Thus far, Amazon's focus in terms of its original programming has been on children's programming and comedy. But it looks like they're venturing into drama territory, and they're going with a popular series of novels to do it. Michael Connelly fans may be interested to know that Harry Bosch could be headed to the small screen, assuming things go well for the pilot Amazon has greenlit.
Deadline says Amazon has ordered a drama pilot called Bosch, which would be a police procedural based on Michael Connelly's series of novels about veteran homicide detective Harry Bosch and his work at the Los Angeles Police Department. The pilot was reportedly written by Connelly himself, along with Treme co-creator Eric Overmeyer. The two are executive producing the pilot with Fabrik's Henrik Bastin and Mikkel Bondesen. As the site points out, Harry Bosch has been at the center of twenty of Connelly's novels, going back to the 1992 book The Black Echo. Connelly's latest Bosch book is The Black Box, which released last fall.
Admittedly, I haven't ready any of the Harry Bosch books. Murder mysteries just don't do it for me, in general, though I may have to pick one of these up if Amazon's pilot goes to series. With that said, I find it fascinating that Amazon has chosen to go with a book adaptation for their first drama pilot, as I think it may tie into the same - or similar - logic Netflix used when bringing Arrested Development back for a fourth season. In that case, Netflix had up-to-date knowledge of the demand for the original series. They knew who was watching and re-watching the first three seasons of AD, and they probably had a pretty good idea of just how popular the show currently was. Amazon's in the book business. Granted, the online store has been peddling more than just books for more than a decade, but books have been their trade from the start. They know who's reading what, whether it be hardcover, paperback, ebooks, or audiobooks. So, they may have a better than average idea of how popular this series is, and that would be to their advantage when it comes to deciding on what goes to pilot and eventually series at their studio. Or I'm reading more into this and it's simply a matter of common knowledge that people like Harry Bosch. Either way, I still find it interesting.
Previously, it was looking like Amazon was pushing ahead of Netflix in its Children's programming, but then Netflix and DreamWorks teamed up to make children's programming. Amazon has comedies on the way, but they're lacking in dramas. Bosch could prove to be one more reason to consider subscribing to Amazon Prime. Personally, I'm in it for the cheap shipping, but great drama series don't hurt either. We'll have to see if this one makes it to series, and what other dramas Amazon Studios might be developing in the future.
