Blake Lively is taking a break from the movie business to enter streaming.
Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on Wednesday, Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke confirmed that Lively has signed on with the streaming provider to produce a new series exclusively for Amazon Prime Video. Salke didn’t offer many details about the show, but indicated that it might focus on the fashion industry and merchandising, according to Vanity Fair.
Amazon is in a battle with Netflix, Hulu, and others in the home streaming market. But in order to differentiate its service from the others, the company needs to either buy exclusive rights to content or build out its own original programming lineup. The deal with Lively represents an opportunity for the company to achieve the latter.
Bringing a Blake Lively show to Amazon’s Prime Video could give the service a major boost. Lively is a major Hollywood star and has a massive following on social media. Those two factors could make the show a major success.
Looking ahead, Salke said that she plans to continue to attract big names to Prime Video, according to Vanity Fair. She said that “talent is feeling slightly untethered” in today’s entertainment space. And she hopes to be able to attract them and allow them to build projects on Amazon.