Not known for his ability to keep quiet on matters, outspoken former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been discussing his new motoring series with Amazon.
Announced last week, the as-yet-unnamed show with his fellow ex-Top Gear co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond is due to start filming this year, with a delivery for fall 2016. Clarkson at the time said he felt liked he’d “climbed out of a bi-plane and into a spaceship,” offering yet another poke at his former employers, the BBC.
Amazon claimed to have made a “significant investment” in signing the trio to a three-season deal for its Prime Instant Video streaming platform, later reported in the British press to have been in the region of $250 million.
“Along with our longtime producer Andy Wilman, we have formed a production company which is called W Chump and Sons and we are now looking for an office, a rubber plant, some company cars and a name for our new program,” Clarkson wrote in his weekly column for The Sun tabloid.
“Then we will be off. To make what will be a seriously well-funded, British-based show with no commercial breaks and, better still, no editorial pressure from on high,” he added.
“Amazon has been delightfully clear on that. ‘Just make the show you wanna make, guys.’ Music to my ears.”
Clarkson was famously fired from his Top Gear hosting duties in March this year after a “fracas” in which he punched a producer. It wasn’t the first controversy for the outspoken British presenter, who had previously gotten into trouble for an alleged use of the N-word and several perceived racial slurs.
After Clarkson’s exit, the BBC announced it would be rebooting its flagship motoring show, with British TV and radio personality Chris Evans at the helm. The new program is set to go into production later this year for airing in 2016, and is expected to go head-to-head with Clarkson’s Amazon offering.
For those wondering, W Chump and Sons incorporates the surname initials of Clarkson, May, Hammond and Wilman.
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