Amazon has enlisted the talents of comedy veterans Louis CK and Sasha Baron Cohen to bolster their upcoming slate of original content. Variety is reporting that the Ecommerce giant has six new pilots on the deck for the fall TV season, two of which count CK and Cohen as executive producers.
CK's program is called One Mississippi. The show is a dark comedy loosely based on the life of comedian Tig Notaro. The story focuses on her return to her childhood home of Bay Saint Lucille, Mississippi due to the unexpected death of her mother. Joining Notaro is a cast that includes Noah Harpster ("Transparent"), John Rothman ("The Devil Wears Prada") and Casey Wilson ("Gone Girl") as Tig's girlfriend, Brooke. Academy Award winner Diablo Cody is writing the script together with Notaro and also has a producer credit.
Baron Cohen's pilot on the other hand is called Highston. It follows Highston Liggets (played by newcomer Lewis Pullman), a 19 year old boy with an assortment of imaginary celebrity friends. His parents, Jean (Mary Lynn Rajskub, "24"), and Wilbur (Chris Parnell, "SNL") encourage him to seek psychiatric aid, however his Uncle Billy (Curtis Armstrong, "American Dad!") thinks he's okay. Oscar nominee Bob Nelson ("Nebraska") is writing the pilot.
Aside from these two programs, Amazon also has Z, a show based on the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, the wife of legendary Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Christina Ricci stars in the title role.
This new roster of programs is Amazon's latest attempt at challenging Netflix as the internet's king of original programming. The company won big at the recently concluded Primetime Emmy awards thanks to the success of it's transgender dramedy Transparent.
Amazon also has a Jeremy Clarkson fronted automotive show set to debut sometime next year.
