Buzzworthy and award-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele has inked a first-look TV deal with Amazon Studios through his Monkeypaw Productions. In addition to Peele, Amazon operates overall TV deals with Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and Stranger Things alum Justin Doble. Meanwhile, competitor Netflix has inked deals with Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes that are rumored to have cost the streamer hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Get Out auteur formerly had a first-look TV deal with Sonar Entertainment, with whom he produced Nazi-hunting drama The Hunt. Amazon tendered a straight-to-series order for The Hunt last month, Deadline reports, marking the first scripted series order under the company’s new studio head Jennifer Salke. The Hunt follows a diverse band of so-called Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City who discover that hundreds of Nazi officials are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S.
Peele is also working on a four-part docuseries titled Lorena for Amazon that will tell the story of Lorena Bobbitt, who infamously sliced her husband’s penis off with a kitchen knife in 1993. Like Peele’s other work, the series will serve as a commentary on timely social issues, including sexual assault, domestic violence, and sensationalist coverage of tragedy across the media. (In film, Peele’s Monkeypaw has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures).
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“Jordan, Monkeypaw president Win Rosenfeld, and the Monkeypaw team represent the ideal creative collaboration as we continue to ramp up original, culturally relevant, and riveting television,” Salke said in a statement. Added Peele: “[Amazon is] committed to the same kind of fun and culturally-relevant television we are.”
