Cheese and crackers? TV creatives will be breaking down her door for her Velveeta/Ritz treats!
Good bet that Salke and Wolf are already developing it into her debut Prime Series: Chicago Hors d'oeuvres.
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Just what the world needs: another Chicago Fire. Ms.. Salke and Dick will no doubt come up with something original, new and exciting, like LA Fire.
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Luring new talent? Closing Amazon Studios open call for script and concept submissions in April not such a great move then...it’s clear that a writer has to be already IN the system.
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To date Amazon's offerings have been targeted at 12 year olds. Formula dramas, frequently with good actors whose talents are wasted on scripts that could have been written by robots.
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Just please make sure that sexual predators are kept out of it. Go for a clean operation. Let's see proof that it can be done that way.
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If the new head of Amazon Prime is looking for more mainstream ideas, here’s one that worked in a big way for ABC: a comedy about a working-class family where some of the family support Trump and some can’t stand him. You don’t need Ms. Barr with her baggage, it’s just a great idea for a show for these times. Denis Leary might be great for this series, any number of actors could be terrific, you don’t need a toxic star, just a funny one. With over 100,000,000 members, Amazon Prime is a gold mine. Has anyone ever spoken to John Grisham about developing a series? He has some of the most addictive stories pouring out of his imagination, I can see a terrific lawyer show based on one of his books. I think broader strokes is a good direction for their programming.
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Ms. Salke, you are going to need lots of luck if your first decision in your new position was to cancel Mozart in the Jungle! Bring it back!
A "niche" show based in New York City (and Venice and Tokyo and Mexico City....)? Really? Presenting the lives and goals of professional musicians as important and fascinating - and fun - is of limited appeal?
I absolutely loved it - as did most of those viewers who managed to discover it. Please, bring it back.
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Mary, you said it better than I could. Mozart in the Jungle was terrific -- Amazon, bring it back!
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Totally agree. While we’re at it, the second season of Mississippi was great. And they cancelled that as well.
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Good luck Jennifer Salke, you're surely going to need it, lots and lots of it. The media industry is flooded now with the likes of Hollywood, Netflix, and a host of cottage media companies all vying for our money and time.
My own thoughts are get original, pick a time in history that no others or very few have delved into, and a foreign country, like Canada, but a place familiar to North American audiences. Thinking early 1600's and the formation of a country and those settlers that cohabitated and intermarried with the Native Americans. It's all there in the history books. Then there's Fort Detroit, great story there too.
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This “new talent” idea in entertainment...sounds almost....alien. What do you mean I haven’t seen any of these people before?
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Bring back GOOD GIRLS REVOLT! A series based on an historical event that HALF the US population can relate to is not "something small and niche".
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I agree. It couldn’t be more timely.
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My thoughts exactly. I loved that show and so did many viewers.
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I have a feeling the opportunity to lure new talent that is worthwhile has passed.
why would they join?
they have so many options that are not fixer uppers
I'm a Prime Member. But the TV content is not a reason for it. It feels like a collection of cobbled together flea-market content. Some gems in it but they seem random. And I don't count much original content as part of the gem group. Trying to broaden the appeal will likely add to the chaos, would be my guess. But on the other hand,the product can't possibly deteriorate much further.
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"“I’m a killer, and I’m ambitious, and I’m going to compete,” she added."
Sometimes repetition is the greatest form of mockery. Do people really say things like this?
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Hey, it's Hollywood
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It’s now $119 yearly for Amazon Prime. The majority of movies also cost an additional $2.99 to $14.99 to view. The free ones, well, are not great. I will not pay extra for movies after already paying the $119. Netflix has few pay movies; most free after paying the monthly subscription charge. Amazon is a humongous cash register: “ch..ching, ch..ching”.
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Please bring back “Mozart in the Jungle”!!! It’s a fun, fresh dive into the intriguing lives of the characters who create classical music. We love it and we miss it. Amazingly, there’s no violence, cops, lawyers or hospitals involved......
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What does Isa Hackett think about this new president?
Just start by bringing back Good Girls Revolt and One Mississippi.
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Yes! Good Girls Revolt was fabulous!
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What about the cancellation of “Mozart in the Jungle,” one of the most unique shows ever just to remake the Tolkien books? “Mozart” featured the best Mexican actor on the planet (Gael Garcia Bernal) and a story line built around musicians. It was funny, different and award-winning. Such a sad, sad loss.
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Bring back "Good Girls Revolt." Never should have been axed!!
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Great, so Amazon wants to get into movies. I'm gonna march right down to his home in Medina (just up the street from Bill Gates), knock on the door and say, "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Bezos". And since I'm a Prime Member (not really), I expect same day delivery.
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If what is on the air at Fox and NBC is any indication, do not expect much.
A tattooed woman shows up in Times Square and her body is used for clues to solve crimes. Sounds really highbrow.
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Hasn't "Lord of the Rings" been mined to death already by Peter Jackson et al? And yet Amazon's willing to pay $200 million to try and squeeze some more life out of the thing. Good luck with that!
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Why is it that these articles never distinguish between films Amazon actually paid for and produced, and movies on which someone else took all the risks, with Amazon buying the finished product ("Manchester by the Sea"; "The Big Sick")?
In order word, the film division of Amazon Studios is best known for movies it had nothing to do with.
Of course, that kind of account sounds much less like a press release...
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As far as the news has become a vehicle for marketing in the form of breathless gossip about a perky face, this is a superb bit of the art on behalf of Amazon by the NY Times.
Readers may be intrigued by the parallels between a retail distribution service that seeks to develop media creation using its deep customer data, or a telecommunications company such as Verizon that has collected online media brands valuable for their deep customer data, or an online media platform such as Facebook or Google that has found ways to develop social influence (aka, "advertising") methods using its deep customer data.
The big, bright, digital infrastructure of consumption and control that is being nurtured here does not have a perky face, just an interest in profit. More of us need to question where this is headed, and what kind of corporate profit motive is at work behind the perky corporate face.
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Amazon's greatest talent has been oppression of its workers. Who with any real talent would want to link themselves with such an enterprise? They would probably find a way to skin all the creative people, the way they oppress the blue-collar employees.
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I live in Seattle and I am here to tell you that Amazon employees do not look or act oppressed. They have pockets full of money, flaunt it at little tables eating $35 brunches, and drive us out of our cute neighborhoods by agreeing to pay ridiculous rents.
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Please, develop more programming that reflects America's diverse population. I'm not saying Amazon deliver a quota of shows around a particular race, but look at us in real life--at home, at work, and at play--we're no longer the world that existed in the 50s. We're incredibly complicated in race, sex (and sexuality), religion, and politics. We need to see this diversity, especially in today's hyper partisan climate.
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Did you read the article?
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Good for her! Amazon original programming and movie production is the long term end of Hollywood’s closed hold on the industry. Now we have someone out looking for talent that doesnt have to play the Hollywood connection game. Now we access for actresses that aren't compelled to sleep their way to the top (or part).
Just think of Amazon shooting in lower cost locales far, far away from the reaches of California’s tax nightmare. Think of Amazon hiring talent directly all across America. Imagine Amazon hiring the talent, the directors and the writers directly (all outside of Hollywood) and then owning the entire distribution platform for their products (one Firestick is cheaper than a single movie ticket). We might even get some balance of thought and ideology in movies and shows. Where,oh where, will Robert DiNero go to find an echo chamber audience of like minded group-thinkers?
Good riddence Hollywood. It was fun until you ruined it. Best wishes Amazon, but I doubt they will need it.
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You are grossly misinformed about how the biz works.
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Just how does new talent get a chance to be reviewed? I have a screenplay about an older woman using online dating to find a partner yet it's nearly impossible to get any agency to even accept a query letter. And, not everything needs to be episodic.
I am a prime member and have a Netfix subscription yet neither I nor my husband can find anything to watch. Yet another serial killer, a tortured but brilliant detective with a dark past? A remake - LoTR? You have got to be kidding me. GoT was wonderful but I've seen it. Another remake of a remake? Yawn.
My main complaint with prime is that it really need to get a decent search engine. The attic analogy is apt but one gets very tired of looking. The world is fast paced. Finding something to watch on Amazon is not. I've gone back to reading or listening to books.
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That's the kind of movie many of us want to see, but how do we find it? Software that leads you to another movie featuring the same stars, or another movie in a particular genre, like costume dramas, isn't enough. If you really dig, you can find great, hidden movies that aren't filled with chases, explosions, guns, and hand-to-hand combat on the wing of a spaceship.
Will Amazon win the curation wars? Will they go beyond mere data-related decisions and recommendations?
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Therein lies the rub. This industry is (in)famous for its heavy reliance on the original meaning of social networking - you know somebody who knows somebody who...
I hope she surprises us by going both wide and deep - being open to new talent while continuing to attract enough known heavy hitters to get the headlines. It's a bit like being the coach and manager of a baseball team; success at a decent cost requires a willingness to take some risk, picking the right players, and developing talent from the ground up. Hope she'll show the boys how it's done!
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Let’s give her a chance. Right now I’m willing to give Amazon a pass because they picked up THE EXPANSE after SyFi cancelled this great show. If they pick up more genre fiction and do a good job ....YAY! Amazon raised their Prime membership by twenty bucks a year so they should have plenty of mo ey to make films.
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What is frustrating is all the pay per view establishments making great content, but not wanting to pay for all of them. I mean who pays for HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Amazon? I love the variety, the creativity, but wish it was more accessible, less expensive. Most people pick one outlet at 10 bucks a month, like Amazon or Netflix, and miss out on everything else. Maybe Salke and other media leaders can figure out a way to put all of this great content under one affordable price?
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Under Roy Price, Amazon Studios became known for axing shows focused on women (Good Girls Revolt) in favor of sexist throwbacks like Bosch...and apparently wasting millions on men associated with sexual misconduct, like Woody Allen and Casey Affleck. I stopped watching months ago and was planning on dropping my Prime membership this summer. Reading here that they're planning on redoing the Lord of the Rings makes my eyes want to roll out of my head. Tell us some new stories, preferably something other than the tales of white men's adventures we've seen so many times before.
This profile makes me want to give Jennifer Salke a chance to turn things around and Peele and Jenkins are a good start. Still, I disagree with her analysis that earlier offerings were too niche. The solution isn't dumbing down your work to make it appeal to everyone, it's about targeting niches that are hungry for stories that resonate. The audience of so much of Amazon's current slate is already overserved. Why not try serving someone else?
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What is it that you find sexist about Bosch? The female bosses, the female trial attorney who uses Bosch like a punching bag, the mature ex-wife who rejects her ex-husband’s flawed nature?
Sorry if you didn’t care for the show or the books, but you also have to consider that a lot of people watched Bosch and perhaps not so many the other shows you consider more to your liking. We’ve all been there, having our favorite shows poof into nothingness while stuff that doesn’t speak to us at all floods the market.
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I wish with all my heart, no make that retirement savings, little as they are, that the bully monopoly Amazon would just go away.
So tired of it and it's ruthless climb up the ladder to its' trillion dollar takeovers of everything in it's path. Sorry, but I find them ruinous in every definition of the term and refuse to butter their ambitions with my hard earned money.
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If you want a hit on the order of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings is not it. Not only has it been movies, it lacks the intrigue, manipulation, can never tell what will happen next scenario with no holds / visual barred sex and violence that has made GOT.
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"I'm a killer."
"[_____] is a very close friend of mine. We’re talking."
“I’m known for my deep relationships with creative talent.”
Is there a USC class in Trite Memes that these moguls take on their way to the top of the showbiz pyramid? It's hard to believe that anyone's going to revolutionize a medium when they can say a line like "we want to maintain the level of excellence; at the same time, we do want to widen the aperture a little bit" without groaning. If a writer used stuff like that in a script they'd be escorted off the lot.
Draft Two:
"We're in an industry riddled with embedded mediocrity."
"Nobody knows anything." And,
"'Quality' will be 'whatever attracts eyeballs'."
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NBC is the basement of creativity. Dick Wolfe shows are the sub-basement.
Thinking like this does not bode well, ms. Salke. Even for a "killer" like you.
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Please leave a little room for us small, sometimes niche, filmmakers out in the Hinterlands.
Logan Fry
Akron, Ohio
International Trashfilm Producer
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"I'm a killer."
"[_____] is a very close friend of mine."
Are we joking? It's hard to believe that anyone's going to revolutionize a medium when they can say a line like "we want to maintain the level of excellence; at the same time, we do want to widen the aperture a little bit" without groaning. If a writer used stuff like that in a script they'd be escorted off the lot. Is there some class in Trite Memes that these moguls take on their way to the top of the showbiz pyramid?
Draft Two:
"We're in an industry riddled with embedded mediocrity."
"Nobody knows anything." And,
"'Quality' will be 'whatever attracts eyeballs'."
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appealing to everyone... if this is Amazon's goal, please explain how many of its shows fit that bill? You mean not questioning White Male dominance with weak white capitalist feminism or anti-racism that denounces slavery and nothing else? and then stuff for straight White guys. So tired of this type of leadership, seeking to make money by maintaining the status quo and thinking of everyone as conservative White America. Why bother running a media company like this? we already have Disney, CBS and NBC and Fox. Boring and not sure getting free delivery with diapers is worth prime membership, certainly won't be for programming not made for liberals like. This interview makes me want to quit now. Tig's show was for everyone, btw, everyone who believes in love and equality and freedom and has a heart.
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Amazon Prime video still has the borderline chaotic feel of rummaging around your grandparents’ attic, good and bad. Lots of puzzling junk but enough gems to keep you clicking and engaged. Those gems can often be quirky and not appeal to many (e.g., Patriot, a twisted, darkly comedic take on modern spycraft, not quite the equal of BBC’s Killing Eve, but not bad, and Red Oaks, an unashamedly nostalgic look at 80s suburban life). It’ll be interesting to see whether the new leadership combines production discipline with enough quantity and diversity to appeal to all tastes in a way that can rival Netflix.
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