Prime Video has handed out a straight-to-series order for Calamities, a Texas-set crime thriller from showrunner, writer and director David Weil. Amazon MGM Studios calls the project a Texas crime thriller like no other, built around a drug deal that erupts into violence in a quiet border town.
The series centers on a small-town sheriff searching for answers from her past, a sociopathic hit woman, an overly eager FBI agent and a ruthless sect of the cartel. It is Weil’s latest series at Prime Video after Hunters, Solos and Citadel, and it arrives as the streamer keeps adding genre fare to a lineup that already includes shows like The Boys, where fans can also follow Karen Fukuhara’s Kimiko in a new season write-up, and live sports such as Athletics vs. the New York Yankees.
Peter Friedlander, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of television, said Calamities is “the unique character-rich thriller that doesn’t blink,” adding that Weil “has crafted a story that knocks the wind out of you” and that the studio is eager to back him, Natalie Laine Williams, Glen Powell and Dan Cohen on Prime. Weil executive produces through Please Enjoy with Williams, while Barnstorm, Powell and Cohen’s company, is also on board as an executive producer with Ryan Schwartz serving as co-executive producer.
The order lands at a busy point for Weil, who is also behind Apple TV’s Invasion, recently wrote Extraction 3 for Netflix, sold his co-written original spec Supermax to Miramax, is writing a film about journalist Evan Gershkovich for Edward Berger and United Artists, and is set to direct his original script Tyrant for Amazon/MGM. For Barnstorm, founded last year by Powell and Cohen, Calamities adds another high-profile TV title to a slate that already includes a recent rights win for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with A24, a series adaptation and feature planned from that deal, the just-wrapped second season of Chad Powers for Hulu and The Comeback King, the company’s first film under its feature pact with Universal.
The order shows where both teams are headed: Weil is deepening his run at Prime Video, and Barnstorm is pushing hard across television and film. Calamities is not just another crime series on the schedule; it is the next major test of whether that combination can turn a sharp premise and a loaded cast of characters into a franchise-level event.
