Apple TV+ has landed yet another high-caliber movie package, making a deal for an untitled film that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will write and direct, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt starring. The Apple Studios film will also get a wide theatrical release as part of the deal.
Mike Fleming Jr. for Deadline:
Oscar winners Clooney and Pitt starred together in the Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Haven’t heard the pricetag, but I’m sure it falls in line with a lot of the recent deals for star packages. I have heard that between Clooney and Pitt, they left an eight-figure sum on the table to ensure the theatrical release component.
The thriller follows two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job. The package hit the market last week, and seven to 10 bidders materialized. The combatants included Sony, Lionsgate, Annapurna, MGM, Universal, Warner Bros, Apple, Netflix and Amazon.
For Apple toppers Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, this becomes the latest giant film package to add to their slate… All this comes after the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso won seven Emmys including Best Comedy; the label has won a total of 12 Emmys, impressive for a venture that launched just under two years ago.
MacDailyNews Take: The relentless focus on quality sets Apple TV+ apart. Even the kids shows are wonderfully made.
And having mountains of cash to spend doesn’t hurt either!
Welcome to Apple TV+, George Clooney and Brad Pitt!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
By and by I find most of the streaming originals to be like Hollywood in the 90s – the budgets are extraordinary, but everything else falls really, really flat. Including performances by otherwise great actors. Silicon Valley had no business taking over every aspect of our culture, and the fruits of their labors show they were not up to the task and likely never will be. It’s a different mindset from engineering. I have never seen such imposed mediocrity masquerading as cutting edge in my lifetime.
Suffice it to say, I stream very little. I’m positive subscription numbers are padded by all of the free subs given away, too. I got one and have watched it exactly once, but I’m sure I’m counted.
My experience is that only a small percentage of movies or TV shows are of exceptional quality.
It has nothing to do with Silicon Valley – it has to do with artistic endeavour, skill and competence in general.
No, in the case of Apple TV+ the problem is Apple. You can shovel money into lavish projects with high production value but you can’t buy soul. Apple isn’t “landing” anything, they are paying exorbitant and largely undisclosed sums of shareholder value for a vanity project.
It’s easy to criticize Timmy for his leftist activism, but I think this TV stuff is more of a distraction for vain and celebrity-culture-entranced Apple execs than anything else. Creating even more vapid mass media for people to passively consume isn’t making the world a better place and I don’t think there is evidence that it has even helped Apple’s bottom line at all.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt, are these names supposed to mean anything to me? Because, sorry to say these 1990’s retreads trying to maintain relevancy, don’t “run a thrill up my leg” like Obama did to Chris Matthews!
And to modify a James Garner quote in “Support Your Local Sheriff”, ‘And remember George and Brad, I’ve seen you act.’