Amazon links with Walking Dead’s Kirkman

Robert Kirkman

Amazon has signed an overall deal with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and a first-look agreement with his prodco Skybound Entertainment.

The deal means Kirkman and his long-time collaborator David Alpert will develop television projects to debut exclusively on Amazon’s subscription streaming service Prime Video.

Skybound Entertainment’s co-presidents of film and television, Bryan and Sean Furst, will oversee the Amazon project slate in conjunction with Kirkman and Alpert.

It follows Amazon Studios’ push into science fiction, fantasy and horror programming, with pilots such as Oasis (formerly known as Strange New Things).

“Robert is a gifted storyteller who shares our passion for elevated genre storytelling that pushes boundaries,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, head of event series at Amazon Studios.

“Robert and the team at Skybound are some of the most innovative and fearless creatives in the business. Together, we plan to explore immersive worlds and bold ideas for Prime Video.”

Kirkman said: “At Skybound Entertainment we strive to tell the best stories in the most unique and creative ways in an effort to always break new ground.

“A forward-thinking company like Amazon is the perfect home for us. Their new foray into genre fiction has us at peak optimism for what can be accomplished during this unprecedented partnership.”

Kirkman added that Tal Yguado, who joined Amazon earlier this year, had been an “instrumental force in the success” of The Walking Dead and another of his shows, Outcast, during her time at Fox Networks Group.

Kirkman’s forthcoming projects include pre-apocalyptic drama Five Year, which is being developed for multiple territories including Germany, India, Brazil, and Italy for multilingual video streaming site Viki.

Skybound Entertainment, meanwhile, produced the first-ever narrative VR series, Gone, for Samsung’s Milk VR platform and in 2017 will produce VR horror series Lies Within, which is the first project out of Skybound’s partnership with interactive theatrical company Delusion.