Amazon reportedly wants to develop a 'Mass Effect' TV show

EA/BioWare

Amazon Studios' next fantasy series might be based on Electronic Arts and BioWare's Mass Effect franchise. There are no details about this rumour. But Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline it is "continuing to invest in fantasy genre of all kinds, we have a genre-focused team on the ground in Studios who work tirelessly with our creative partners on those slates, and you can look forward to more."

This isn't the first rumour about the franchise, though. EA recently said the TV series is "not a matter of if, but when." The Witcher star Henry Cavill hinted at the series in a cryptic Instagram post earlier this year. If this rumour mill keeps turning, we might just hear more about it sooner than later. 

Source: The Verge

Apple hires three Amazon Studios execs

Planet of the Apps is Apple's first venture into making an original TV show

While Apple lost one of its chip designers to Google, they’ve gained three new executives from Amazon Studios. One of them is Tara Sorensen, who has led Amazon’s children programming. She will be taking on a similar role at Apple. She will be reporting to Apple’s chief content officers Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg. She’s joined by Amazon’s international development executive Carina Walker and business affairs chief Tara Pietri. Walker will also serve as an international creative executive for Apple where she will report to fellow Amazon alum Morgan Wandell, while Pietri will leads Apple’s legal affairs division. The move shows us how heavily Apple is pushing its original programming agenda.

Source: Variety

Amazon Studios cuts ties with Weinstein Company

After reports that detailed sexual harassment and abuse by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced, Amazon Studios decided it no longer wanted to work with Weinstein’s studio. The studio has even cancelled a two-season mafia crime television drama from Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell, which had Weinstein as an executive producer. It was set to star heavy names in the industry like Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, and Michael Shannon. The stars released a statement claiming they supported Amazon’s decision even as the cancellation comes at a high price—with a budget of US$160 million for both seasons.

One other production Weinstein co-produced will be pushing through but without the Weinstein Company’s support. This is from Mad Men’s creator Matthew Weiner and is called The Romanoffs. Amazon makes this move following the suspension of its studio head, Roy Price, who is also being accused of sexual harassment.

Source: The Verge

Create the next Breaking Bad with Amazon's Storybuilder online screenwriting tool

Amazon's come out of the blue with a cloud-based screenwriting tool called Storybuilder which takes a corkboard approach to writing TV or Movie scripts. Accessible from any online browser, Storybuilder is collaborative and easy to use and one can integrate image files, tags and notes while sharing with other users. Intersting service for Amazon and its Amazon Studios subsidiary.