Michael Bay is making his first television outing with a bounty hunter series for Amazon Prime Video. What inspired the over-the-top storyline reads like one of the famously bombastic director’s movie plots.
Say the name "Michael Bay" and it’s hard not to picture an explosion backed by hard-rocking music, which is the director’s signature style in the public perception. Take the mindset that put out the Transformers movies and turn it to the small screen for the first time with an untitled bounty hunter drama, and fans will see just what Bay can do on TV.
Deadline reports Bay is turning from the big screen to the small for the first time with a show about a bounty hunter who finds himself in a cartel war south of the border. The Amazon Prime Video show is based on a real-life incident out of the life of one of Bay's friends that reads like the plot to one of the Transformers director’s larger-than-life action spectaculars. “I was inspired about 5 years ago hanging out down in Costa Rica, with a former US Federal Agent, who surfs every day, living the good life," Bay said. "He supports his fun, relaxed lifestyle in Costa Rica by tracking down ‘Bad Gringos’ hiding out down in South America.”
The project is being written and created by Joe Barton, an English screenwriter behind the Sky series The Lazarus Project and whose next series is taking Peter Shaffer's play, Amadeus (that inspired the Oscar-winning movie of the same name), and stretching that into something for the small screen. “I couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with Michael Bay and Amazon to bring this thrilling and action-filled show to the screen,” Barton said. Having learned what he can do with drone shots on Ambulance, perhaps Bay will bring some of that same low-budget hi-octane energy to this action-packed untitled series.
Directors crossing over from TV to movies is nothing new. When Alfred Hitchcock was directing big-screen thrillers, he still turned his hand to TV and directed several episodes of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents crime series (he’d use the same crew to film all-timer, Psycho, guerilla-style). Spielberg started his career by doing TV with episodes of Columbo and Night Gallery and a made-for-TV movie called Duel. Martin Scorsese turned to the medium to direct the pilot of Boardwalk Empire and then returned for Vinyl.
Bay's series has a great premise, like a more action-packed Magnum P.I., that of a guy living the good life in paradise and doing it by hunting down bad people. Except in this case, he gets himself embroiled in something way over the top.
The bounty hunter series is in development at Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Deadline