Skybound Lands “First-of-Its-Kind” Deal With Prime Video for New Thriller VAKA

Skybound Entertainment has made a “first-of-its-kind” deal with Prime Video that is…actually only kind of that. The deal, which would see Prime Video buy the domestic distribution rights to VAKA, also allows Skybound to shop the show around to distributors (including Prime) in other parts of the world. It’s rare in the streaming world, and the first time Skybound has done anything like it, but as Rick Jacobs, Skybound’s Managing Partner of Linear Content, said, it’s more realistically a return to a pre-streaming status quo, where studios would pay to make shows and then offer them up to distributors.

According to Deadline, who first reported the deal, VAKA is set in Stockholm. Starring Aliette Opheim and Jonas Karlsson, VAKA follows the spread of a deadly insomnia epidemic. A disgraced minister must balance addressing the crisis and caring for his son, while an ambulance nurse goes to great lengths to save her lover.

The series is co-produced by the Amazon-owned MGM Studios, Unlimited Stories, and Sagafilm (which itself is a division of Skybound and 5th Planet Games). The Nordic setting isn’t just key to the story but also to the production, as VAKA will take advantage of Iceland’s generous tax rebates to offset production costs.

Glenn Geller, head of Skybound’s TV division, told Deadline that VAKA “fits squarely into the box” of the kind of content fans of The Walking Dead and Invincible expect from the company. He added, “It has more post-pandemic resonance in terms of connecting our recent shared experience and exploring a different take on what we’ve all been through, so we are excited to be involved more directly.”

It’s also an example of how Skybound is moving past its comic book adaptations and starting to find entirely new content that they don’t already own. They’ve also got Tell Me Your Name, from Skybound and Amazon Spain, coming up, which Jacobs compared to Outcast, the series from Skybound founder and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.

In keeping with the philosophy of the Image Comics that made Kirkman famous, Skybound, founded by Kirkman and producer David Alpert, aims to create and manage shows that they own, rather than turning the rights over to major studios and exhibitors. As Deadline notes, that way of doing things is not as uncommon outside of the U.S. studio system, but anything that keeps money out of the hands of a handful of studios in the US can be seen as outside-the-box thinking.