Amazon's Fall Pilots Include Shows Directed By Shane Black, Jonathan Dayton And Valerie Faris, Tim Blake Nelson, And More

As we've discussed today, television is no longer just a writer's medium, it's a director's medium too. Providing filmmakers fertile creative playground, with the financing to boot, it's not wonder that directors are eager to do anything but swim upstream in the studio system. And some are even willing to take a chance at making a pilot, even if it won't make it to air. Amazon's formula so far has been to order and produce pilot episodes, and then let their audience vote on which one goes to series. Viewers don't have the final say, but their input is valuable, and Amazon has a handful of new shows they'll be testing the water with.

The online conglomerate announced today that new pilot projects from directors Shane Black, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and Tim Blake Nelson, among others, are on the way. And the programming is wide-ranging, from a post-Civil War set western, to a drama set in the revolutionary times of the late '60s, to a show about the life of jazz age icon...