Amazon: ready for its close-up
After the Starbucks-financed Akeelah and the Bee fizzled in movie theatres last spring, you’d think that other non-Hollywood companies would now be more hesitant to throw their hats into the moviemaking arena. But the L.A. Times is reporting today that Amazon.com has just optioned author Keith Donohue’s fantasy novel The Stolen Child, about a young boy who is spirited away by fairies and replaced by a changeling.
According to the L.A. Times article, Amazon doesn’t plan to actually finance the movie themselves, or even co-finance it. The internet retailer is simply hoping to be — in the words of Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener — “an extremely valuable partner in the development, marketing and distribution of this film.” Translation: Amazon won’t take on any of the financial risk themselves, but they’ll provide a crazy amount of marketing for the film’s theatrical and DVD releases on its website.
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Click here for the L.A. Times article
