Some of our most loved TV shows and movies began life without any pictures. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy and The War of the Worlds were famously radio hits first, and more recently hit podcasts have been turned into TV shows such as the true crime show Dr Death and the corporate crime show The Dropout.
You can expect a lot more of such shows on Prime Video because Amazon MGM Studios will be adapting podcasts and audiobooks from Audible, which Amazon also owns, for streaming on Amazon's video service. The shows may also be licensed to rival best streaming services and TV networks.
The news comes via Variety, which says that the deal between Amazon MGM Studios and Audible focuses on "developing series from podcasts and other Audible-produced originals that have been successful with listeners in the US and elsewhere".
It's a low-risk strategy because of course hit podcasts already have a ready-made audience that's likely to check out the visual version too, and you just know the word "synergy" is being bandied about at Amazon HQ. But cheap gags aside it does mean we'll see some interesting shows, such as the Michael Connelly adaptation The Wonderland Murders & The Secret History of Hollywood that MGM Plus announced late last year.
What podcasts can we expect to see on Prime Video?
As Variety explains, Audible "will co-develop and co-produce the projects with Amazon MGM Studios. The titles will be shopped to sibling outlets Amazon Prime Video and MGM Plus as well as external buyers".
The newly announced podcasts and audiobooks currently being adapted for TV include The Prophecy (trailer below), a supernatural thriller set amid a host of unexplainable natural disasters; Hot White Heist, a comedy series featuring "a crew of misfits from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum as they attempt the stickiest heist in history"; Nut Jobs, a terribly named tale of crime syndicates, stolen identities and food-related shenanigans; and Oracle, in which a psychic works for the FBI to help solve murders and abductions.
That's not all. There's also Temporal, in which a team of time travelers try to work out why the entire human race disappeared; Daniel X: Genesis, an adaptation of James Patterson's Daniel X series; and two music-themed shows: Words + Music, which promises to be "shining a light on today's most significant artists; and Breakthrough, a singing competition executive produced by The Chainsmokers.
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