Perhaps taking a cue from streaming video rival Netflix, Amazon.com (AMZN 1.15%) is getting into the TV production business. The company announced it has approved the start of the production for a pair of TV pilots, Bosch and The After.
The retailer will air the two on its Amazon Instant Video service free of charge. Customers will be able to critique the shows; the company says this feedback will help determine which will go to series. The resulting series will be aired in early 2014 on Amazon's Prime Instant Video and in the U.K. through its subsidiary LOVEFiLM.
Bosch, based on a series of novels by Michael Connelly, is a mystery thriller centered around a Los Angeles detective -- who happens to be a suspect in a murder -- on the trail of a child killer. It is written by Eric Overmyer and will star character actor Titus Welliver.
The After is written by The X-Files creator Chris Carter, and in Amazon's words "follows eight strangers who are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation."
