With Nicole Clemens at the helm of international, Prime Video international execs have set out plans to double down on series. Much of that series growth looks likely to come from young adult-skewing shows.
“Our message today is more series, more series, more series,” Thomas Dubois, Head of French Originals at Prime Video said at a Series Mania session about Prime Video’s non-English-language strategy.
He was joined by Nicole Morganti, Head of Originals Southern Europe at Prime, who reiterated series are the order of the day now Clemens is running the international ship. “Yes, we are doubling down on series because she is absolutely an expert on series,” she said, adding: “What is super refreshing is having a creative boss that is really taking good care of producers, scripts, talent, and really understands content.”
The “more series” message will have been music to the ears of the drama producers in the room. They will also have been curious to hear what kind of series. The answer in large part was young adult. The Series Mania crowd was given a first look at Campus Drivers, adapted from the C.S. Quill book series, to drive home the point.
The streamer has enjoyed some noteworthy success in the non-English drama, especially in the YA category. The likes of UFA-produced Maxton Hall out of Germany and the trio of Culpables movies from Pokeepsie Films and out of Spain rank among its top international performers. Unsurprisingly, the session zeroed in on YA.
“You’re lucky if you if you see that once in your lifetime, a title like that,” Morganti said of Mercedes Ron’s Culpables franchise. “It was watched by 100 million people around the world and it is not just about young adult, because this story then resonated with a larger female audience.”
She told the producers in the room that romance wins the day when it comes to YA storytelling. Dubois said Prime also wants to push the YA envelope a little. “We really want to open up to new genres in that field,” he said, citing its upcoming adaptation of Lakestone.
Morganti said the so-called ‘House of Ron’, the umbrella term for Mercedes Ron adaptations, has now hit 11 separate projects in all. Specifically, Dímelo Bajito and Marfil are up soon from Ron.
The Amazon execs also talked about using YA shows to break new talent. Morganti pointed to the example of Nicole Wallace, the breakout star from the Culpables and who is now set to appear in a raft of Prime Video projects. “We really love to build on our talent and to give them the opportunity of becoming not just local stars, but international stars,” she said.
