Seven new comedy, drama and docuseries pilots are available, including hour-long shows Cocked, Mad Dogs, Man in the High Castle and Point of Honor, half-hour shows Down Dog and Salem Rogers, and half-hour docuseries The New Yorker Presents
Six new kids pilots are available, including preschool projects Buddy: Tech Detective, Sara Solves It and The Stinky & Dirty Show, as well as 6-11 animated show Niko and the Sword of Light, and 6-11 live-action shows Table 58 and Just Add Magic
Pilots come from a talented creative roster including Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), Carlton Cuse (Lost), Randall Wallace (Braveheart), Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Brad Silberling (Jane the Virgin, Lemony Snicket's…), Mark Waters (Mean Girls), Academy and Emmy Award winning director Alex Gibney (The Armstrong Lie), Angela Santomero (Blue’s Clues), and Carol Greenwald (Arthur)
SEATTLE — (BUSINESS WIRE) — January 15, 2015 — (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon Studios today announced its first pilot season of 2015 is now available on Amazon Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany. Seven drama, comedy and docuseries pilots have premiered, including hour-long shows Cocked from Samuel Baum (Lie to Me) and Sam Shaw (Manhattan—TV series), Mad Dogs from Cris Cole (The Bill) and Shawn Ryan (The Shield), Man in the High Castle from Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), and Point of Honor from Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Randall Wallace (Braveheart). In addition, pilots for two half-hour shows have debuted, including Down Dog from Robin Schiff (Are You There, Chelsea?) and Salem Rogers from Will Graham (Onion News Network) and newcomer Lindsey Stoddart, along with a documentary series, The New Yorker Presents, inspired by non-fiction and fiction material from one of the most acclaimed and longest running publications, The New Yorker. The New Yorker Presents is Executive Produced by Oscar and Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (The Armstrong Lie).
Four animated kids pilots—Buddy: Tech Detective, The Stinky & Dirty Show, Sara Solves It, Niko and the Sword of Light—join two live-action kids pilots—Table 58 and Just Add Magic—from a brilliantly talented roster of creative talent, including May Chan (Phineas & Ferb), Carol Greenwald (Arthur), Jennifer Hamburg (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood), Rob Hoegee (Generator Rex), Guy Toubes (The Adventures of Chuck & Friends), Angela Santomero (Creative Galaxy), and Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco (Sullivan & Son).
Customers once again are now invited to watch and provide feedback on the shows they want to see turned into full series. All pilots are available via the Amazon Instant Video app on Fire TV, Roku, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, and certain smart TVs. They can also use the Amazon Instant Video app to watch on mobile devices, including Fire tablets, Fire phone, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android phones, as well as hundreds of other connected devices—or customers can visit Amazon.com/PIV to watch online. The six new kids pilots are also available as part of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, the all-you-can-eat subscription service designed from the ground up for kids—FreeTime Unlimited is available exclusively on Amazon devices including Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets, and a year-long subscription is included with every Fire HD Kids Edition.
“We look forward to seeing our customers’ response to the year’s first pilot season,” said Roy Price, Vice President, Amazon Studios. “We’re thrilled about these projects and the great talent and passion behind them.”
Amazon’s comedy and drama pilots include:
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Cocked
Created by Samuel Baum (Lie to Me) and Sam Shaw (Manhattan—TV series), Cocked stars Sam Trammell (True Blood) as Richard Paxson, a family man and corporate lap dog who left his family in rural Colorado twenty years before and vowed never to go back. After some unfortunate circumstances, he is forced to leave the big city and return home to help his family’s gun business—one of the oldest in the country. But no good deed goes unpunished. Older brother Grady Paxson, played by Jason Lee ( My Name is Earl ), who’s a bachelor, playboy and gun aficionado, isn’t so happy to have him back, and Richard’s liberal wife and two opinionated teenage children are horrified by the world they have been thrown into. Hilarity, epic fights and emotional breakdowns ensue. Cocked also stars Tony award-winning Brian Dennehy ( Death of a Salesman ) as Wade Paxson and Laura Fraser ( Breaking Bad ) as Hannah Paxson, and Dreama Walker ( The Good Wife ) as Tabby Paxson. The hour-long dark comedy pilot was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts ( Skull Island ), and Erwin Stoff ( Unbroken ) and Baum are Executive Producers. -
Down Dog
Blessed with good looks, a winning smile, hippie parents, and a Southern California upbringing, life has been relatively easy thus far for Logan Wood (played by Josh Casaubon , I Just Want My Pants Back ). In his late 30's, having coasted through romances with countless women and various random jobs, he now teaches yoga to the trophy wives, hot moms and aspiring celebrities of Santa Monica and Venice Beach. But when Logan and his current girlfriend, a successful and attractive older woman named Amanda (played by Paget Brewster , Criminal Minds ) who happens to be the owner of the yoga studio, break up, life starts to get more complicated. Down Dog also stars Lyndsy Fonseca ( How I Met Your Mother ), Will Greenberg ( Halt and Catch Fire ), Andrea Savage ( The Life and Times of Tim ), Amir Talai ( American Dad ), Kris Kristofferson ( Lone Star ), and Alysia Reiner ( Orange is the New Black ). The pilot was written by Robin Schiff ( Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion ), produced by Bob Cooper ( RFK ) and Michael Fuchs ( Death in the Modern Age ), and directed by Bradley Silberling ( Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events ). -
Mad Dogs
Mad Dogs is an hour-long dark comedy drama created by Cris Cole ( The Good Times Are Killing Me ), and Executive Produced by Cole, Shawn Ryan ( The Shield ) and Marney Hochman ( Last Resort ), Andy Harries ( Strikeback ), Suzanne Mackie ( Kinky Boots ), and Charles McDougall ( The Good Wife ). Based on the hit UK series , Mad Dogs follows the reunion of a group of underachieving forty-something friends—a mixture of single, married and recently divorced, all seemingly at crossroads in their lives. Celebrating the early retirement of an old friend at his gorgeous Belizean villa, grudges begin to emerge and secrets explode as their trip becomes a labyrinthine nightmare of lies, deception and murder. Mad Dogs is a twisted tale of friendship put to the ultimate test. As the chain of events unfolds, cracks within the group widen before the friends realize the only people they can trust are each other, the last people they should be relying on! The pilot stars Steve Zahn ( Dallas Buyers Club ) as Cobi, Billy Zane ( Titanic ) as Milo, Romany Malco ( Weeds ) as Gus, Michael Imperioli ( The Sopranos ) as Lex and Ben Chaplin ( The Thin Red Line ) as Joel. Mad Dogs was directed by McDougall and is being co-produced with Sony Pictures Television. -
The Man in the High Castle
Based on Philip K. Dick's Hugo Award-winning 1962 alternative history, The Man in the High Castle considers the question of what would have happened if the Allied Powers had lost World War II. Almost 20 years after that loss, the United States and much of the world has now been split between Japan and Germany, the major hegemonic states. But the tension between these two powers is mounting, and this stress is playing out in the western U.S. Through a collection of characters in various states of posing (spies, sellers of falsified goods, others with secret identities), The Man in the High Castle provides an intriguing tale about life and history as it relates to authentic and manufactured reality. The hour-long dramatic pilot stars Alexa Davalos ( Mob City ) as Juliana Crain, Luke Kleintank ( Pretty Little Liars ) as Joe Blake, Rupert Evans ( The Village ) as Frank Frink, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa ( Mortal Kombat Legacy ) as Tagomi, Joel De La Fuente ( Hemlock Grove ) as Inspector Kido, Rufus Sewell ( Eleventh Hour ) as John Smith and DJ Qualls ( Z Nation ) as Ed McCarthy. The pilot was directed by David Semel ( Madam Secretary , Heroes ) and written by Frank Spotnitz ( The X-Files ), both serving as Executive Producers. Also executive producing are Ridley Scott ( Blade Runner ) and David W. Zucker ( The Good Wife ), with co-executive producer Jordan Sheehan of Scott Free Productions ( The Good Wife, The Andromeda Strain ), and Executive Producers Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute of Headline Pictures ( The Invisible Woman ). In addition, Isa Dick Hackett will executive produce and Kalen Egan will co-executive produce on behalf of Electric Shepherd ( The Adjustment Bureau ). Christopher Tricarico ( May in the Summer ) is also Executive Producer. -
The New Yorker Presents
America’s most award-winning magazine comes to life in this half-hour docuseries pilot. The New Yorker Presents is a completely unique viewing experience that features Tony-Award winner Alan Cumming ( The Good Wife ) and actor Brett Gelman ( Go On ) in a short film based on a story by Simon Rich ( Saturday Night Live ) and directed by Emmy Award-winning director Troy Miller ( Arrested Development ); a poem by Matthew Dickman and narrated by Andrew Garfield ( The Amazing Spiderman ); a documentary by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme ( The Silence of the Lambs ) about biologist Tyrone Hayes based on a Rachel Aviv article; and an interview with famous performance artist, Marina Abramović , conducted by The New Yorker writer Ariel Levy . Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney ( Taxi to the Dark Side ) is Executive Producer, joined by Dave Snyder ( Death Row Stories ) and Dawn Ostroff ( The Fashion Fund ). The pilot is co-produced by Condé Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions. -
Point of Honor
At the start of the Civil War, a Virginia family, led by their West Point bred son, John Rhodes (played by Nathan Parsons , True Blood ), makes the controversial decision to defend the South while freeing all of their slaves. At battle against his northern brethren and his best friend and brother-in-law Robert Sumner (played by Christopher O’Shea , Baby Daddy ), John leaves his three strong-willed sisters at home to run the plantation that is now without a free labor source. The choice to protect the life they have always known and defend the moral high ground will pit the family against one another and test their strength, courage and love. An hour-long drama shot entirely on-location in historic Virginia, Point of Honor also stars Annabelle Stephenson ( Revenge ) as Kate Rhodes, Riley Voelkel ( The Newsroom ) as Lorelei Rhodes, Hanna Mangan Lawrence ( Old School ) as Estella Rhodes, Patrick Heusinger ( Revolution ) as Colonel Palmer Kane, Luke Benward ( Ravenswood ) as Garland Rhodes, Adrienne Warren ( Black Box ) as Abby, Lucien Laviscount ( Waterloo Road ) as Elijah, and James Harvey Ward ( Low Winter Sun ) as Cutler. The pilot was directed by Randall Wallace ( Braveheart ), written by Carlton Cuse ( Lost ) and Wallace, and Executive Produced by Cuse, Wallace and Barry Jossen ( Sex and the City ). Point of Honor is a co-production with ABC Signature Studios. -
Salem Rogers
A half-hour comedy, Leslie Bibb ( About a Boy ) plays Salem Rogers, an overly confident, blunt, hard-partying former supermodel who is forced to face her past and re-enter the real world after ten years in a posh rehab center. Intent on recreating her glamorous lifestyle and modeling success, she tracks down Agatha (played by Rachel Dratch , Saturday Night Live ), her former assistant who has since built a career as an author of self-help books to help her win back the spotlight. Salem Rogers also stars Jane Kaczmarek ( Malcolm in the Middle ), Brad Morris ( Playing House ), Harry Hamlin ( Mad Men ), Toks Olagundoye ( The Neighbors ), and Scott Adsit ( 30 Rock ). The pilot was written by newcomer Lindsey Stoddart , Executive Produced by Will Graham ( The Onion News Network ) and directed by Mark Waters ( Mean Girls ). Salem Rogers was submitted to Amazon as part of the studio’s open screenplay submission process.