''Amazon'' (also known as ''Peter Benchley's Amazon'') was a syndicated adventure drama series created by

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author. He is best known for his bestselling novel '' Jaws'' and co-wrote its movie adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works were also adapted for both ...

. It was developed by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

production companies Alliance Atlantis Communications & WIC Entertainment and German company Beta Film GmbH. The 22 episodes of the series were in first-run syndication between 1999 and 2000. A novelization of the 2-hour pilot was written by Rob MacGregor, and a mass-market paperback was released by

Harper (publisher) Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...

on 8 Aug 2000.

Premise

The drama series focused on the six survivors of a crashed airline flight in the

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian Amazon jungle. The group soon comes into contact with a hostile indigenous tribe, the Fierce Ones. They are taken in by a mysterious tribe called the Chosen, who are descended from 16th-century British colonists who were lost in the rainforest. Relations with the Chosen are tenuous at best. Most of the group escapes the Chosen only to stir up a hornets' nest with the cannibalistic Jaguar People, led by an insane Canadian woman bent on domination of all the local tribes.

Cast

* C. Thomas Howell as Dr. Alex Kennedy * Carol Alt as Karen Oldham * Fabiana Udenio as Pia Claire *

Chris Martin Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is best known as the vocalist, pianist and co-founder of the rock band Coldplay. Born in Exeter, Martin went to University Colleg ...

as Jimmy Stack * Rob Stewart as Andrew Talbott * Tyler Hynes as Will Bauer

Episodes

Production

In April 1998, Peter Benchley inked a deal with Atlantis Films to develop the show. Benchley came up with the idea for “Amazon” while vacationing in the Caribbean when he stumbled across centuries-old buttons and other artifacts buried in the sand. Each episode of the series cost $1.2 million. The total cost of the series was $26 million, making it one of the most expensive television series ever made. The show started airing on WIC Television in October 1999.

Home media

Alliance Home Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Canada only on 22 February 2011. This was soon followed by the release to the rest of the North American market.

References

External links

* (archived) * {{Peter Benchley 1990s Canadian drama television series 2000s Canadian drama television series 1999 Canadian television series debuts 2000 Canadian television series endings First-run syndicated television shows in Canada Television shows set in Brazil Television series by Alliance Atlantis