Audible will co-develop and co-produce TV shows adapted from original podcasts and audiobooks with Amazon MGM Studios that it can pitch to Prime Video and MGM Plus, as well as buyers outside of Amazon. The news was first reported by Variety.
Adapting recognizable podcast IP with a built-in audience is usually a safe bet for Hollywood. Chris Morrow, the head of audio at the production company Plan B, which signed a multi-project development with Audible last year, noted to The Verge that the goal was to use audio to “help launch IP, and then ultimately find new life for it as scripted features or scripted documentaries.”
A number of originals from both of Amazon Music’s podcast properties, Audible and Wondery, have turned into TV shows recently. Dr. Death, a Wondery original podcast, has been adapted into a TV series for Peacock, the most recent season of which debuted in December. “These original podcasts have already engaged and entertained audiences and we look forward to developing a visual component to expand the storytelling,” Amazon MGM Studio’s head of television Vernon Sanders says in a statement.
The deal involves both scripted fiction podcasts and unscripted podcasts, including The Prophecy, Hot White Heist, Oracle, Nut Jobs, Words + Music, and others. A number of influential figures are attached to the projects, including Kerry Washington’s production company Simpson Street and James Patterson Entertainment.
For Amazon as a whole, this deal is another chance for the media properties under its ownership to partner up. Most recently, the Audible Original The Wonderland Murders & the Secret History of Hollywood has been acquired by MGM Plus as a four-episode docuseries, with Alison Ellwood attached to direct.
The full slate of titles includes:
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