Amazon Prime Orders a New Show From Steve McQueen

Published on January 18, 2020

Add Steve McQueen’s name to the list of great auteurs going to television. The filmmaker behind 12 Years a Slave, Shame, and Widows has signed a new overall deal with Amazon, which will allow him to develop projects for Amazon Prime in the future. McQueen already has a show in the works and is continuing his deal with a science-fiction series, Last Days, which he’ll produce. 

What is Last Days?

It’s a science-fiction thriller set in a dying world overrun by artificial intelligence. With the world going down the toilet, a world government decides to colonize Mars. The story will revolve around a female character seeking the truth of where she comes from. A lot of mystery in that description, but according to Amazon Studio boss Jennifer Salke, Last Days isn’t as dystopian as it sounds. 

McQueen is Thrilled 

Last Days is the second Amazon Prime series McQueen is working on, following the John Boyega and Letitia Wright-led show, Small Axe. That six-part anthology series premiers on Amazon later this year. Clearly, McQueen is enjoying his time at Amazon Prime. In a statement, he said: 

I’m thrilled about this new venture and partnership with Amazon. The idea of having a partner that will support and facilitate risk and change is more than exciting.

Jennifer Salke added: 

The award-winning talents of Steve McQueen seem to be endless, with his unique ability to craft stories that provoke, educate and entertain. With the compelling Last Days already in development, we are excited to see what else McQueen creates for our global Amazon Prime Video customers

McQueen is No Fan of TV

McQueen is a great artist, a true artiste. The idea of his vision playing out in a television show, for a large chunk of time, sounds fantastic. The funny thing is, he swore off TV years ago. He’s not a fan. Years ago, McQueen shot a pilot for HBO, but it wasn’t a positive experience for him. In an old interview with Indiewire, the filmmaker expressed his distaste for television and didn’t hold back: 

“TV had its moment. It’s fodder now, isn’t it? It’s fodder. […] There was a moment in the ’90s or early 2000s when it was amazing. And now it’s just, ‘Get stuff done. We need stuff.’ I don’t know what’s happening now, but obviously the quality has gone down a little bit. There’s more of it, but less quality.

[It must be] like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to watch this?’ When you get ‘Breaking Bad,’ it’s amazing, but then you get ‘Ozark,’ which is a rip-off of that. It’s unfortunate, right now, there’s so much money, and so little ideas. The problem is when you have no money, you’ve got to think.

Writing is one thing, [but] I don’t think TV does what cinema can do. I just don’t think that that’s possible. This is not to sort of say one is better than the other, but I know what I prefer. I prefer cinema. Silence is a very, very big factor. Scope is another factor, which is more familiar to me, as far as being a human being is concerned. We don’t talk all the time. We think a lot as well.

Why You Should Look Forward to Last Days 

The fact that McQueen trashed television before but is giving it a shot with Amazon Prime is very promising. He’s an artist who doesn’t make what he doesn’t want to make, and what he does make tends to be great. It doesn’t sound like he’s directing any episodes of Last Days, but nonetheless, his name on a project is reason enough to watch it one day. With only four movies under his belt, McQueen has established himself as one of the greatest directors working nobody. Nobody has a vision like McQueen’s. Similar to the actor Steve McQueen, he’s just an artistic force to be behold in the cinema.

Jack Giroux is a Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in Los Angeles, he is an entertainment journalist who's previously written for Thrillist, Slash Film, Film School Rejects, and The Film Stage.

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