When Amazon Inc. announced its move into the movie business last week, the internet retailer sent a ripple through Hollywood’s pool of independent film.
It’s a pool where the major studios do not swim much anymore and where projects get stuck for years for lack of financing. But from its waters also spring many acclaimed films, best picture Oscar nominees like Selma and Whiplash and quite a few commercial successes.
With plans to produce 12 films per year with budgets ranging from $5 million to $25 million, for theatrical release and streaming on Amazon Prime video four to eight weeks later, a digital company is creating a new art-house studio and getting films into consumers’ hands and living rooms faster.
“It’s a great business,” said Mark Gordon, the veteran Hollywood television and film producer behind movies like Saving Private Ryan and the new Steve Jobs biopic.
“By financing a movie they feel good about and knowing where their second window is going to be, there is a huge opportunity for them and the rest of the creative community.”
Amazon’s announcement came as a surprise, but the Seattle-based company had already built up its credibility among Hollywood’s creative types, most notably with its television series Transparent, which won two Golden Globes this month, its first major awards since starting Amazon Studios in 2010.
“They have clearly been able to do it on the episodic side, I see no reason why they can’t do it on the feature film side,” said Franklin Leonard, founder of the Black List, a site where unproduced screenplays are shared with film-makers and producers.
“The real challenge will be getting film-makers in the door who want to make films for Amazon and giving those film-makers the freedom to make the films that become 12 Years a Slave or Birdman,” he said.
Amazon has already drawn Woody Allen to make a new TV series, his first foray on to the small screen. Most of Hollywood’s big studios largely abandoned the dramatic film business to concentrate on action adventure blockbusters and sequels, where there is less risk among a built-in fan base and more likely financial reward.
The real challenge will be getting film-makers in the door who want to make films for Amazon
News of a new, deep-pocketed buyer in the independent sphere would always be welcome, but Amazon’s decision to hire a big name in the independent film world to head up Amazon Original Movies drew special praise.
“It’s exciting, especially because it’s led by Ted Hope, who has a pretty sterling track record in terms of film-making and projects that he’s been involved with,” said Ned Benson, who made his directorial debut with The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, released last year.
Hope was the producer behind films like Eat Drink Man Woman and American Splendor.
The latter won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Director Wash Westmoreland, who made the drama Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore, for $4 million last year, said film-makers like him could get a lift from the likes of Amazon.
“Right now, in independent film, everything is crushed down to budgets below $5 million, so you end shooting in 20 days,” he said. “In the next tier, there is such an expansion with the potential of projects that film-makers are very eager for.”
Production will start later this year.
With the news still fresh, it was hard to find scepticism in Hollywood for Amazon’s grand plans. Even its biggest competitor in the digital original content race, Netflix Inc., threw a rose its way.
“In terms of changing movie distribution, we are really allied in our view that consumers are tired of waiting so long,” Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings told Reuters.
“It may turn out that their entry is quite helpful to help both of us grow in that area.”