By Ben Fritz and Joe Flint
On the Monday morning after Amazon.com Inc. failed to win a
single prize at the Primetime Emmy Awards, one of its senior
television executives gathered his dejected staff at their Los
Angeles-area office for a pep talk.
While Amazon Studios went home empty-handed, its streaming
rivals Hulu and Netflix Inc. won multiple awards. Additionally,
Amazon had earlier passed on opportunities to bid on "The
Handmaid's Tale" and "Big Little Lies," which won top awards that
night, said people with knowledge of the sales process.
"Things are going to get better," said Joe Lewis, Amazon's head
of comedy and drama, according to a person who was present at the
meeting. He pledged he and other senior executives would "try and
turn this ship around."
It was an acknowledgment that Amazon Studios has been stumbling
when it comes to producing content that attracts audiences and
buzz. The Hollywood arm of the online giant is pivoting away from
dramas for adults but is struggling to define a new strategy, say
people close to the company. It has alienated high-profile content
creators, who say executives have proven incapable -- or unwilling
-- to smooth out conflicts that inevitably crop up during the
shooting of a television show. And questions about potential
conflicts of interest on the part of Mr. Lewis and studio chief Roy
Price have contributed to low employee morale, people at the
company say.
Amazon Studios is taking steps to get back on track, such as
developing shows intended to be more globally popular, cutting back
children's programming and considering new leadership in its film
unit, say people with knowledge of the matter.
Mr. Lewis and a lawyer for Mr. Price, Lisa Bloom, didn't respond
to requests for comment.
When it started producing original video in a bid to attract and
retain subscribers for its Prime service four years ago, Amazon
boasted it wouldn't follow typical Hollywood practices such as
relying on executives' creative instincts and would base
programming decisions on data. But staffers say it has largely
abandoned that approach.
"We were supposed to bring the best practices of one of the most
successful companies in America to Hollywood," said an Amazon
Studios executive. "Instead, we're getting chewed up."
Despite annual spending of about $4.5 billion to produce or
acquire programming, Amazon Studios has had no hits on the scale of
HBO's "Game of Thrones" or Netflix's "Stranger Things," said people
at the company.
Even its most acclaimed shows draw relatively small audiences.
Fewer than one million people have watched recent seasons of
"Transparent," which won Emmys in 2015 and 2016, said an Amazon
Studios employee.
Mr. Price recently admitted at a meeting with agents he had done
too much "programming to Silver Lake," a hipster neighborhood in
Los Angeles, said a person present.
Producers who have made shows for Amazon describe a chaotic
environment.
"I'm a huge fan of the company overall, but their entertainment
division is a bit of a gong show," said David E. Kelley, creator of
"Goliath" and hit shows including "Big Little Lies," "The Practice"
and "Ally McBeal." "They are in way over their heads."
Mr. Kelley left "Goliath," a drama about a hard-living lawyer,
after the first season due to conflicts with Amazon and star Billy
Bob Thornton over creative direction, according to people familiar
with the matter. These people said Amazon wasn't supportive of the
multi-Emmy winning Mr. Kelley, who would say only that he wouldn't
work with Amazon again "until their entertainment house is put in
order. Clyde Phillips, who succeeded Mr. Kelley as the show's top
writer-producer, left for similar reasons, a person with knowledge
of the matter said.
Shawn Ryan, who earlier created the award-winning police drama
"The Shield," described his time at Amazon producing the canceled
drama "Mad Dogs" as frustrating and confusing. Mr. Ryan said it was
standard practice at other networks to receive one set of notes
from executives a day after a cut of an episode was submitted. At
Amazon, that process would often take more than a week and was
followed by multiple requests for changes, he said, resulting in
higher costs and delays.
Amazon's approach put "everything in chaos" and wasn't "artist
friendly, " Mr. Ryan said.
Others have had more positive experiences. Kate Robin, the top
writer-producer on the quirky comedy "One Mississippi," said that
while there was more creative input from Amazon than she had
expected, "ultimately we got to make the show we wanted to make."
Ben Edlund, creator of superhero comedy "The Tick," called Amazon's
support "liberating."
Messrs. Price and Lewis have played outsize roles in creative
decisions, staffers say. On "The Tick," Mr. Lewis pressured people
working on the show to cast his girlfriend, actress Yara Martinez,
in the pilot and then to expand her role, said people close to the
program.
Mr. Edlund said he didn't feel any pressure when casting Ms.
Martinez or making her a series regular and didn't recall who
brought the actress to his attention. A spokesman for Ms. Martinez,
who previously appeared in Amazon's "Alphas" and "I Love Dick" as
well as the CW Network's "Jane the Virgin," didn't respond to a
request for comment.
Mr. Price last year encouraged subordinates to buy an idea for a
series called "12 Parties" from his fiancée, Lila Feinberg, said
Amazon Studios employees. Some at the company said they were
uncomfortable because of the apparent conflict of interest and
because they believed a character in the series resembled Mr.
Price.
Like Mr. Price, the character Richard Forman is a middle-aged
Harvard graduate who wears leather jackets and has a Black Flag
tattoo, according to a series proposal viewed by The Wall Street
Journal. His younger girlfriend, who like Ms. Feinberg is a writer
from New York, is named "Lita."
Ms. Feinberg didn't respond to requests for comment.
After a conflict-of-interest review by Amazon's legal
department, the studio declined to buy the script, people at the
company said.
Amazon's motion-picture unit released the two biggest indie hits
of the past year, Oscar winner "Manchester by the Sea" and "The Big
Sick." However, it also released several movies that grossed less
than $1 million before moving to Amazon's streaming service,
including "Landline" and "The Only Living Boy in New York."
Mr. Price has interviewed at least two Hollywood veterans to
potentially take over Amazon's motion-picture unit and broaden the
types of films it makes beyond dramas, said people with knowledge
of the discussions.
Amazon is looking to broaden its TV programming as well. It has
a series based on the Jack Ryan spy novels and is developing shows
based on books by science-fiction writers Neal Stephenson and Larry
Niven. To help free up money for such programs, Amazon recently
decided to stop producing new live-action shows for children, said
people informed of the decision.
Finding massive global hits like "Game of Thrones" is a
priority, Mr. Price's boss, Amazon Senior Vice President Jeffrey
Blackburn, said at a conference on Monday. "We're increasing our
investment in that type of original content," Mr. Blackburn said.
"It's early days and we're learning."
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com and Joe Flint at
joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2017 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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