Phoebe Waller-Bridge Has Made Millions From Amazon Without Making Any Movies Or Shows
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a $20 million-a-year contract with Amazon to develop shows and hasn't produced anything yet.
Although there are many jobs where people get paid to sit around and do very little, most Hollywood showrunners are on a tight leash to produce. This may not be the case at Amazon Studios. According to an article from the Hollywood Reporter, Amazon has recently renewed Fleabag and Killing Eve showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s whopping $20 million-per-year price tag, which, combined with producer Lena Waithe, represents $76 million for the two producers without either of them having produced any shows or films for Amazon since their signings.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge signed a multi-year deal with Amazon in September 2019 after the success of her show Fleabag. They agreed on a generous three-year contract with a $20 million price tag to secure the skills of one of Hollywood’s breakout writers.
One of the big productions that was supposedly in the works for Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Amazon was a collaboration alongside Donald Glover for a television remake of 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Glover, known for creating and starring in the critically-acclaimed Atlanta, and Waller-Bridges even appeared at multiple events, speaking about how excited they were for the process. Unfortunately, Waller-Bridge left the cast and production of the series after a few months, citing creative differences.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is supposedly working on a television adaptation of the Tomb Raider series, which she will be writing but not starring in. Waller-Bridge is also developing an adaptation of Claudia Lux’s dark comedy debut novel Sign Here, about a guy who works in the deals department of Hell looking to score a promotion. The series sounds like something Waller-Bridge would be well suited for and could be a big reason why Amazon chose to renew its deal with the star creator.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is also working on an as-of-now undisclosed series that has already been greenlit by Amazon, with production on that series supposedly set to begin last year. So far, the project has remained a mystery, including details about the genre and other notable names involved.
Before signing with Amazon, Phoebe Waller-Bridge may be best known for her work as the star, head writer, and creator of the 2016 BBC dark comedy Fleabag. Waller-Bridge played the titular character during the show’s two-season run, which garnered her and the series critical acclaim. It ended up winning three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Comedy Series, and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.
Outside of her work on Fleabag, Waller-Bridge was also an executive producer, writer, and showrunner for the first season of the BBC action drama Killing Eve, created and starred in the comedy series Crashing, and made appearances in series like The Café and Broadchurch, and films such as Albert Nobbs, Goodbye Christopher Robin, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. She also contributed to the screenplay of the James Bond film No Time to Die.
Although the partnership between Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Amazon has not bore any fruit yet, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fruitful. With a number of series in the works, Amazon is hoping that their investment in Waller-Bridge and the recently renewed contract pays off.
