The Man In The High Castle

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deadline.com/2016/05/the-man-in-the-high-castle-showrunner-frank-spotnitz-exits-amazon-series-1201759933/


Frank Spotnitz Exits As Showrunner of Amazon’s ‘Man in the High Castle’

Frank Spotnitz has exited The Man In The High Castle. Sources tell me that the showrunner behind the Amazon series based on Philip K Dick’s 1962 alternative history novel left High Castle in the past few days after clashing with the streaming service over the production of the Season 2 of the show. No new showrunner is being brought on board to replace the Europe-based Spotnitz and the current production team will take over his responsibilities.

The sudden departure of Spotnitz has also seen the Vancouver-shot show today go on an immediate hiatus. Right in the middle of production on High Castle‘s second season, that break could last up to 2-weeks. In typical fast fashion, this went down so quick that Spotnitz’s UK-based Big Light Productions was happily tweeting about the show as recently as May 11:

FrankSpotnitz ✔ ‎@frankspotnitz
Our production design dressed Vancouver streets! #mithc @highcastletv #season2 #vancouver #setlife

…
11:43 AM - 11 May 2016
2 2 Retweets 8 8 likes

With its tale of an America sternly ruled by victorious Axis powers, The Man In The High Castle first appeared on Amazon on January 15, 2015 after the Spotnitz developed project had bounced around unsuccessfully for several years beforehand. The deal with Amazon came just before the producers option on Dick’s book was to expire the EP told the TCA last summer. With the High Castle pilot quickly became one of the most watched pieces of original content on the streaming service, Amazon picked the show up for series the next month. On November 20 last year, a full 10-episode first season debuted.

With Spotnitz EPing along with Scott Free Productions’ Ridley Scott and David Zucker, and Isa Dick Hackett, the well reviewed and streaming record breaking High Castle was renewed for a second 10-episode season on December 18, 2015. Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell, Rupert Evans, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Joel de la Fuente starred in the tale of the Nazi and Imperial Japan dominated U.S.A, which expected to come back later this year.

While leaving High Castle, Spotnitz is also currently working on the Renaissance set Medici: Masters of Florence. Starring Dustin Hoffman as Giovanni de’ Medici and Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden as his son Cosimo de’ Medici, the series was created by Spotnitz and Nicolas Meyer and is being sold internationally by Wild Bunch TV.

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Amazon Spent $107 Million on ‘Man in the High Castle’ Season 2 (Report)

Amazon Studios shelled out some $107 million in production and marketing costs for season 2 of alternate-history thriller “The Man the High Castle” — working out to nearly $11 million per episode. But the pricey show was a bomb in terms of attracting new subscribers to Amazon’s Prime membership program.

That’s according to the data in a report by Reuters Thursday, based on what it said were internal Amazon documents showing the cost/benefit analysis of 19 of Amazon Studios original series from 2014 to early 2017.

Overall, during that time period, Amazon originals attracted more than 5 million people worldwide to Prime. In the U.S., Amazon Video drew 26 million viewers total for original and licensed content (as a year ago), per Reuters estimates based on the documents. As of September 2017, Amazon Prime had about 90 million U.S. members, according to estimates by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Amazon declined to comment on the Reuters report or verify the authenticity of the internal documents cited. The documents referenced purportedly show how Amazon calculates the return on its investment in originals.

According to the Reuters report, Amazon tracks which TV show or movie a customers first accesses after they sign up for Prime as an indicator of its strength as a subscriber-acquisition vehicle. The company refers to that metric as the “first stream.”

The data in the Amazon documents shows that it’s had wildly divergent outcomes.

Amazon’s biggest flop was “Good Girls Revolt,” according to the figures cited by Reuters. The company spent $81 million on the retro drama about female journalists fighting for equality at a newsweekly mag. However, Amazon registered just 52,000 “first streams” for “Good Girls Revolt,” for a cost-per-sub number of $1,560. Amazon canceled the show less than two months after it premiered in 2016.

Meanwhile, the freshman season of “The Man in the High Castle” was among the best-performing series in the documents — and was far more efficient at luring Prime members than season 2.

Per the Reuters report, “Man in the High Castle” season 1 had $72 million in production and marketing costs, and drew 1.15 million Prime subs subscribers based on the “first stream” measure. That translates into an average cost of $63 per Prime subscriber acquired for the series, which is based on a Philip K. Dick novel. By contrast, Season 2 of “The Main in the High Castle” yielded $829 per Prime subscriber, more than 13 times the first run of the show.

Amazon’s $78 million spending on the first season of “The Grand Tour,” the motorsports show from the trio behind BBC’s “Top Gear,” also was a win for the studio. With 1.5 million “first streams,” Amazon calculated a cost of $49 per Prime subscriber acquired for “Grand Tour” season 1.

Amazon’s highest-profile show is “Transparent,” a winner of several Emmys and Golden Globe awards. Reuters did not cite production or marketing dollar figures for “Transparent,” but said the show’s season 1 had a U.S. viewership that was half the 8 million of “The Man in the High Castle” season 1. For season 3, the “Transparent” dropped to 1.3 million viewers.


However, the figures reported by Reuters don’t fully reveal how Amazon accounts for its investments in original programming. In the U.S., the $99 annual fee for Prime, which includes free shipping on millions of items, unlimited streaming of Prime Video, and other benefits. Prime subscribers are far more valuable to Amazon beyond the subscription fee, as they on average buy more products from the ecommerce site than non-Prime members.

Other details from the documents cited by Reuters: “Sneaky Pete” season 1 cost $93 million; “Goliath” season 1 cost $82 million; “Bosch” season 1 cost $47 million, and season 2 cost $53 million; and “Mozart in the Jungle” season 2 cost $37 million.

The shows detailed in the Reuters article were greenlit under Roy Price, who exited as head of Amazon Studios after a sexual-harassment scandal in November. Amazon last month tapped NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke to run the studio.