After its Golden Globes success with Transparent, Amazon continues to pursue its television revolution. The network signed Woody Allen, the controversial, critically acclaimed director of film like Annie Hall and Blue Jasmine, to create his first ever television series.
Not much is known about the new series other than that it is being called the “Untitled Woody Allen Project,” and that it will be a half-hour series available to Prime Instant Video customers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. Amazon has yet to release a premiere date or casting information.
“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 (Amazon’s Vice President) will regret this,” Allen said in a statement released by Amazon Studios. The director isn’t completely new to the medium. In the 1950s, he wrote scripts for shows like Ed Sullivan and Sid Caesar. Still, for the notorious technophobe, an online television show marks a major departure.
Amazon’s decision to work with Allen, who has been at the center of a sexual abuse scandal involving his ex-wife’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, will likely generate a fair amount of criticism and controversy. For now, Amazon is standing behind the director.
“Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honor to be working with him on his first television series,” Price said.
Over the weekend, Amazon took home two Golden Globe awards for its first original series, Transparent, a show from Jill Soloway about a transgender parent in a Jewish family. The series won the award for best comedy and the show’s star, Jeffrey Tambor, won for best actor in a television comedy.
Tal Trachtman is an intern at Tablet.
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Tal Trachtman Alroy is an intern at Tablet.