Prime Video Unveils Top Traveling Non-English Originals, Global Execs Talk ‘Citadel,’ Writers Strike Impact and Rights Flexibility (EXCLUSIVE)

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Casey McQuiston’s romance novel “Red, White & Royal Blue” was an instant New York Times bestseller when it first came out in 2019 and it’s topping bestseller lists once again ahead of Prime Video’s film adaptation which premieres on August 11.

Charna Flam Prime Video released the first official trailer for its upcoming original series, “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,” which will premiere on Aug. 4. The series will drop with the first three episodes and will be followed by a weekly rollout of the remaining four episodes until the series finale on Sept. 1. Sigourney Weaver stars as June Hart, alongside Asher Keddie as Sally Morgan, Leah Purcell as Twig North, Frankie Adams as Candy Blue, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alice Hart, as well as Alexander England, Charlie Vickers, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Sebastián Zurita, Alyla Browne and Xavier Samuel. The new series is based on Holly Ringland’s 2018 debut novel of the same name, which chronicles the story of Alice Hart, her family and their dynamics in the Australian outback. “When Alice, aged 9, tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire, she is taken to live with her grandmother June at Thornfield flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past. As she grows from her complicated past, Alice’s journey builds to an emotional climax when she finds herself fighting for her life against a man she loves,” per the official press release.

Prime Video has dropped the official trailer for the Amazon Original series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart starring Sigourney Weaver.

Livingston striker Bruce Anderson could be set for a move to the Georgian top flight.

The White Lotus is currently on pause due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, it has been revealed.The third season of The White Lotus is believed to be set in Thailand, after creator Mike White was reportedly scouting locations there. The first two seasons were set in Hawaii and Sicily respectively, with predominantly all-new ensemble casts in each.In a new appearance on The News Agents podcast, star Tom Hollander, who played British expat Quentin in the show’s second season, has confirmed that the new series will be set in Asia, and that “like everything else, it’s on pause”.He said: “They can’t actually shoot it, and they can’t write it, I think they know what the story is.”Hollander added that the show’s creator, Mike White, is also pausing production on the show because he doesn’t want to be thrown out of the Writers’ Guild.“You wouldn’t want to [be thrown out of the union], you’d be a scab,” the star said.Elsewhere, Jennifer Coolidge has said she hopes Tanya’s husband dies in a “meat-grinding machine” in the show’s third season.In the finale of the show’s second season, Tanya (Coolidge) goes on a shooting spree aboard a yacht against a group hired by her husband Greg (Jon Gries) to kill her.

EXCLUSIVE: Just a day after announcing Black, White, & Blue as his first film under a four-picture deal with Amazon inked back in November, Tyler Perry has named Divorce in the Black as his second. Starring in the pic, which Perry will direct and produce from his script, are Meagan Good (Harlem), Cory Hardrict (All American: Homecoming), Joseph Lee Anderson (Young Rock), Taylor Polidore (Snowfall), Shannon Wallace (City on a Hill), Richard Lawson (For Colored Girls) and Debbi Morgan (Power Book II: Ghost). 

Jack Ryan is returning to Amazon Prime Video for a fourth and final season – you can find release details below.The new season sees John Krasinski return as Tom Clancy’s titular CIA analyst-turned-field agent for his “most dangerous mission yet”.The official synopsis for season four reads: “The fourth-and-final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds the titular character on his most dangerous mission yet: facing an enemy both foreign and domestic.“As the new CIA Acting Deputy Director, Jack Ryan is tasked with unearthing internal corruption, and in doing so, uncovers a series of suspicious black ops that could expose the vulnerability of the country.“As Jack and the team investigate how deep the corruption runs, he discovers a far-worse reality—the convergence of a drug cartel with a terrorist organisation—ultimately revealing a conspiracy much closer to home and testing our hero’s belief in the system he has always fought to protect.”The first two episodes of season four will be available on the service from 12am GMT on June 30. A further four episodes will follow, with one being released each week.Season three of the series debuted all eight episodes at once, but the service has now switched to a weekly release schedule for the final season.Alongside Krasinski, the fourth season will also see the return of Wendell Pierce (James Greer), Michael Kelly (Mike November) and Betty Gabriel (Elizabeth Wright).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Prime Video has unveiled 12 new unscripted reality and entertainment series coming to the Nordics, including an adaptation of the hit format “LOL: Last One Laughing” for Denmark and Norway. The streamer has also renewed the Swedish version of “LOL: Last One Laughing” for a second season. All Nordic versions of “LOL: Last One Laughing” are filmed and produced in Sweden by Jarowskij in Sweden, Metronome in Denmark and Nordisk Banijay in Norway. New Prime Video shows also include the Norwegian docu-reality series “Girls of Oslo,” a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of of well-known influencers Sophie Elise, Isabel Raad, Nora Haukland and Anniken Englund Jørgensen. “Girls of Oslo” is produced by Salto Film and will launch this Fall on Prime Video in Norway.

Prime Video’s unscripted originals push in the Nordics is continuing.

“Atlanta” to Terence Nance’s thought-provoking “Random Acts of Flyness” and Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed films “Get Out” and “Nope,” this formerly niche genre seems to be thriving in mainstream entertainment.Writer, producer and musician Boots Riley, whose 2018 film “Sorry to Bother You” catapulted him to prominence as a filmmaker, returns with his latest project: “I’m A Virgo” on Prime Video. This highly anticipated series solidifies his position among the pioneers of the Afro-surrealist genre.Afrofuturism and Afro-surrealism, often seen as interchangeable, are different.

K.J. Yossman Prime Video’s expansion across Europe has helped drive home entertainment revenues up by 22% to £3.5 billion ($4.5 billion), new company filings show. Records filed last week with the U.K.’s company registrar Companies House by the online retailer’s home entertainment arm, Amazon Digital U.K., show that for the year ending December 2022, revenue increased by over £633 million compared to the previous year. In 2021, the company posted revenues of £2.86 billion. The U.K.-registered company, which is a subsidiary of Amazon’s ultimate Seattle-based parent company Amazon.com Inc, primarily provides film, music and entertainment services across the U.K. and Europe. Its primary sources of income come from subscriptions, digital sales and rentals as well as providing marketing support services to other Amazon companies (the latter accounts for £1.3 billion of its revenue.)

The latest show affected by the ongoing writers strike is 1923. Filming for the second season of the Yellowstone prequel was scheduled to start earlier this month in Montana but production has now been “delayed indefinitely.”

Paramount+ crime-thriller Bargain, Prime Video’s absurdist comedy I’m a Virgo and Greek infertility dramedy Babython were among the awards series winners at last week’s Seriencamp in Germany.

Naman Ramachandran “Dangal” filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari’s “Bawaal,” starring Varun Dhawan (“Bhediya”) and Jahnvi Kapoor (“Mili”), will get a direct-to-digital global premiere on Amazon’s Prime Video, the streamer has confirmed. The love story is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala’s banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment in collaboration with Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari’s Earthsky Pictures. Tiwari’s “Dangal” (2016) remains the highest grossing Indian film of all time with $247 million. Manish Menghani, director of content licensing at Prime Video, India, said: “Prime Video is absolutely delighted with the opportunity to take one of the country’s most renowned directors, Nitesh Tiwari’s labor of love ‘Bawaal’ to audiences in more than 200 countries and territories with a worldwide launch. ‘Bawaal’ is an extraordinary story with universal appeal, powered by brilliant performances by Varun and Jahnvi. Set in the heartland of India, the gripping narrative takes viewers on a never-seen-before journey through Europe. We believe that a film that is rooted in India but has a global appeal deserves to reach customers not just in India, but all across the world.”

Selome Hailu “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” has had the biggest debut of any documentary series ever produced by Amazon Studios, Variety has learned. The limited series investigates controversies surrounding the Duggar family, best known for TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” including Josh Duggar’s conviction for possession of child pornography and the family’s connection to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a controversial Christian organization. After premiering on Amazon Prime Video with all four episodes on June 2, “Shiny Happy People” reached more viewers in its first nine days than any Amazon docuseries, including high-profile titles like “LuLaRich,” the 2021 docuseries that examined the LuLaRoe pyramid scheme. (An exact tally of viewers for these series is unknown.)

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International The next season of “Bad Sisters” is slowly taking shape, even amid a writers strike. Creator Sharon Horgan confirmed that she’s currently writing Season 2 of the hit Apple TV+ series “Bad Sisters,” which will continue the story of the Garvey sisters after they successfully got rid of their toxic brother-in-law Jean-Paul (played by a deliciously evil Claes Bang). Horgan, who was speaking at the Banff World Media Festival, is likely able to continue working on the U.K.-filmed show — which she writes alongside Brett Baer and Dave Finkel — because she has a local contract in place with Apple TV+ for “Bad Sisters” rather than a WGA-governed deal. Under the current rules, U.K. writers can continue working on existing projects (under the jurisdiction of non-WGA contracts) with “struck” companies such as Apple, but can’t take on new work.

Addie Morfoot Contributor At Tuesday’s New York’s premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” the star-studded cast had plenty to say about Hollywood’s writers strike. Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Rupert Friend revealed how they really feel about the face off between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers while walking the beige carpet at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. “Whatever happens moving forward will forever change how revenue is determined,” Johansson told Variety. “It’s a thing that has needed to happen for a long time, that we’ve been talking about for a long time, and it’s finally reached this breaking point. It’s important for all of us creatives to unite and support this massive shift so we can get over to the other side, which we will.”

“Part One,” which comes out next month. Last week, Empire Magazine published an interview with “Dead Reckoning” director Christopher McQuarrie, where he acknowledged the delays and hurdles that his team’s work on the two “M:I” films have had to face.

Even the best intentions sometimes can turn into a nightmare, and this is a situation that Dolores Roach finds herself in after serving an unjust prison sentence in the new Prime Video series, “The Horror of Dolores Roach.” READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh’s Max Limited Series ‘Full Circle’ Headlines 2023 Tribeca Festival’s TV Lineup As seen in the trailer for the series, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” follows the story of the title character, who finally gets out of prison after 16 years, only to find herself needing to find a job to escape her current situation.

During the 76th annual Tony Awards, returning host Ariana DeBose addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike with studios during what normally would have been a traditional song-and-dance-filled opening monologue. Instead, a planned performance written by Lin-Manuel Miranda was scrapped while the ceremony was allowed to go forward with live performances of nominated musicals and the handing out of awards, but with no scripted material.