“Get Out” producer Jordan Peele has signed a deal that will give Amazon first pick of any new television series coming out of Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions company. Monkeypaw is responsible for “Get Out” and the Key & Peele comedy series. Peele gained fame as half of the comedy team of Key & Peele before winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay, the first African-American to win the award.
Peele has wasted no time and already has a list projects lined up for production. Among them are a documentary series based on the Lorena Bobbitt incident and a series titled “The Hunt,” the story of Nazi hunters in 1970s New York.
Peele also signed a similar first-look deal with Universal Pictures last year for his movies including a Twilight Zone reboot.
In a statement Peele said “I couldn’t be more excited about this new relationship with Amazon. They’ve been a fantastic partner to Monkey Paw over the last year because they’re committed to the same kind of fun and culturally relevant television we are.”
Peele’s next project is “BlacKkKLansman” produced by Peele, Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, and Spike Lee. The film is about a black cop infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and recently debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.
Barry Jenkins
Barry Jenkins, Oscar-winning writer and director of “Moonlight,” has agreed with Amazon to produce 11 episodes of the “Underground Railroad.” The dramatic series is based on the highly touted alternate-history book of the same name. The deal is actually an extension of last year’s effort to adapt the book into a dramatic series. Amazon like what it received and has moved forward with the series. Jenkins directed a single episode of “Dear White People” for Netflix.
Jennifer Salke, Amazon Studios chief said in a statement, “It’s an absolute gift to have Barry Jenkins commit to directing all the episodes for our upcoming limited series The Underground Railroad. Barry’s eye for character and sustained exhilarating, emotional storytelling style ensures that this project is in the right hands. We can’t wait to get started and bring this significant story to our Prime Video audience.”
Amazon has not yet announced a premiere date for the series but expect it sometime in 2019 on Prime Video.
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