After a few false starts and a little offscreen drama, AppleTV+ finally makes its big debut with a slate of shows, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon and a billion potential customers ready to see what original programming looks like from the world's largest company, led by CEO Tim Cook. In August 2017, Apple made a move that seemed to signal that the world's largest company was serious about Hollywood. The tech giant outbid Netflix for a soapy morning-show drama that would mark Jennifer Aniston's return to television. Based loosely on the Brian Stelter book Top of the Morning, the series was to be the flagship for an ambitious new streaming service.
But by that fall, producers were starting to panic. They had only just received the first script from writer and first-time showrunner Jay Carson. Meanwhile, the morning TV landscape was being upended by NBC's ouster of Matt Lauer over sexual misconduct allegations, and it was becoming clear that the #MeToo movement would need to factor into the plot. Apple, producer Media Res, Aniston and co-star/producer Reese Witherspoon began to ponder making a showrunner change as the early script, sources say, didn't match the standards of those involved. The group then began to look for a more experienced showrunner — and, in success, a writer who could pen a woman's experience.
In April 2018, Carson was ousted in favor of Bates Motel showrunner Kerry Ehrin. It had been 10 months since the Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker had tapped Sony TV veterans Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to lead its Hollywood invasion. Now it was back to the drawing board for the show the duo wanted as their calling card. Apple — which, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, had been in heated arbitration alongside Media Res, Aniston and Witherspoon against Carson over his "created by" credit — was getting a crash course in the messy business of entertainment.
Nearly every Silicon Valley titan that has chased Netflix into Hollywood has faced stumbling blocks. Amazon's foray was characterized by kooky, leather-jacket-wearing content chief Roy Price and his distaste for industry protocols (he resigned after a sexual harassment allegation). Microsoft wasn't willing to stomach the cost of launching Xbox Entertainment Studios and pulled out before high-profile Halo went into production.
According to dozens of interviews across the industry, Apple CEO Tim Cook is experiencing his own learning curve despite hiring respected showbiz execs. But while there have been some missteps (in addition to Carson, Steven Spielberg anthology Amazing Stories parted ways with showrunners Bryan Fuller and Hart Hanson, and sources say the Jason Momoa sci-fi epic See will soon make a change at the top), the interest surrounding Apple's Hollywood debut remains high.
"The two-way relationship they have with the consumer and the vast number of consumers they have, that's going to be game-changing," says CAA TV agent Rob Kenneally.
Apple executives have acknowledged entertainment isn't their expertise. "We don't know anything about making television," senior vp software and service Eddy Cue, the architect of the company's TV+ strategy, told audiences at South by Southwest in 2018. "We know how to create apps, we know how to do distribution, we know how to market. But we don't really know how to create shows."
But with AppleTV+'s Nov. 1 debut looming, Cue and company will need to prove that they've figured that out. Any hurdles they've faced leading up to the launch won't matter if their plan to offer a handful of original shows for $5 a month succeeds in attracting a fraction of their 1.4 billion Apple users. And many believe that it will. Wedbush estimates that Apple could attract 100 million TV+ subscribers by 2023 and generate between $7 billion and $10 billion in revenue from the product.
Though Apple makes significantly more — $167 billion in 2018 — from the sale of the iPhone, as people hold on to their devices longer, services like TV+ will be key to ensuring Apple ecosystem loyalty. "There's a lot at stake," notes Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. "TV+ is going to play a major role in them further monetizing their 900 million iPhone users. The next leg of growth for Apple is going to be services." Apple declined to participate in this story.
Drive down Washington Boulevard through Culver City and it becomes clear Apple is taking its entertainment pursuit seriously. Construction is underway on a sleek, glass-enclosed office building that will house Erlicht and Van Amburg's Worldwide Video team, which will make up a significant portion of the 1,000 or so workers Apple expects to employ in the neighborhood by 2021.
Historically, when Apple enters a new industry, it doesn't do so tepidly. When it launched iTunes in 2001, it struck deals with every major music label and, eventually, revolutionized the way people bought and listened to music. Now, for TV+, it has struck deals with A-list creators including Oprah Winfrey, Alfonso Cuarón, Justin Lin and Jason Katims. Echoing an industrywide push to own the content you distribute, on Oct. 11 Apple announced plans to launch an in-house studio (Masters of the Air, a third installment in the Band of Brothers saga, will mark its first wholly owned show).
"They didn't step in halfway," says CAA TV agent Sonya Rosenfeld of Apple's entertainment ambitions. "They were smart to hire people who have spent their careers at the center of the TV business, and they didn't stutter start."
By several accounts, the company already has well outspent its initially projected $1 billion annual content budget. Morning Show alone costs $15 million an episode for a total of $300 million for two seasons, per sources, due in large part to the $2 million-an-episode fees that Witherspoon and Aniston negotiated. (Their deals are said to be even higher with producing fees and ownership points.) See also is expensive, with sources estimating $240 million for two seasons. These costs are at the high end of premium streaming but represent pocket change for Apple.
As if to show off just how much cash the $1 trillion company has, execs are offering every AppleTV+ showrunner and series regular a free Apple product and have dispatched representatives to the sets of shows including Dickinson to take orders from talent on which style iPhone or iPad they'd prefer.
But the gifts haven't exactly made up for the regular Apple presence on some sets, where sources say development executives have been hands-on with ensuring that each show fits the Apple brand. While the company isn't imposing strict family-friendly guidelines — early episodes of Morning Show feature the heavy use of F-bombs — the understanding is that explicit content must be in service of the storyline and all projects should, ultimately, mesh with Apple's aspirational brand identity. (According to a recent BuzzFeed News report, the company also pressured creators not to portray China negatively to avoid angering the authorities.)
The corporate meddling has led to some creative differences. During early development of Amazing Stories, Fuller and Hanson received pushback from both Apple and studio Universal Television over what sources describe as their vision for an edgy, high-concept anthology. (One story would have followed a crazy cat lady murdered by her feline friends.) Though the show was meant to be part of Apple's launch slate, the departure of the producers delayed the project. Apple, interested in a more aspirational version of the show, opted to bring on Once Upon a Time duo Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.
While showrunner departures are common — especially with straight-to-series orders increasingly frequent at streamers and upstart outlets — some within the creative community attribute Apple's early hurdles to its lack of Hollywood savvy. "It's an interesting place because there's no history or precedent," notes one lit agent. "They have no systems in place. Two guys who ran a studio are now effectively running a network. They've built a collection of executives who individually are great but are working together for the first time." Adds one top producer who has worked with the company: "The biggest problem is Apple's insistence that the industry adapt to them and not the other way around."
Kitsis doesn't agree. "While they're a new network, they're really not," he says. "Meaning, from top to bottom, everyone we dealt with was a pro with tons of studio and/or network experience. Some of whom we had actually worked with back in our ABC days, so there was an immediate comfort level for us."
Veteran execs aside, Morning Show's drama continued into postproduction. After an arbitration, the Writers Guild awarded Carson the lone "created by" credit, though he has no current involvement in the show; Ehrin was granted "developed by" credit (Carson, Ehrin and the WGA declined to comment). The decision is said to have gone against the recommendation of Media Res — fronted by former HBO drama head Michael Ellenberg, who has three shows (and counting) at Apple.
"If you're going to bet on a new company to enter this space, we felt Apple is as good a bet as you can make," says Ellenberg. "Apple's brand is synonymous with excellence, and they believe in — and know how to create — cultural moments. And we knew if we were able to make something we were proud of, we could land the moment with them to cut through the noise."
While Morning Show will be key to the launch of TV+, Apple has started revealing its second wave of projects. M. Night Shyamalan thriller Servant will launch Nov. 28, and Octavia Spencer's Truth Be Told is due Dec. 6. Renewals already are being handed down for Dickinson (production on season two is underway), with See, Little America and the Hilde Lysiak drama Home Before Dark also quietly picked up. Morning Show, picked up with a two-season, 20-episode order, already is searching for a high-profile male lead to replace Steve Carell (who, spoiler alert, has a one-year deal).
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com