Ten months after he chafed under AT&T’s takeover of the network, Richard Pleple reboots himself with a five-year production deal with Apple TV+.
John Koblin for The New York Times:
The entertainment world is in flux, and to start the new year, Mr. Plepler is making changes of his own. The gregarious executive, a quintessential New York power player who spent 27 years at HBO and left eight months after AT&T became its owner, is rebooting himself as a producer. And he will do it with Apple.
In a recently signed five-year deal, Mr. Plepler’s new company, Eden Productions, will make television series, documentaries and feature films exclusively for Apple TV Plus, the streaming platform that started in November.
Mr. Plepler, 61, was a key figure in helping make HBO into an original-programming powerhouse. In the years he was in charge, the network won more than 160 Emmys, including for series like “Game of Thrones,” “Big Little Lies” and “Veep.”
Apple is hopeful he still has the magic touch, this time as a producer… Mr. Plepler said that he had conversations with several people about his next step, but that his only “serious” talks were with Apple. “I thought that Apple was the right idea very quickly, just because it was embryonic enough that I thought maybe, you know, I could make a little contribution there,” he said.
MacDailyNews Take: By now, there should be no question: Apple is committed to Apple TV+ over the long haul. We do love that Eden has teamed with Apple, after all these millennia.
