Apple’s recent hires from Sony Television, Jamie Ehrlict and Zack Van Amburg, have reportedly struck a deal with Steven Spielberg on a new sci-fi series.
The Hollywood Reporter was the first to comment on this potential production last month:
At press time, the company had bids out on only a handful of projects, including an update of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s sci-fi, horror, fantasy anthology series, Amazing Stories, and a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, according to several involved.
Then, only a few weeks later, The Wall Street Journal stated that Apple has signed a deal for an updated version of the Amazing Stories series, first released in the 80’s:
The tech giant has struck a deal with Mr. Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA -0.36% NBCUniversal television production unit to make new episodes of “Amazing Stories,” a science fiction and horror anthology series that ran on NBC in the 1980s, according to people familiar with the matter.
Spielberg is expected to produce 10 episodes of the original series, with each episode having a budget of $5 million. This could fit in with the previous report that Apple were allocating a budget of $1 billion for up to 10 series next year.
At present, Apple uses its subscription music service as a platform for its original video content which includes shows like Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps. In addition to the Spielberg deal, it has also been reported that Ehrlicht and Van Amburg are “building out a video strategy that is expected to include a streaming service that rivals Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and others.”
This isn’t the first report we’ve heard regarding Apple’s video streaming service but previous talks with content providers have thus far all failed. This time it may be different, as it seems as though the company is hiring Hollywood veterans who have the experience to succeed in what Apple has in mind.
