Amazon Original Movies is set to be come the next big player in theatrical cinematic releases. An official announcement says the people behind Amazon’s streaming service, Amazon Prime, will acquire and produce 12 movies to be released in cinemas before appearing online to stream approximately four to eight weeks later – starting this year. That’s a significantly shorter gap than most regular studios allow between multiplexes and TV screens.

Roy Price, vice-president of Amazon Studios, said: “Not only will we bring Prime Instant Video customers exciting, unique, and exclusive films soon after a movie’s theatrical run, but we hope this program will also benefit filmmakers, who too often struggle to mount fresh and daring stories that deserve an audience.” Ted Hope, who was behind Happiness, The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (among others), will head up the creative side of things.

This news comes off the back of Amazon’s recent success at the Golden Globes with their a half-hour dark sitcom by Jill Soloway, Transparent, which won the award for best TV musical and comedy series, while star Jeffrey Tambor went home with the best actor in a TV comedy gong.

There are no details on what will be the first production or purchase under the new studio’s banner, but with the release and creation processes changing so much in such a short period of time, you’ll hear about it as soon as we do.

The streaming service enters the cinematic mainstream