Amazon’s Third Round Of Pilots To Arrive On August 28th

Four months after its first entries were announced, Amazon‘s third pilot season is set to debut. On August 28th, the web retailer’s digital studio will debut the first episodes of five different series.

The five series included in this round of Amazon’s pilot season are The Cosmopolitans, a dramedy with Adam Brody and Chloe Sevigny; Hand of God, a drama with Ron Perlman; Really, a comedy from director Jay Chandrasekhar; Hysteria, a thriller starring Mena Suvari; and Red Oaks, a comedy produced by Steven Soderbergh and directed by David Gordon Green. As in Amazon’s previous competitions, viewers will be invited to view each pilot and offer their ratings for each. After accruing enough data, Amazon will use this viewer feedback to help choose which of the competing series to green-light.

The launch of the five pilots will kick off a busy period for Amazon Studios

. In September, the first new series to emerge from the last pilot season will debut when Transparent takes its place on Amazon Instant Video. Transparent will be followed by Mozart in the Jungle in December and both Bosch and The After in early 2015. Alpha House, the last remaining non-children’s series from Amazon’s first pilot season, will return for its second season in October.

This broader distribution timeline is a sharp contrast to the tight schedule Amazon used for its first round of original series. The platform’s first two offerings, Alpha House and Betas, arrived within a week of each other. By spreading out its releases, Amazon Video is giving itself more chances to draw significant public attention. It all begins with the latest pilot season, which, given the quality of the names involved, should be a strong batch.