Jill Soloway Project Among Amazon’s Comedy Pilot Season Lineup

SEATTLE: Amazon has unveiled the lineup for its 2016 comedy pilot season, which includes projects from creators such as Jill Soloway (Transparent) and features such on-screen talent as Kevin Bacon and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

The 2016 comedy pilot season will debut August 19 in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan with three new half-hour shows. All Amazon customers can stream and review the pilots to help choose the next Amazon original series that will be available to Prime members. The pilots will be available via the Amazon Video app for TVs, connected devices such as Fire TV, and mobile devices. They will also be accessible online.

The roster includes I Love Dick, adapted from the cult classic of the same name and featuring Kevin Bacon (The Following). I Love Dick is executive produced by Soloway, Andrea Sperling (Transparent) and Sarah Gubbins (Ten Aker Wood). The pilot is directed by Soloway and written by Gubbins.

Jean-Claude Van Johnson, meanwhile, stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as a global martial arts and film sensation operating under the alias “Johnson,” the most dangerous undercover private contractor in the world. Along with Van Damme, the show stars Kat Foster (Your Family or Mine), Moises Arias (The Middle) and Phylicia Rashad (Creed). The show is executive produced by Peter Atencio (Key and Peele), Ridley Scott (The Good Wife), David W. Zucker (The Man in the High Castle) and Van Damme. The pilot is directed by Atencio and written by Dave Callaham (Mortal Kombat). The show is produced by Scott Free Productions.

Also part of the lineup is The Tick, set in a world where superheroes are real. An underdog accountant with no powers realizes that his city is owned by a global super villain that everyone thinks is dead. The accountant tries to uncover the conspiracy and joins forces with a strange blue superhero. The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies), Yara Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion). The Tick is executive produced by Ben Edlund (Supernatural), Barry Josephson (Bones) and Barry Sonnenfeld (A Series of Unfortunate Events). It is directed by Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight) and written by Edlund. It is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television.

“Nowhere else will voices as influential as Jill Soloway and Jean-Claude Van Damme share a stage,” said Joe Lewis, the head of half-hour series at Amazon Studios. “And that’s just the Js. We’re excited to bring such a diverse slate of pilots to customers and we can’t wait to hear what they think.”