Amazon Studios will award filmmakers and screenwriters $2.7 million
with the purpose of developing movies under a first-look deal with
Warner Bros. Pictures
SEATTLE, Nov 16, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today launched Amazon Studios (http://studios.amazon.com),
a new online business that invites filmmakers and screenwriters around
the world to submit full-length movies and scripts to make money, get
discovered and get their movie made. Through the monthly and annual
Amazon Studios Awards, Amazon Studios will offer a total of $2.7 million
to the top submissions received by Dec. 31, 2011, and will seek to
develop the top Amazon Studio projects as commercial feature films under
its first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.
Writers are invited to add scripts to Amazon Studios. Filmmakers are
invited to add full-length test movies to Amazon Studios. Test movies
may be made from your own original script or from any script submitted
to Amazon Studios. Test movies must be full length (more than 70
minutes), but they don't have to be "full budget." While test movies
must include imaginative stories with great acting and sound they don't
need to have theatrical-quality production values. Film fans can review
Amazon Studios scripts and test movies, or even upload alternate,
revised versions. Full-length test movies will introduce public test
screenings to the earliest, formative stages of the movie development
process; the Amazon Studios test movie process is intended to guide a
film's development and assess its potential. Amazon Studios has produced
five test movie samples, in different styles and genres, which can be
found on its Getting Started page (http://studios.amazon.com/getting-started).
"We are excited to introduce writers, filmmakers and movie lovers to
Amazon Studios," said Roy Price, Director of Digital Product
Development. "Full-length test movies will show stories up on their feet
and attract helpful feedback at an early stage. We hope that Amazon
Studios will help filmmakers experiment and collaborate and we look
forward to developing hit movies."
It is the goal of Amazon Studios to produce new, full-budget theatrical
films based on the best projects and it will give Warner Bros. Pictures
first access to the projects Amazon Studios wishes to produce in
cooperation with an outside studio. Under the Amazon Studios development
agreement, if a filmmaker or screenwriter creates a project with an
original script and it is released by Amazon Studios as a theatrical
feature film, the submitter will receive a rights payment of $200,000;
if the movie makes over $60 million at the U.S. box office, the original
filmmaker or screenwriter will receive a $400,000 bonus. If Warner Bros.
Pictures is not inclined to develop a particular project, Amazon Studios
can then produce the project in cooperation with another studio.
Winning screenplays and full-length test movies will be selected on the
basis of commercial viability, which will include consideration of
premise, story, character, dialogue, emotion and other elements of great
movies. The first Amazon Studios industry panelists will include:
screenwriter and chair, Writing Division of the USC School of Cinematic
Arts, Jack Epps, Jr. ("Top Gun," "Dick Tracy"), producer Mark Gill
(former president of Miramax and Warner Independent Pictures),
screenwriter Mike Werb ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," "Curious George,"
"Face/Off," "The Mask") and producer and chair, Production Division of
the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Michael Taylor ("Bottle Rocket," "The
Pursuit of D.B. Cooper").
"Amazon Studios is a great idea. Getting feedback is essential for
creative artists to improve their work," said Jack Epps, writing chair
for USC School of Cinematic Arts. "By letting anyone submit a movie or
screenplay to be considered for a major motion picture, Amazon Studios
is really opening the doors to Hollywood."
In the 2011 Annual Awards, Amazon Studios will award $100,000 to the
best script and $1 million to the best movie submitted by December 31,
2011. To be eligible for the first monthly awards, test movies and
scripts must be uploaded by January 31, 2011. Winners for the first
monthly awards will be announced near the end of February 2011--
$100,000 for the best full-length test movie and $20,000 each for the
two best scripts. The rights payments associated with releasing a
full-budget commercial film (the $200,000 referred to above) are
separate from and come on top of any money awarded to top submissions
through the monthly and annual Amazon Studios Awards.
To learn more about Amazon Studios, check out our video at http://studios.amazon.com.
Amazon Studios web site is operated by Amazon Services LLC.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX are the revolutionary
portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers,
blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink
display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX
utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so
users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1
bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include
Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates
otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center
optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and
strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More
information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc.
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