Three days after “Transparent” put Amazon on the Emmy map with five wins, including a Best Director prize for creator Jill Soloway and a Best Actor award for Jeffrey Tambor, the streaming site (and everything store) has announced its next six pilots. (Amazon’s M.O. is to produce a batch of pilots, let audiences watch them, then decide which ones should get series orders based on those viewing numbers.)
Happily, half of Amazon’s next batch of pilots are created by women writers, and half directed or co-directed by women helmers. The female-created series with arguably the highest profile is “One Mississippi,” a serial vehicle for comedienne Tig Notaro, who wrote the pilot and will executive produce with Diablo Cody. Loosely based on Notaro’s life, the show will deal with Tig’s return — with her girlfriend Brooke — to her Southern hometown after the death of her mother. The first episode will be directed by Nicole Holofcener.
Similarly based on real events will be “Good Girls Revolt,” a feminist drama set in 1969 about the first group of female magazine researchers to fight against sexism in the newsroom. Anna Camp and Joy Bryant will star, while Grace Gummer will play Nora Ephron. The series has another female-led behind-the-scenes team in creator Dana Calvo, pilot director Liza Johnson and executive producers Lynda Obst (“Interstellar”) and Darlene Hunt (“The Big C”).
Amazon will also debut a pilot about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, to be played by Christina Ricci, which will begin when the Southern socialite and budding writer meets future husband F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is written by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin.
Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (the directing team behind “Little Miss Sunshine”), meanwhile, will helm the pilot of “Highston,” about a 19-year-old with imaginary celebrity friends.
Here are the press descriptions of the female-created shows.
- “One Mississippi”: Dark comedy starring comedian Tig Notaro — in a story loosely based on her life — follows her as she deals with the complex reentry into her childhood hometown of Bay Saint Lucille, Miss., to deal with the unexpected death of her mother. Cast includes Noah Harpster (“Transparent”), John Rothman (“The Devil Wears Prada”) and Casey Wilson (“Gone Girl”) as Tig’s girlfriend, Brooke. Co-production with FX Prods. is written and executive produced by Notaro and Diablo Cody (“Juno”), executive produced by Louis C.K., Blair Breard (“Louie”) and Dave Becky (“Everybody Hates Chris”), with pilot directed and exec produced by Nicole Holofcener (“Enough Said”).
- “Z”: Based on the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, played by Christina Ricci (“Monster”). The story starts before the brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern Belle meets then-unpublished writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (Gavin Stenhouse, “Allegiance”) and moves through their turbulent love affair and their marriage. “Z” is written by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin (“The Killing”), directed by Tim Blake Nelson (“Anesthesia”), and executive produced by Ricci, Pamela Koffler (“Still Alice”) and Christine Vachon (“One Hour Photo“) of Killer Films. Show guest stars David Strathairn, Kristine Nielsen (“Savages”), Maya Kazan (“The Knick”), Sarah Schenkkan (“30 Rock”), Jamie Anne Allman (“The Killing”) and Holly Curran (“Alpha House”).
- “Good Girls Revolt”: Drama set in 1969 follows a group of young female researchers at “News of the Week,” who simply ask to be treated fairly, based on Lynn Povich’s book “The Good Girls Revolt” chronicling sexual-discrimination cases of the era. Stars Genevieve Angelson (“Backstrom”), Anna Camp (“Pitch Perfect”), Erin Darke (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”), Chris Diamantopoulos (“Silicon Valley”), Hunter Parrish (“Weeds”), Jim Belushi (“Show Me a Hero”), Joy Bryant (“Parenthood”) and Grace Gummer as journalist Nora Ephron. The pilot, a co-production with TriStar Television, is written and created by Dana Calvo (“Made in Jersey”), directed by Liza Johnson (“Return”), and exec produced by Calvo, Lynda Obst (“Interstellar”), Darlene Hunt (“The Big C”), Don Kurt (“Justified”) and Jeff Okin (“Dark Skies”).
