Amazon Abruptly Cancels Pricey Drama ‘The Last Tycoon’ (Exclusive)

The move comes as Amazon continues to tighten its financial belt amid a search for a broad hit.

The Hollywood Reporter – Amazon has canceled its F. Scott Fitzgerald period drama The Last Tycoon, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The decision arrives days after the retail giant/streamer made an about-face and canceled another Fitzgerald drama, the previously renewed Z: The Beginning of Everything, starring Christina Ricci as the author’s wife, Zelda Fitzgerald.

Amazon had spent roughly $7 million during preproduction on the scrapped season of Z. The cancellations come as what sources say is larger belt-tightening going on at the outlet as it looks for a large-scale hit.

The streamer is now beginning to rack up a series of one-and-done shows, with Last Tycoon, Z and 1970s Newsweek period drama Good Girls Revolt joining drama Mad Dogs.

The pricey Last Tycoon was picked up to series last year and began streaming on July 28. While Amazon, along with Netflix and Hulu, doesn’t release viewership information, the drama debuted to mixed reviews from critics (its score sits at 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 57 percent on Metacritic).

The Last Tycoon starred Matt Bomer, Kelsey Grammer and Lily Collins, and its nine episodes centered on the machinations of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s. The show was based on the unfinished novel of the same name by the Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise author which centered on the character Monroe Starr, who was modeled after producer Irving Thalberg.