Prime Video’s Nicole Clemens is Ready to Make Her Mark in the U.K.

Nicole Clemens unveiled her first international showcase for Prime Video in London on Thursday morning after joining the streamer nine months ago.

While many of the shows she teased had already been set in motion by the time Clemens relocated to London to take up her role as Prime Video’s VP for international originals, the showcase was the former Paramount TV Studios boss’ first chance to give international press and industry a glimpse of her strategy going forward as well as what to expect on screens later this year.

Lasting over an hour and including pre-recorded interviews with creatives and talent including Mercedes Ron and Stanley Tucci, the showcase was astonishing in its territorial breadth, including content from India, Japan, Korea, Italy, France, U.K., Mexico and Colombia, among other places. It was introduced in a pre-recorded VT by Kelly Day, VP of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios International,

“It’s only a small part [of what’s on the slate], believe me,” Clemens told Variety via Zoom after the showcase. Paying tribute to the glut of shows she inherited from her predecessor of sorts, Amazon MGM Studios head Jen Salke, who left the business just two and a half months before Clemens was brought on board, Clemens said fare like “The Girlfriend,” starring Olivia Cooke and Robin Wright, was “a great calling card for where we want to continue to grow the slate.”

“It’s bold, it’s propulsive, it feels very premium, but it’s also about something,” said Clemens, who has relocated from L.A. to London for her new role (albeit has spent the last six months travelling to almost every territory under her preview, clocking up no fewer than 31 plane rides in the process). She also cites Sophie Turner-starrer “Steal,” which dropped last month, as an example of the kind of project she’s interested in. “Again, premium,” she said. “London is a character, it’s thrilling.”

As well as overseeing the international division, led in each territory by her “phenomenal” regional teams, Clemens will also manage the U.K. content teams and so is keen to get the message out that “we’re really doing U.K. stories.” A former agent of 16 years, she is familiar with the production landscape across the pond and is keen to engage with “U.K. IP, U.K. writers, directors.”

“I think because the U.K. naturally has resonance with the U.S. in terms of its awareness of talents and universal themes, we hope and expect that they’ll work in the U.S. too, she continued. “And we can level that up a little bit with casting that’s recognizable or bigger pieces. We also have unbelievable talent in the U.K. to make shows that feel incredibly, incredibly global.”

Like many streamers, the aim is “glocal” – content that looks and feels local but can travel, if not necessarily to the U.S. then, like Mercedes Ron’s “Culpa Mia” series, to other continents such as Latin America. “They have to work for their home country,” Clemens said of the originals. She’s open to all genres “but the common denominator, I think, will be populist literature. You know, really entertaining but still substantive.” Certainly many highlights from the showcase on Thursday were adaptations of European novels – much of it YA beloved by BookTok – ranging from Italy’s “Love Me, Love Me,” France’s “Campus Drivers” and of course Mercedes Ron’s “Culpa Mia” and “Bali” series. (So keen is the platform on the book-to-screen pipeline Clemens hosted an event last October dedicated to upcoming adaptations.)

Another theme of the showcase was re-purposing talent across territories, whether that’s Spanish-American actor Nicole Wallace starring in the Spanish “Culpa Mia” trilogy and now cast in the upcoming “Postcards from Italy” and Chile’s “The House of Spirits,” French director Thomas Vincent (perhaps best known for his work on “Reacher”) turning his hand to Stanley Tucci vehicle “Masterplan,” a French-Italian co-pro or Sophie Turner in the aforementioned “Steal,” produced out of the U.K., who will soon be seen in Prime Video’s blockbuster “Tomb Raider” reboot. In Wallace’s case, her relationship with Amazon has been made official, via an (increasingly rare) talent deal she signed with the streamer last year.

Clemens said Wallace’s deal was inked out of the U.S. (they “recognized that she had the possibility to be a global star”) but pointed to Wallace’s work across the streamer’s territories as a “fantastic cycle in terms of being able to fold in on itself.” Currently, however, there are no other such deals in the offing, at least that she’s willing to disclose. “I’m just really focused on building the slate, and then we’ll see,” she said. “I wish I had a Nicole Wallace every day of the week. We’ll see what happens. I think as we continue to find those opportunities, we’re going to want to keep people in the family.”

Part of parachuting Clemens into the U.K. is to become a beacon for local talent and producers who may otherwise be confused about who to pitch following a number of VP moves over the past few years after Amazon Studios Europe boss Georgia Brown stepped down in 2022. Dan Grabiner, head of originals for the U.K. and Northern Europe, followed the next year, leading to much of the decision-making for the U.K.’s pipeline ending up across the pond on Salke’s desk. “I think part of what we wanted to do was really pull it back to the U.K. and create less bureaucracy in terms of decision making and more clarity of direction,” said Clemens.

The confusion has been exacerbated by the complicated structure of Prime Video’s studios, including MGM, and the fact that some of Prime Video’s glitziest fare, including “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” the forthcoming “Tomb Raider” and the much-anticipated next instalment of Bond are largely made in the U.K. but produced out of the U.S. When asked about the future of Salke’s much championed pet project “Citadel,” particularly the international spin-offs “Diana” and “Hunny Bunny,” Clemens declined to answer, saying it was a “question for the U.S.”

While “Citadel” may have been one of Prime Video’s most high profile bombs in recent years, it hasn’t put Clemens off taking “some big, bold swings.” “I think I have a track record, if you look back at the things I’ve worked on and the things I’ve championed, I love big, bold swings,” she said. “I’m starting from building out the portfolio and the more success we have, the more opportunity we have to try to go outside the box.”