Apple goes deeper into La La Land
Apple has taken another step toward becoming a power in the entertainment business by scooping up the rights for a TV project from Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-winning writer and director of La La Land, the unlikely critical and box office hit from 2016.
The tech giant announced the new series Thursday. It marks the latest television entry from Chazelle, who signed a deal with Netflix in September to make The Eddy, an eight-episode musical series set in Paris.
Apple said that Chazelle would direct and write each episode of the new series’ first season. His involvement in the Netflix show has him directing only its first two episodes.
Another difference from the Netflix deal: Apple is being mum on the details.
How many episodes will it be? Where will it take place? What’s it about? Apple would not answer any of those questions.
In a very short period of time, with competition so intense, TV networks have begun committing tens of millions of dollars to projects without so much as seeing a script. Rarer still is an announcement of an upcoming series without a public disclosure of what was purchased.
For the mysterious new assignment, Chazelle will reunite with producers Jordan Horowitz and Fred Berger, both of whom worked on La La Land. Show business fans will recall Horowitz as the man who claimed the Oscar for best picture after La La Land had been mistakenly announced as the winner. After realizing the error, Horowitz revealed that
Moonlight was the true winner and called the rival film’s team to the stage.
The untitled Chazelle project is the eighth one to be made public by Apple. The Cupertino, California, company entered the streaming wars last year when it announced that it would spend more than US$1 billion (31.3 billion baht) on a slate of original programming.
Apple is making three other shows with Reese Witherspoon as a producer — one starring Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, one with Octavia Spencer and a third with Kristen Wiig. It also has a planned reboot of Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” in the works, among other projects. © 2018 NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE