Writer Jaquén Castellanos Inks Overall Deal With Amazon Studios

Elaine Low Senior TV WriterAmazon Studios is expanding and restructuring its executive leadership team, bringing on board Laura Lancaster as head of series and upping Marc Resteghini to head of development in both the U.S. and globally.

As the volume of Amazon Studios’ TV development, current series and overall deals increases, the company has moved in to restructure and streamline its programming operations.

EXCLUSIVE: The Walking Dead writer-producer Jim Barnes is expanding his relationship with AMC Studios, signing an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with the studio behind the hit zombie apocalypse series. Under the pact, Barnes will develop and produce new series for AMC’s television networks and streaming platforms and third-party buyers.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max has ordered a fifth season of acclaimed comedy series Search Party and has expanded its relationship with series’ creators Charles Rogers and Sarah-Violet Bliss who have signed a two-year overall deal. Under the pact, Rogers and Bliss will develop new programming for the Warner Media streamer. The duo spoke with Deadline about what to expect from Season 5 of Search Party and their new development for HBO Max.

Naman Ramachandran Rob Delaney (“Catastrophe”) and Alice Eve (“Belgravia”) have joined the cast of Amazon Studios’ upcoming drama thriller “The Power” as recurring guest stars.Edwina Findley (“Treme”), Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (“The Queen’s Gambit”) and Simbi Ajikawo (“Top Boy”) also feature in the cast as recurring guest stars alongside series regulars Zrinka Cvitešić (“London Spy”), Archie Rush (“Black Mirror”) and Gerrison Machado (“Prank”) and Pietra Castro (“Jingle Bell Bride”).Previously

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterMichael B.

Yellowstone co-creator/executive producer Taylor Sheridan has signed a massive new overall deal with ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Group for multiple new series, starting with Yellowstone prequel Y: 1883 for Paramount+, which will be unveiled with a teaser during the Super Bowl on CBS this Sunday (You can watch it above.)

The Crown star Emma Corrin has joined Harry Styles in My Policeman, a romantic drama for Amazon Studios. Michael Grandage will direct the adaptation of the Bethan Robert novel of the same name and will use an adapted screenplay by Ron Nyswaner.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation with multiple offers from financiers & studios, Netflix has won the film rights to Max Taxe’s short story Ripple. Taxe, who pitched the project in the room, will adapt his love story with a sci-fi twist. When a time traveler starts meddling with the past just as Miles finally meets the love of his life, he must battle ever shifting timelines to find her again.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeAmazon Studios head Jennifer Salke doesn’t expect Jeff Bezos to turn his attention to producing as he steps down as Amazon CEO — but she doesn’t rule it out either.Variety took the opportunity on Wednesday morning to ask Salke — calling in to chat about the Golden Globes 2021 nominations — about Bezos’ big news.

EXCLUSIVE: Marissa Jo Cerar, creator, executive producer and showrunner of Women Of the Movement, has signed an overall deal with Kapital Entertainment, the studio behind the upcoming ABC limited series about Mamie Till Mobley, who devoted her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till following his brutal killing in the Jim Crow South.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFormer Disney Channels Worldwide executive Nancy Kanter has signed an overall deal with Netflix.Under the deal, Kanter and her Available Light Productions banner will develop and produce animated and live action projects, both feature films and series, for kids and families audiences on Netflix.“Throughout my career I’ve challenged myself to think differently, imagine bigger and aim higher,” Kanter said.

A day after Nancy Kanter’s last day at Disney, Netflix announced an overall deal with the former EVP, Content and Creative Strategy for Disney Channels Worldwide, who launched and built Disney’s preschool TV channel Disney Junior.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has signed an overall deal with animators, writers and producers Roger Black and Waco O’Guin, the creators and executive producers of the streamer’s series Paradise PD. 

Audible has struck a multi-project deal with OBB Sound, the audio division of Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil producer OBB Media.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterCraig Mazin has extended his overall deal with HBO and HBO Max for an additional three years.The news comes as little surprise, given the success Mazin has had at HBO. He previously created the critically-acclaimed HBO limited series “Chernobyl,” which detailed the aftermath of the titular Soviet nuclear disaster in 1986.

Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is staying in business with HBO.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotify and filmmaker Ava DuVernay signed a multiyear deal for a slate of exclusive podcast shows, the latest high-profile podcast pact for the audio streamer.Spotify and DuVernay will develop and produce exclusive original audio programming through Array, DuVernay’s multiplatform arts and social impact collective, in concert with Spotify’s Gimlet studio.

Riz Ahmed's Left Handed Films has signed a first-look TV production deal with Amazon Studios. The move comes as Ahmed is enjoying rave reviews for his starring role in the Amazon film Sound of Metal.

Comcast-owned European pay TV giant Sky has further expanded its array of studio content deals, signing a pact with StudioCanal. Under the arrangement, StudioCanal's upcoming releases —such as Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci drama Supernova, JoJo Moyes adaptation The Last Letter From Your Lover, female action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, and Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy starrer The Electrical Life of Louis Wain —will be added to Sky's platform following their theatrical release.