooting begins in October.

 

James Ponsoldt to direct Amazon’s The Legend of Master Legend pilot

18th September 2016

James Ponsoldt will direct Amazon’s pilot, The Legend of Master Legend.

The comedy show, written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, is part of Amazon Studios’ next line-up of pilots, which includes a series from Guillermo del Toro, a show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy-Sherman Palladino and Strange New Things, an epic adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2014 novel.

Based on Joshuah Bearman’s Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes, The Legend of Master Legend follows Master Legend and his sidekick, The Ace. While little else is know about the project, Deadline reports that shooting begins next month – and Ponsoldt will be at the helm.

The news is a promising sign for the pilot’s quality: Ponsoldt has been behind some impressive indie films in recent years, including Smashed and The Spectacular Now. Indeed, Amazon has a track record for attracting veterans of the indie scene, with David Gordon Green helming the pilot for its 80s comedy Red Oaks, which went on to become a full series and has since been renewed for a second season. Ponsoldt, meanwhile, is no stranger to the streaming scene either: he also directed the pilot for Aziz Ansari’s Master of None at Netflix.

 

House of Cards’ Rachel Brosnahan takes lead in Amazon’s Mrs. Maisel pilot

6th August 2016

House of Cards’ Rachel Brosnahan is taking the lead in the pilot for Amazon’s new series, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel.

Written and exec-produced by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, the comedy-drama follows Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a 1950s housewife who decides to be one of the first female stand-up comedians.

Aged 25, the sunny, sharp and energetic girl is married and living in NYC with her two kids and a husband who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. When he leaves her for another woman, though, Midge goes on to build her new life – and her own comedy career on the stage.

The lead role marks a step up from the supporting role of Rachel Posner in House of Cards, where Brosnahan impressed for several seasons and bagged an Emmy nomination. Indeed, Brosnahan has also landed a lead role in another of Amazon’s original projects: Woody Allen’s new TV series.

She can next be seen in your living room in Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs, which arrives on DVD and VOD on 15th August 2016.

 

Guillermo del Toro drama joins Strange New Things in new Amazon pilot line-up

9th June 2016

Amazon has reportedly ordered a new pilot from Guillermo del Toro, along with four others.

Amazon has just announced its new pilot season, including shows such as The Interestings (directed by Mike Newell) and The Last Tycoon (starring Kelsey Grammar). While those will arrive on 17th June, though, Deadline has got the drop on the VOD service’s next run of pilots, including Strange New Things, which we reported on earlier this year, and a new Guillermo del Toro project.

Carival Row is the del Toro drama, which is co-produced with Legendary TV and created by the Pacific Rim director and his co-writer Travis Beacham. The series is based on Beachman’s supernatural feature spec script he wrote years ago, called A Killing on Carnival Row. The story takes place in the future in a city populated by a variety of creatures – including a serial killer. After the feature production never got off the ground, Amazon reportedly signed a deal for the project last year, with three scripts ordered, co-written with The 4400’s Rene Echeverria. Echevarria is showrunner on the series, with all three of them exec producing, alongside Gary Ungar.

del Toro has recently been working on Netflix’s original animated show Trollhunters with DreamWorks Animation. The deal with Amazon marks the second major streaming project del Toro has been involved with, indicating the kind of talent that the SVOD giants are keen to attract.

Another talent heading from Netflix to its rival is Amy-Sherman Palladino. The Gilmore Girls creator, who is reuniting the girls for a Netflix mini-series, is writing and exec-producing the pilot for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, about a 1950s housewife who decides to be one of the first female stand-up comedians.

The third of Amazon’s new pilots is The Legend of Master Legend, a comedy by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, based on Joshuah Bearman’s Rolling Stone article about real-life superheroes. All three are executive producers. It follows Master Legend and his sidekick, the Ace.

The fourth is Tropicana, a drama set in pre-revolutionary Cuba and written by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz, and exec produced by Andrea Simon. The show revolves around a nightclub called The Tropicana, a hive of entertainers, gangsters, Batista loyalists, Castro revolutionaries and the CIA.

They all join Strange New Things, an epic adaptation of Michel Faber’s 2014 novel, The Book of Strange New Things. Matt Charman is penning the adaptation, hot on the heels of his script for Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, The Last King of Scotland’s Kevin Macdonald will direct, and Brian Eno will provide the music.

The show follows an English pastor, Peter Leigh, who journeys into deep space, a voyage that takes him light years from his wife, Bea. The epic project has been described as a “major statement of intent” for the streaming service. Indeed, it sees Amazon join forces with producers Left Bank Pictures, who are currently working on Netflix’s equally ambitious drama, The Crown, penned by Peter Morgan and starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith.

We’ll let you know more about the pilots when Amazon officially announces a line-up and release date. You can expect its next pilot season to arrive in autumn.

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