Amazon Studios Inks Overall Deal with TV Scribe & Playwright Brian Otaño

EXCLUSIVE: Producer and literary manager Ross Fineman has signed a new multi-year overall development and production deal with A+E Studios, where he executive produces two David E. Kelley series, last season’s breakout hit Big Sky, which is headed into Season 2 on ABC in the post-Grey’s Anatomy slot, and Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, based on Michael Connelly’s novels, which recently wrapped production on its first season in Los Angeles.

EXCLUSIVE: While neither writer/director Peter Jackson nor the original cast are part of Amazon Studios’ The Lord of the Ring series, Deadline hears there may well be an important point of familiarity. Howard Shore, whose work on the Middle Earth trilogy won him three Oscars, is in talks to compose the music for the TV series.

Scott Weintrob, who has directed episodes of Apple TV+’s Home and created Netflix series Fastest Car, has signed an overall deal with Boat Rocker.

Sylvie’s Love star and producer Nnamdi Asomugha has entered into an exclusive first-look deal with Amazon Studios via his iAm21 Entertainment. Under the pact, Asomugha will develop and produce projects to premiere in theatres and on Amazon Prime in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. The deal follows Asomugha’s recent Emmy nomination for outstanding television movie for the Amazon Original movie, Sylvie’s Love.

Amazon Studios has put in development Victories Greater Than Death, a series based on Charlie Jane Anders’ novel, from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. A writer is not yet attached. The project falls under Jordan’s overall deal at Amazon Studios.

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman will rewrite and direct the science fiction feature Sid for Amazon Studios, Deadline has learned, from an original spec screenplay written by Travis Milloy (Pandorium). The storyline is being kept under wraps.

Amazon Studios is developing She-Ra as a live-action series based on the characters from Mattel’s Masters of the Universe franchise, Deadline has confirmed.

ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Studios have struck an exclusive overall deal with Emmy-nominated actor David Oyelowo and his wife, actress, writer and producer Jessica Oyelowo, for original scripted and unscripted series via their Yoruba Saxon productions. 101 Studios will serve as production partner on all projects.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios has closed a first look feature deal with female-led production company Di Novi Pictures to develop and produce content for Amazon Studios.

OZY Studios inked development deals with three breakthrough transgender artists. They include Puerto Rican chef Paxx Caraballo Moll, Alabama-based activist Dan Eggers and model Rosalynne Montoya.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentStudiocanal and Amazon Studios have unveiled the first clip and still of “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain,” Will Sharpe’s anticipated film about the eccentric British artist played by Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game), ahead of the movie’s world premiere at Telluride.

EXCLUSIVE: The Wire writer/producer George Pelecanos, who has had an informal home at HBO for nearly two decades, has made it official with a recently signed two-year overall deal. Under the pact, Pelecanos will develop and produce original content for the network.

Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke revealed the streamer pitched for Mare Of Easttown but lost the Kate Winslet-starring cop drama “in negotiations.” Speaking in conversation with James Corden at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday, Salke admitted that the show, which was created by Brad Ingelsby and eventually went to HBO, was a show she wished Amazon had done.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAmazon Studios, La Unión de los Ríos, Kenya Films and Infinity Hill have teamed to produce Argentina’s first Amazon Original film, Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985,” which looks set to become a banner Argentine big fest title and release in 2022.Headlining arguably the foremost Argentine stars of their generations – Ricardo Darín (“The Secret in Their Eyes,” “Wild Tales”) and Peter Lanzani (“The Clan”) – the feature film has just started shooting

EXCLUSIVE: Writer and producer Lauren Ashley Smith (A Black Lady Sketch Show) is expanding her relationship with CBS Studios, signing an overall deal with the studio. Under the pact, Smith will be creating comedies for network/streaming on all platforms.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios is getting its engines revved up on a new romantic comedy set in the world of NASCAR with a list of top tier talent on board to help take this project across the finish line. Sources tell Deadline, Westbrook Studios will partner with The Chainsmokers’ Kick The Habit Productions and NASCAR to produce the upcoming romantic comedy feature, Clean Air for Amazon Studios with Younger writer Alison Rose Greenberg set to write the screenplay.

Director-producer DeMane Davis (Queen Sugar, Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker) is expanding her relationship with Warner Bros. Television Group with an overall deal. Terms were not disclosed, but WBTVG confirms it is an exclusive, multiyear agreement.

EXCLUSIVE: Westbrook‘s Red Table Talk franchise is expanding with an overall deal with iHeartMedia to launch the Red Table Talk Audio Network.

Kate Aurthur editorAfter a competitive bidding war that received multiple offers, Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions has sold a queer teen comedy feature, with the working title “To Be Real,” to Amazon Studios. Tony winner, current Emmy nominee and recent Emmy winner Billy Porter — who’s been shooting his feature directorial debut “What If?” for Orion Pictures this summer — is attached to direct an original script by Ryan Shiraki, as sold from a pitch.