Amazon is adding another auteur filmmaker to their growing stockpile.DriveandThe Neon DemondirectorNicholas Winding Refnis teaming with the streaming service for a new Los Angeles-based crime thriller,Too Old to Die Young. Refn will direct, produce, and co-write the series with acclaimed comic book writerEd Brubaker. Brubaker will also produce as he recently did on HBO’sWestworld.
PerVariety,Too Old to Die Youngdigs into the criminal underbelly of LA and “explores various characters’ existential journeys from being killers to becoming samurai’s in the city of angels.” I’m definitely not at all sure what that means, but it sounds pretty great. The report also states that the series is a crime thriller in a similar vein to Refn’sPushertrilogy; the gritty, stylized series of films that explored the Danish drug trade and launched the director’s career.Too Old to Die Younghas been greenlit straight-to-series with a 10-episode order and is set to begin production this fall in Los Angeles.
Amazon is on a hell of a winning streak. The streaming network behindTransparentandThe Man in the High Castlealso recently threw down big bucks fora drama fromDavid O. Russell, starringJulianne MooreandRobert De Niro, andMatthew Weiner’shighly-anticipated return to TVafter Mad Men, as well asteaming up with BBCfor an adaptation ofNeil Gaiman’sGood Omens.
Amazon previously released Refn’s grotesque, gorgeous horror filmThe Neon Demon. As for Refn. This is slated to be Refn’s first American TV series, though he previously wrote episodes of the Danish seriesThe Chosen 7and directed two episodes ofAgatha Christie’s Marple. He is also developing the Paris-set crime thriller Les Italiens, based on best-selling books by Italian authorEnrico Pandiani. Refn is also developing the film The Avenging Silence, a spy thriller set in Yakuza territory.
