EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios will not be proceeding with The Banker’s Wife. The project, based on the bestselling novel by Cristina Algerwhich, had received an eight-episode straight-to-series order in summer 2019.
According to sources, the decision stems from Covid-related production delays and budget challenges. This is the latest cable/streaming series whose pickup has been reversed as a result of the pandemic that shut down Hollywood production for about six months last year. Among the most impacted have been series whose nature makes them virtually impossible — and expensive — to produce under Covid protocols.
The globetrotting The Banker’s Wife falls in that category as a high-stakes international thriller set in the world of global finance, from Geneva to Paris, London and New York. In March 2020, when all filming came to a halt at the onset of the pandemic, The Banker’s Wife was in final stages of pre-production, gearing up for the start of a complex shoot across five European countries.
The series, from Federation Entertainment and producer Sherry Marsh, is about two women racing for answers when a mysterious plane crash sets them off on parallel pursuits of truth.
The Banker’s Wife had strong support at Amazon Studios, and I hear the streamer took a wait-and-see approach and renewed the option on the book with the intention to get production going when conditions improved. But I hear with the Covid situation in Europe still unstable amid a big new wave of infections and lockdowns this spring, Amazon brass took a hard look, crunched the numbers and ultimately made a decision to scrap the series.
Meredith Stiehm wrote all eight episodes, with Lesli Linka Glatter set to direct all eight.
This has been a passion project for Marsh, who first teamed with Marseille producer Federation to acquire the rights to The Banker’s Wife in July 2018. The Pose and Vikings executive producer and the U.S./France-based Federation are expected to continue their efforts to bring the book to the screen.