Amazon is getting into the movie business and they’ve added a period comedy to the mix.
According to Deadline, the streaming service has added writer/director Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship to their line-up of films. The movie was set for a 2016 release theatrically, but will also be streaming on Amazon.
Reuniting Stillman with Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny, the film is based on the Jane Austen short story and takes place in the 1790s. The film centers on beautiful widow Lady Susan Vernon, who has come to the estate of her in-laws to wait out colorful rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and her rather reluctant debutante daughter, Frederica.
Love & Friendship also stars Xavier Samuel, Stephen Fry, and Emma Greenwell.
Stillman, Beckinsale, and Sevigny also worked together on the 1998 cult classic, The Last Days of Disco. This marks the second project Stillman has worked on with Amazon after the streaming service premiered his television pilot, The Cosmopolitans.
It is Amazon’s second feature film following the acquisition of the Kevin Spacey/Michael Shannon film, Elvis & Nixon, which is directed by Liza Johnson.