UPDATED 00:24 EDT / OCTOBER 11 2017

APPS

Apple to team with Steven Spielberg to bring back ’80s TV series ‘Amazing Stories’

Apple Inc.’s first major push into creating original programming will be a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s TV series, “Amazing Stories.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that Apple would invest $1 billion over the next year to create several shows and movies and get a foothold in the streaming business. According to reports, this will begin with Amazing Stories, Spielberg’s attempt to create a horror/sci-fi show similar to that of “The Twilight Zone.” The show ran between 1985 and 1987.

Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment production company will produce 10 episodes of the reboot with NBCUniversal’s TV production arm. The Wall Street Journal reported that Spielberg will likely serve as executive producer, while the stylistic writer and producer, Bryan Fuller, of “American Gods” and “Hannibal,” will be the showrunner. It’s reported that each episode will have a budget of $5 million.

“We love being at the forefront of Apple’s investment in scripted programming, and can’t think of a better property than Spielberg’s beloved Amazing Stories franchise,” NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke told the Journal.

Apple itself hasn’t made a statement, and it is still not clear how people will be able to watch the series. Apple has made it clear that its big-budget content will include A-list actors, and with Spielberg and Fuller on board, the goal is clearly something that emulates the success of Netflix Inc.’s nostalgia-inducing “Stranger Things” or the tech dystopian thriller “Black Mirror.”

Apple joins Google LLC’s YouTube in courting serious video content, and Facebook Inc., which also said this year it would invest $1 billion in original content and $3 million per episode of the main shows. This is still a lot less than big hitters Netflix and Amazon.com Inc., which will spend $6 billion and $4.5 billion in 2017, respectively. In June, Apple hired Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to lead the effort.

The news comes just a few days after Apple dropped one of its other grand original content projects, which was an Elvis biopic produced by Harvey Weinstein. Multiple reports have surfaced over the last week claiming that Weinstein has been involved in numerous sexual assaults, making him a toxic figure from Hollywood to New York to Silicon Valley.

Image: DirtyOpi via Pixabay

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