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Apple inks deal with Ex Machina-maker A24 studio to create original films
Apple has lined up another partnership to boost its video-content offerings. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple signed a deal with A24 studio, a New York-based production company responsible for movies, including the 2017 Oscar winner for Best Picture, Moonlight.Sex, violence, drugs get the axe in Apple’s upcoming original content
Details of forthcoming projects haven't been disclosed, but Apple reportedly signed a "multi-year partnership" to make "independent, feature-length films" with A24. Apple has numerous production partnerships and deals in the works already, but most are for serialized shows and other video content.
For the past year, Apple has focused on gleaning talent for its original content offerings. It began with the Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps series, both of which are exclusively available on Apple Music.
[...] But A24's recent popular films—including but not limited to Moonlight, Lady Bird, Hereditary, Ex Machina, and The Disaster Artist, don't seem to fit in with Apple's current content visions. Reports suggest that the iPhone maker wants to avoid content with "gratuitous sex, profanity, or violence," all of which are elements explored in many of today's award-winning and popular films.
How and where Apple will distribute this original content is still unknown. Most of its exclusives live on Apple Music right now, so it could dump everything into its music subscription service or on iTunes. However, reports suggest Apple's rumored TV streaming service—which will be in direct competition with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu—will launch in early 2019.
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Apple reportedly ups TV spending by $5 billion to compete with Amazon and Netflix
Apple has reportedly committed an eye-popping $5 billion dollars more to its original video content budget in a bid to better compete with Amazon, Disney, HBO, Netflix, and Hulu, according to a new report from the Financial Times.
The company had originally set aside $1 billion for former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to court well-known creators and Hollywood stars to its platform. According to the FT, that number has jumped to $6 billion as more shows have moved through production and budgets have ballooned.
One production — a high-profile comedy-drama about morning television featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell called The Morning Show — has cost Apple hundreds of millions of dollars, the FT reports. Separately, Bloomberg reports that Apple is spending $300 million on just the first two seasons of the show.
That makes it more expensive on a per episode basis than the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones, which enjoyed a budget of roughly $15 million per episode and ranks as the most expensive season of television ever.
Also at 9to5Mac and Cord Cutters News.
Previously: Apple Investing $1 Billion in Acquiring and Producing TV Shows
Apple Inks Deal With Ex Machina Maker A24 Studio to Create Original Films
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @05:28PM (2 children)
> reports suggest Apple's rumored TV streaming service—which will be in direct competition with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu—will launch in early 2019.
So ... no blockbuster movies, nor action, not including most dramas. Apple will have only one category, "family"?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @05:43PM
The only person watching it is Granny, and we're not real sure she still understands where she is, or who she is.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @09:43PM
The new season of man in the high castle kept going after the book ended. As a result there is a bunch of gratuitous homosexuality added, like long standing characters suddenly are gay.