''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 Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Los ...

& WIC Entertainment and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses , of which are covered by the rainfo ...

. 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 Christopher Thomas Howell (born December 7, 1966) is an American actor and director. After making his film debut with a supporting role in ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), Howell had his breakout with a lead role as Ponyboy Curtis in the c ...

as Dr. Alex Kennedy *

Carol Alt Carol Ann Alt (born December 1, 1960) is an American model and actress. Early life Alt was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, the daughter of Muriel, an airline employee and model, and Anthony Alt, a battalion chief from the 18th Battalion (Sou ...

as Karen Oldham *

Fabiana Udenio Fabiana Udenio (born December 21, 1964) is an Italian-Argentine actress. Born in Argentina to Italian parents, she grew up in Rome. She may be best known for her role as Alotta Fagina in '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' and for p ...

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 Tyler Hynes is a Canadian actor. Early life Hynes was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up on a ranch outside Ottawa. He began acting professionally at the age of eight. Career Hynes got his professional start at the age of eight during a 7 ...

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