Due on Amazon Prime: The Last Tycoon

June 14, 2017 0 Comments

New Zealand is among the Amazon Prime territories that will be able to stream The Last Tycoon, presumably in 4K, from July 28.

The adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last work, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, follows Hollywood’s Golden Boy, Monroe Stahr (White Collar’s Matt Bomer) as he battles father figure and boss, Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer), for the soul of their studio.

“In a world darkened by the Great Depression and the growing international influence of Hitler’s Germany, The Last Tycoon illuminates the passions, violence, and towering ambition of 1930’s Hollywood,” reads the blurb.

Lily Collins (The Blind Side), Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land) and Dominique McElligott (House of Cards) co-star in a nine-part series that includes Pulitzer-winning Fitzgerald scholar A. Scott Berg as consulting producer.

The Last Tycoon was part of Amazon’s pilot season last year, which gave customers a chance to review pilots and help choose the next Amazon original series.

Tycoon’s also one of the star attractions at the Monte Carlo TV Festival this month, along with Sony TV’s new FBI drama, Absentia.

“The premieres are big gets for Monte Carlo, as Europe’s longest-running TV festival is facing increasing competition from an onslaught of international TV events,” The Hollywood Reporter says.

“Look no further than Twin Peaks and Top of the Lake recently premiering in Cannes, or the small-screen sidebars popping up on the fest circuit from Berlin to Toronto.”

That’s also true of this year’s NZ International Film Festival, which will premiere Top of the Lake: China Girl ahead of its UK TV broadcast on Sky.

Festival director Bill Gosden has seen the series and called it “the most enthralling six hours” he’d spent in a movie theatre this year. “We can promise you an immersive experience in Auckland and Wellington, and due to the six-hour duration the screenings will have two intermissions.”

A co-production with TriStar Television, Tycoon was written and directed by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games), and executive produced by Ray, Christopher Keyser (Tyrant), Joshua D. Maurer (Rubicon), Alixandre Witlin (Georgia O’Keeffe),David A. Stern (Rosemary’s Baby), Scott Hornbacher (Mad Men) and Perri Kipperman (Billions).