Amazon Studios announces Autumn lineup including Transparent and Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle
Amazon Studios has revealed the air dates for this autumn’s much anticipated run of original shows, including the critically acclaimed series Transparent. See below for more information on each show as well as the newly announced premiere dates and brand new clips.
Transparent
Season 2 – 4th December 2015
Now in its second season, the critically acclaimed series follows an LA family with serious boundary issues that have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone’s secrets to spill out. Series creator Jill Soloway was inspired to write Transparent as a pseudo homage to her father who came out as transgender later in life.
Starring Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), the series follows Maura Pfefferman, the family patriarch who realised at an early age that something just didn’t sit well with the gender ascribed to her. With her life calming down in her elder years, she finally finds the strength to introduce her real self to her three children, played by: Gaby Hoffmann (Wild, Field of Dreams), Amy Landecker (Project Almanac), and Jay Duplass (The Mindy Project).
The show also stars Judith Light (Dallas, Who’s the Boss?) as Maura’s ex-wife. Transparent became the first streaming series to ever win a Golden Globe under a best series category, winning for ‘Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical.’
Watch the first season here
The Man in the High Castle – 20th November 2015
Based on Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award-winning 1962 alternative history novel, one-hour drama series The Man in the High Castle explores what would have happened if the Allied Powers had lost World War II.
Some 17 years after that loss, the United States and much of the world has now been split between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, the dominating global powers. As tension mounts between the two hegemonic states, a resistance starts to grow as the United States citizens rise against the oppressive regimes.
The Man in the High Castle stars Alexa Davalos (Mob City) as Juliana Crain, Luke Kleintank (Pretty Little Liars) as Joe Blake, Rupert Evans (The Village) as Frank Frink, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat Legacy) as Tagomi, Joel De La Fuente (Hemlock Grove) as Inspector Kido, Rufus Sewell (Eleventh Hour) as John Smith and DJ Qualls (Z Nation) as Ed McCarthy.
The pilot was directed by David Semel (Madam Secretary, Heroes) and written by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), both serving as Executive Producers. Also executive producing are Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and David W. Zucker (The Good Wife), with co-executive producer Jordan Sheehan of Scott Free Productions (The Good Wife, The Andromeda Strain), and Executive Producers Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute of Headline Pictures (The Invisible Woman). In addition, Isa Dick Hackett will executive produce and Kalen Egan will co-executive produce on behalf of Electric Shepherd (The Adjustment Bureau). Christopher Tricarico (May in the Summer) is also Executive Producer.
Watch the pilot here
Hand of God – 4th September 2015
Created by Ben Watkins (Burn Notice), and marking the television debut of renowned filmmaker Marc Forster (World War Z), Hand of God stars Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy) as the honourable justice Pernell Harris.
The show centres on Judge Harris, a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on “visions” and “messages” he believes are being sent by God through Pernell’s ventilator-bound son.
Hand of God also stars Dana Delany (Body of Proof) as the Judge’s protective wife Crystal Harris, Garret Dillahunt (Justified) as KD, the born-again sociopath whose violent tendencies are exploited by Pernell, Andre Royo (The Wire) as the slick, smart, gregarious, and greedy mayor Robert ‘Bobo’ Boston, Alona Tal (Burn Notice) as Pernell’s grieving daughter-in-law Jocelyn Harris, Julian Morris (Pretty Little Liars) as the questionable preacher Paul Curtis, Elizabeth McLaughlin (Betrayal) as the preacher’s sultry girlfriend Alicia, and Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere) as Pernell’s call girl and confidante Tessie.
Watkins, Forster, Perlman, Brian Wilkins (Lost in America) and Jeff King (White Collar) are Executive Producers, and Jillian Kugler (World War Z) is co-Executive Producer. Additionally, a number of great guest stars have signed on from Lance Bass to Erykah Badu.
Watch the pilot here
Red Oaks – 9th October 2015
Directed by Sundance award-winner David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Eastbound and Down) and executive produced by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven), Red Oaks stars Craig Roberts (Submarine) as David Meyers, an assistant tennis pro at the Red Oaks Country Club in suburban New Jersey in 1985.
David is both reeling from his father’s heart attack and conflicted about what college major to declare in the autumn; his father Sam Meyers is played by Richard Kind (Luck). While there, David meets a colorful cast of misfit co-workers and wealthy club members including an alluring art student named Skye, played by Alexandra Socha, and her corporate raider father Getty played by Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Ennis Esmer as Nash.
A coming-of-age comedy set in the “go-go” 80s that is equal parts hijinks and heartfelt, Red Oaks is about enjoying a last hurrah before summer comes to an end—and the future begins. Red Oaks also stars Jennifer Grey (It’s Like, You Know) as Judy Meyers, Oliver Cooper (Californication) as Wheeler and Gage Golightly as Karen. Red Oaks is written by Gregory Jacobs (The Knick) and Joe Gangemi (Eliza Graves). Soderbergh, Green, Jacobs, and Gangemi are Executive Producers.
Watch the pilot here
Mozart in the Jungle Season 2 – January 2016
Video assets: http://youtu.be/j1woe2EWQxs
Seen through the eyes of young oboist Hailey, played by Lola Kirke (Gone Girl), Mozart in the Jungle follows Hailey as she tries to navigate through the egos and eccentricities of the renowned New York Symphony. The show stars Gael García Bernal as the symphony’s new conductor Rodrigo DeSousa, an enfant terrible whose passion for music threatens the plans of the orchestra’s old guard.
The musicians themselves, a colourful family of disparate personalities, are struggling to deal with this new regime. The series also stars Saffron Burrows (Quitters, Troy), Hannah Dunne (5 Flights Up), Malcolm McDowell (Entourage, A Clockwork Orange) and Bernadette Peters (Smash). Based on the critically acclaimed memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs & Classical Music by Blair Tindall.
Watch the first season here
