Screenwriting : Amazon Studios by Matthew Corry

I think "The Wall" is the only produced Amazon movie from their submissions forum.

Yes you're right on The Wall Dan MaxXx. The one and only. I did have a bit of a back and forth with a writer who optioned one of his scripts with them and was paid a few times for re-writes but like 99.9999999% of projects they had, it died. I know that the vast majority of submissions they receive are terrible and a complete waste of time with bad grammar, writing and stories but surely they would've had something decent enough to come along by now to develop into a full feature. I think Gortimer Gibbons was the only TV show to come out of the amatuers as well. I gave up on Amazon a long time ago but who knows, maybe they'll try something new again like they did years ago?

Amazon writes big checks to established pros with representation and track records. Sure, someone wins power ball lottery/deal with Amazon but the majority of deals in their doors are through representation. 70% of Amazon movie & TV deals come from CAA agency alone.

Go chase Apple computers. They are aggressively spending money on original programming; maybe they will drop $$$$$ on amateurs. But again, legit companies want a buffer; they want to deal with legit Agents & Managers, and work with working professionals.

I have project posted there because it is free to post but it has the "feel" like nothing is happening there. I believe I saw just under 5000 current projects posted.

Awesome questions, reveal awesome leads, thank you both

So if this is the case, how do we get represented? We have content on Amazon Prime now that trended 3 times this month and thought we would go through the process of submitting the script to Amazon as a pilot; are you saying this would be a waste of our time since we don't have representation? I have read that the only way to get representation is to be contacted by an agency, is this true? Thoughts?

Amazon is a mess. Checked out a long time ago.

What do you mean by mess?

Are they not accepting submission anymore?

Forums were dead. They're initiatives were designed to control writer content for long periods of time with little payment. The model shifted multiple times.

Efff Amazon forums. Go straight to decision makers. Ted Hope runs Amazon motion pic dept. Figure a way to get your material to him or people under him. This is a business of relationships. Clicking a computer mouse & uploading a script to a website is not the way Professionals work.

So we have some content we loaded onto Amazon Prime, it trended in the TV Category on 3 different occasions, so we were thinking we should submit the pilot script to Amazon to help us further the series...what we did was take the pilot and chopped it up into 8 episodes, filmed it (with a little revision here and there) and released it on the Amazon Prime platform. Our thought process was that a pilot script coupled with content that trended on their platform might get their attention. So where's the Amazon model now? Does anyone know? Should we submit the script? Or, keep on walkin'?

Thank you, Dan MaxXx. I really appreciate your insightful answer, it really resonated with me. Thank you for the guidance.

"This is a business of relationships" Nods at Dan MaxXx

I left the forums there a while ago because it became so ridiculously negative with regulars there telling people they'll never make it as writers, know-it-all know-nothings that would spew "expert" advice at beginners as if they'd themselves written The Godfather and of course the 17 millionth forum topic about the "deciding" status on their script. I learned a lot from some of the people there but it really just became a place for people to be torn down. I haven't seen anywhere near the level of negativity here at Stage32.

While I agree with Dan MaxXx about the need to get your script into the hands of decision makers it seems strange that Amazon kept the submission line open for so long. To be honest they would have been better off partnering up with one of the major competitions or even Screencraft to try and find decent writers. I've downloaded some of the publicly available scripts off of Amazon and holeeeee moleeeee are they shockers. Format is out the window, spelling is NOT a priority and grammar is a dirty word. Amazon have to sift through an Everest of manure to find a slither of silver and I doubt the manpower and prize money/option money handed out over the years has been worth it.

Thank you for the insight. I appreciate your honesty.

A friend of mine works on the AWS side, but knows some of the Amazon Studios guys (Ted Hope, etc.) and the hard truth is - even given a show that ticks off every single one of their boxes, you, as the creator of that show, will be paid to go away. You'll get a credit and some money, and absolutely no creative control. Amazon is significantly in bed with Hollywood and plans to stay there. Any potential show is taken to "somebody" (I didn't know that about CAA, Dan, but it makes sense) to produce. It won't be you.

Agree about the toxic attitudes Matthew Corry Another reason I was gone.

I once submitted a screenplay for the Amazon program, but they decided not to option it. It was my first screenplay and was so poor, I'm not surprised... The option and purchase offer looked awesome to me, and I'm sure to many others(200k for a script!Woow! Mindblowing). Anyway, that was one of the scripts I gave up on, so I'm not sad...:)

Research Amazon and see if they are a fit for you. Look at Ted Hope's background. He is an old school, auteur filmmaker guy, works with Writers who direct. Amazon's roster is Who's Who with Track records- Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Jim Jarmusch, Doug Liman, Ang Lee, Ken Lonergan... long list of proven Talent. I just don't know how you will break in/get a deal with your script against their roster by uploading a script to a computer server. (But hey, the guy wrote THE WALL did it. )

They also BUY movies, that means you have to fund your movie yourself. Amazon paid a record price for distribution rights for THE BIG SICK movie.

But Dan MaxXx The Big Sick played Sundance. Wasn't a cold call or query buy, right?

I've submitted to them a couple of times but my material didn't meet their standards of depravity.

Nope, you don't need to cold call when you got known Talent. Amazon calls you. What's unusual is The Wall movie. Director Doug Liman went from directing $200mil movies to an experimental low budget movie for Amazon. There was only 2 characters in The Wall, one location. Box office dud.

FWIW, three of my clients had scripts optioned by Amazon as part of that program to find new writers. They received payment ($10k I believe) but the projects never went anywhere...

One guy on there had his option extended and got paid to do re-writes but eventually the rights went back to him. It just feels like one gigantic expensive failed experiment. They had all those ideas thrown at them and out of all of them they produced The Wall which from what I've read is just okay.

The Wall script was also on The Industry Black List 2014. Lots of inside deal stuff we will never know. Ain't our business. Congrats to The Wall writer. Last time I checked he is a staff Writer on Luke Cage.

He can't be too bad. I really liked Luke Cage even though it felt like it couldn't decide who the villain was. The Black List isn't something I'm a fan of. I may host my scripts on there down the track but their paid evaluation service isn't the best by far.

Wow CJ Walley no warning on deleting the account. BTW, The Black List is nothing more than a popularity contest between the agents.

I can see why. That's just rude and obnoxious.