By Max Goldbart
International TV Co-Editor
Amazon Studios Europe Boss Georgia Brown has revealed how the streamer “completely turned storymaking on its head” for upcoming hybrid grime/drill musical Jungle.
The show, the first long-form TV series from new UK production company Nothing Lost, will launch soon and took a songs-first approach, with the cast, many of whom are top grime artists, recording songs that then dictated the script.
Jungle, which has been four years in the making and was commissioned shortly after Brown was given her role, follows the connected lives of two separate strangers, each facing their own struggles, viewed through the prism of UK grime and drill music and giving a perspective of inner city London.
“We completely turned storymaking on its head,” Brown told Series Mania Thursday afternoon. “Our shows need to have their beating heart and DNA set in a location and Jungle is such a good example. You couldn’t set it in France and that’s one of the reasons people globally are getting very excited about these shows.”
Like many senior streamer execs at this year’s Series Mania, Brown returned to the “local” programming theme several times during her session.
She brushed aside the notion that new European regulation is causing her team to commission more shows in the continent, stating that she is driven by “the quality of product.”
Giving delegates an exclusive look at the trail for upcoming Paul Poga doc The Pogmentary, Brown said the show “represents how we want to work with talent” and taps into “fanatical sports fan bases,” with doc content paired with sports such as football and tennis for which Amazon has rights.
Brown showcased her team of seven commissioning heads across Europe including, most recently, execs hired in the Nordics and the Netherlands.
“I can’t sit in London and pretend to know about Italian audiences, I need local experts on the ground,” she explained.
She welcomed the launch of more streaming services in Europe.
“They’re definitely not a threat,” added Brown. “This is such a beloved industry to me so the more investment coming in the better.”
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