Amazon Moves into Animation

Press release from Amazon Studios:

SEATTLE, WA -- Amazon.com announced that Amazon Studios [1] is expanding its development efforts into comedy and children’s series. Amazon Studios is Amazon’s content development division that uses audience feedback to identify great, original entertainment customers will love. Starting today, series creators are invited to upload their proposals for comedy and children’s programming to Amazon Studios at http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started/series [2]. The best comedy and children’s series will be distributed through Amazon Instant Video, Amazon’s digital video streaming service. 

“Amazon Studios wants to discover great talent and produce programming that audiences will love,” said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. “In the course of developing movies, we’ve heard a lot of interest from content creators who want to develop original series in the comedy and children’s genres. We are excited to bring writers, animators and directors this new opportunity to develop original series.”

Each month, Amazon Studios intends to option one promising new project and add it to the development slate where it will be tested for viability with an audience.  If Amazon Studios elects to distribute a full-budget series, the creator will receive a $55,000 payment, up to five percent of Amazon’s net receipts from toy and t-shirt licensing, and other royalties and bonuses. Amazon Studios’ production company, the People’s Production Company is signatory to the Writers Guild of America and to The Animation Guild, Local 839.

To submit, a project must have a five-page description, along with a 22-minute pilot script for comedies, or an 11-minute pilot script for children’s shows. Within 45 days of submission, Amazon Studios will either extend an option on the project for $10,000 or invite the creator to add the project to the Amazon Studios site.  If a project is not optioned, creators may remove their idea from the Amazon Studios site or leave it to get community feedback. 

Amazon Studios new series development is led by Joe Lewis, previously with 20^th Century Fox and Comedy Central and Tara Sorensen, formerly with National Geographic Kids.

Amazon Studios launched in November 2010. Since then, more than 700 test movies and 7,000 scripts have been submitted and 15 movie projects are currently under development.