Amazon orders ‘Motorheads’ & ‘A Very Royal Scandal’, cancels ‘With Love’, ‘Shelter’ & ‘Dolores Roach’

Harlan Coben’s Shelter (Source: Amazon Studios)

Amazon streamer Prime Video has greenlit coming-of-age series Motorheads and fact-based drama A Very Royal Scandal, while pulling the plug on three other scripted shows, Harlan Coben’s Shelter, The Horror Of Dolores Roach and With Love.

Produced by Jax Media and Amazon MGM Studios, Motorheads tells the story of a group of outsiders who form an unlikely friendship over a mutual love of automobiles. While some characters are navigating the hierarchy and rules of high school, others will be racing from a dark past.

The cast includes Ryan Phillippe, Nathalie Kelley, Michael Cimino, and Melissa Collazo, while the series is written and executive produced by John A. Norris, who will serve as showrunner.

The series is also executive produced by Jason Seagraves, Jake Fuller on behalf of Jax Media, Dana Brunetti, and Keegan Rosenberger. Ruben Fleischer is attached to direct the pilot and Ryan Zaragoza will serve as co-executive producer.

“Motorheads is a gripping story, anchored around the series of ‘firsts’ that accompany young adulthood. We have an incredible group of actors bringing John’s (out)cast of characters to life and we are excited to share this wistful, nostalgic journey with our global, Prime Video customers,” said Lauren Anderson, head of AVOD originals, unscripted and targeted programming at Amazon MGM Studios.

A Very Royal Scandal, meanwhile, will be based around the Newsnight interview of UK royal Prince Andrew, who was questioned on TV in 2019 about his friendship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Michael Sheen will star as the royal in the three-part series, produced by Blueprint Television for Amazon Studios, while Ruth Wilson will play Emily Maitlis, the journalist who questioned him on the TV show Newsnight.

The show, which is currently in production in the UK, will follow Maitlis’s “professional and personal journey as a Newsnight journalist leading up to her acclaimed interview with Prince Andrew”, said Amazon. Maitlis will serve as an exec producer on the series. The show is written by Jeremy Brock and directed by Julian Jarrold.

Drama trio cancelled

Alongside this new commission is the news that a trio of scripted shows have been cancelled on Prime Video.

US dark comedy The Horror Of Dolores Roach was based on the one-woman play Empanada Loca, and ran for just one season after its launch in July. Produced by Blumhouse Television, it starred Justina Machado as a woman who must start over after being released from prison after 16 years and returning home to a now severely gentrified neighbourhood.

Mystery drama Harlan Coben’s Shelter also ran for one season. Debuting in August, the Amazon Studios & MGM Television series was based on Coben’s 2011 young adult novel about a young man who starts a new life after the death of his father, only to swiftly be caught up in the mysterious disappearance of a student at his school.

Meanwhile, With Love is ending after two seasons. Produced by GloNation and Amazon Studios, the romantic comedy series debuted in 2021 and streamed its second season in June this year. The show followed the lives of the Diaz siblings, Lily (Emeraude Toubia) and Jorge Jr (Mark Indelicato) over various holiday seasons as they both searched for love.