Apple Gets Drama Series Starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon
November 08 2017 - 2:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Flint
Apple Inc. has struck a deal for a new drama starring Reese
Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston and set in the world of television
morning-news shows.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but people familiar with
the matter said the cost could reach beyond $10 million an episode.
Ms. Aniston's and Ms. Witherspoon's salaries are expected to be
over $1 million an episode, according to a person who was pursuing
the show. Ms. Aniston and Ms. Witherspoon are also executive
producers of the show.
Both Ms. Aniston and Ms. Witherspoon are represented by Creative
Artists Agency. A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment on
their deals.
Other parties interested in the as-yet-untitled, highly sought
after show included Netflix Inc. and CBS Corp.'s Showtime.
For Apple, which has yet to disclose how it plans to distribute
its content, the deal for the Witherspoon-Aniston project is the
second big programming bet it has made in the last several
weeks.
In October, it struck a deal with acclaimed director Steven
Spielberg's Amblin Television and Comcast Corp. Universal
Television for a new version of "Amazing Stories," a science
fiction anthology series that ran on NBC in the 1980s. The budget
for that show is over $5 million per-episode, a person familiar
with the project has said.
"Amazing Stories" is seen as more of a family-friendly show,
which has led to some speculation that Apple isn't interested in
the dark dramas that populate much of television.
However, while details about the morning-show project are vague,
given the setting of New York City and the cutthroat world of
television news, the show will likely be fairly adult in
content.
An Apple spokeswoman would only say the series is "an inside
look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the
morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the women (and
men) who carry out this daily televised ritual."
The deal is also an indicator that Apple is prepared to spend
heavily on its television venture and get into bidding wars with
more established players, which is good news for producers.
Apple's programming efforts are being overseen by Zack Van
Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, who joined the company from Sony Corp. in
June. Apple is committing as much as $1 billion on its programming
strategy.
The Witherspoon-Aniston series is being produced through Media
Res, a production company founded by former HBO programming
executive Michael Ellenberg, who is an executive producer on the
series.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 08, 2017 14:15 ET (19:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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