Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy Ink Giant TV Overall Deal With Amazon Studios

John P Johnson/HBO

Amazon Studios has entered the arms race for top TV showrunner talent with a mega overall deal with Westworld creators/executive producers/showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and their company Kilter Films.

No one would comment but I hear the pact, which had been in the works for months, is for five years and is valued in the nine figures, believed to be in the low-to-mid nine-figure range, ranking as one of the richest TV overall deals in the marketplace.

Under the pact, the husband-and-wife duo will work with Amazon Studios to create and produce original series that will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video wordwide. The deal builds upon Nolan and Joys existing relationship with Amazon, where they have been developing sci-fi drama series The Peripheral.

Nolan and Joy segue to the deal after separate overall pacts at Warner Bros. TV where Nolan had been based for almost two decades. While their development will be exclusive to Amazon, Joy and Nolan are not leaving their praised HBO/WBTV drama Westworld, on which they are the main creative forces. They have inked a show deal to continue to write and executive produce the sci-fi Western for multiple additional seasons.

“Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy are two of the most talented and inventive creators in the business,” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “They have mastered the art of working in tandem as well as individually on so many fantastic projects across film and television. They each bring their own unique storytelling abilities to the partnership, creating unforgettable characters in addictive and compelling worlds. We are ready to jump right in and cant wait to deliver their future projects to our Amazon Prime Video audience.”

The pact with Nolan and Joy reaffirms Amazons commitment to be a player in the current battle for top TV showrunner talent that has pushed the prices into the eight-nine-figure range for the biggest names.

Asked by Deadline last year whether Amazon would make a $100 million-dollar overall deal, Salke said, “Absolutely… I dont think theres any shortage of resources to support talent deals here, at all. I think its about being strategic and selective about who those people are, and youll see that anyone that I make a deal with, for the most part, has one thing in common. They all want to break out and be original. They want a cultural impact, and they want to be entertaining. Theyre not looking to do something small. They want a lot of eyeballs on it. So, theres a certain amount of ambition but also original voice and purity of vision and voice that these deals have.”

With the deal, Nolan and Joy enter an exclusive club of giant, nine-figure deals that includes pacts for Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes at Netflix, Greg Berlanti at Warner Bros. TV and Mike Schur at Universal TV.

Joy and Nolan created Westworld, which was inspired by Michael Crichtons classic 1973 film. The series has amassed 43 Emmy nominations for its first two seasons, along with WGA, PGA and SAG Awards nominations. Production on Season 3 starts this spring, with Nolan directing the premiere.

The duo first got in business with Amazon last spring when the streaming service landed for development their techno-thriller drama The Peripheral. Inspired by William Gibsons novel of the same name, the project continues to be in the works at Amazon Studios genre department run by Sharon Tal Yguado. The drama, from WBTV and Amazon Studios, is written by Scott B. Smith and directed by Vincenzo Natali who executive produce with Nolan, Joy and Steven Hoban. The Peripheral follows a woman in a near future America in which technology has started to subtly alter society.

“We are incredibly excited to begin this new adventure with Amazon Studios,” said Nolan and Joy in a joint statement. “Jennifer Salkes vision for the future of our business is bold and forward-thinking, and shes assembled a brilliant creative team to execute it. We Read More – Source