‘Jury Duty’ Extends Prime Video Run Following Emmy Breakthrough

When we dial Locarno chief Giona A. Nazzaro’s line, he’s in the process of slipping into an air-conditioned bar where he can escape the blistering heat that has consumed Southern Europe for much of July.

It’s Day 7 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 80 of the WGA strike. 

earned several Emmy nominations, including “Best Comedy” and “Best Supporting Actor — Comedy” for co-star James Marsden. Part sitcom, “Jury Duty” is a “Truman Show”-esque faux documentary following the proceedings of a trial by jury over the course of a month. The catch? It’s a fictional trial and everyone is an actor — except for Gladden, a solar contractor from San Diego who found the gig on Craigslist and thought he was participating in a real trial that was being filmed for a local documentary.Marsden plays a conceited blowhard version of himself. “There was always a camera on me,” Gladden told The Post. “But the reason that didn’t make me suspicious was because James [Marsden] was always next to me.

Prime Video is getting a new spinoff series of its hit original show, “The Boys”. The forthcoming superhero series, titled “Gen V” will debut on the streamer this fall.

Prime Video Italy’s scripted chief Davide Nardini took to the stage at the AVP Summit today and provided views on the actors strike, the streamer’s strategic shift towards mainstream audiences and local talent.

Naman Ramachandran Prime Video and BBC Studios have launched BBC Player and BBC Kids on Prime Video Channels in India. The subscription-based service will provide Indian viewers a curated line-up of popular British content spanning dramas, comedy, documentaries, factual shows, entertainment, lifestyle programming and children’s shows. Prime members can purchase an annual add-on subscription to BBC Player for INR 599 ($7.30) that includes full access to BBC Kids. Alternatively, members can also subscribe to BBC Kids only for INR 199 ($2.42) annually. Title available at launch on BBC Player include “Six Four,” “The Diplomat,” “Chivalry,” “Citizen Khan,” “Sherlock,” “Unforgotten,” “Happy Valley,” “Top Gear,” “The Great British Bake Off,” “This is Going to Hurt,” “Small Axe” and “Strictly Come Dancing.” BBC Kids will feature “Hey Duggee,” “Go Jetters,” “JoJo & Gran Gran,” “Sarah & Duck” and “Junior Bake Off.”

What happens after the Dark One is vanquished? Amazon’s “The Wheel of Time” returns with a world still plagued by evil. This time, Rand and his closest companions from Two Rivers find themselves apart; their distance creates the perfect opportunity for something far more sinister to create chaos.

Prime Video has dropped the Season 2 trailer of The Wheel of Time showcasing everyone preparing for the incoming last battle and Rand al’Thor struggling being The Dragon Reborn. Watch the preview in the video posted above.

Prime Video has released several first-look images for Marnie Dickens’ Wilderness, from Firebird Pictures.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-lister Varun Dhawan’s next film is the keenly anticipated Prime Video film “Bawaal,” from Nitesh Tiwari, director of India’s all-time highest grosser “Dangal.” Dhawan plays a charming, vainglorious and image-conscious history teacher who gains redemption via profound realizations stemming from his study of WWII and from his new bride, portrayed by Janhvi Kapoor. The film shuttles between Lucknow in northern India and Western Europe. Dhawan and Kapoor read for their parts separately with Tiwari, deliberately. “It’s like yin and yang, we’re like two opposites that attract and form a team. But we really did go about this film as a team. There was a little method approach to it, like in the first half of the film, when my character is not very nice to hers. When we were shooting in Lucknow, I didn’t interact much with her, I was a little cold to her,” Dhawan told Variety. As the film progresses, their relationship thaws.

Prime Video has released a sizzle reel of its lineup for the coming months, including a first look at Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, as well as looks at Season 2 of Reacher, The Boys spinoff Gen V, and more.

Prime Video has just given a bit of hope to a series that was previously announced as coming to an end.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Mia Hansen-Løve and Martin McDonagh are among high-caliber members of the Venice Film Festival’s main jury. The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined on the Venice jury panel by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year. They will join Damien Chazelle who – as previously announced – will serve as president of the Venice competition jury. 

Amazon Studios’ 2023 Emmy performance is probably best encapsulated by the Outstanding Comedy Series category. There is the veteran, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which years ago landed Prime Video’s first Best Series Emmy win. It is ending its five-season run in style with 14 nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series.

It was a big win for the underdog on Wednesday as Freevee’s Jury Duty was nominated for four Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series, Supporting Actor for James Marsden, Writing for Mekki Leeper and Casting for Susie Farris.

Every now and then the Emmys will surprise us just by having a surprise. Too often the same people from the same shows turn up year after year, and with the 75th Emmy Awards that is certainly the case, but also this year my fellow Emmy voters (Full Disclosure: I am a longtime member and former Governor of the Writers branch) proved they could cut through the clutter and the imposing mountain of content to make way for some newbies and deserving shows that might have been hard to find.

this year’s Emmy nominations is the looming actors strike. The writers strike, in effect since early May, has already severely curtailed celebrating the best and brightest of the 2022-23 TV season. And now, with SAG-AFTRA almost certainly joining the WGA on the picket line in a matter of hours, there’s an air of doom over what should be a happy event.  On another, less existential level, what does Harrison Ford have to do to get an Emmy nomination?! The Emmys’ diamond anniversary brought widely expected nominations for previous Emmy favorites like “Succession,” “The White Lotus,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Ted Lasso.” A new shift in rules that capped the number of names voters could submit per category was expected to keep those shows from total domination of the acting categories — but they all still managed to overwhelm the supporting and guest actor categories, along with newly crowned Emmy favorite, “The Last of Us.”

A potential actors strike may be looming, but the 75th Primetime Emmys looks full-steam ahead, for now.

Naman Ramachandran Sushant Sreeram, country director of Prime Video India, has reiterated the streamer’s intention of doubling down on investments in the territory. “Our five-year plan in India for Prime Video is to double what we have done in the last seven years. And our investment thesis is actually an apt reflection of that. We have committed to doubling our investment over the next five years compared to what we have invested in the previous five. We said this recently and we continue to stick to it,” Sreeram told Variety. “The question that I and the entire team in India is asked is, ‘Can we do this twice as bigger? Can we deliver, twice as much for customers across shows movies and the whole works? That’s the simple summary of what the five-year plan is.”

Prime Video has unveiled has unveiled its latest slate of Italian original shows and films at a Presents event in Rome, including a remake of No Activity.