60Forty Films, led by Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta, has inked an overall deal with Apple TV+, Variety reports Friday.
They are already in production on upcoming Apple TV+ thriller series “Hijack,” starring Idris Elba, which they are producing alongside Idiotlamp Productions and Elba’s company Green Door Pictures.
“Hijack” tells the story of Sam Nelson (played by Elba), an accomplished business negotiator whose quick-thinking, smooth-talking skills become crucial when the plane he is on is hijacked.
Laurenson and Kousetta have worked closely with Apple for a number of years, including on Gary Oldman-starrer “Slow Horses” (pictured above) and “The Essex Serpent,” starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, both of which the duo lead exec produced.
They return as exec producers on seasons three and four of “Slow Horses,” which have already started shooting in London with returning cast Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden and Christopher Chung.
MacDailyNews Take: We loved season one of Slow Horses (can’t wait for seasons two and three, ordered by Apple back in June), so we expect this deal to produce some excellent content for Apple TV+!
MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
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I continue to rave to all who will listen about the unpretentious, wonderfully cantankerous performance of Gary Oldman (and the entire cast) in Slow Horses. It is dark British humor laced with a spy thriller that’s both funny and pulse-pounding to watch unfold. Oldman’s cadre of “losers,” the “slow horses” who have been booted out of MI5 because of some failure on their part, make for a fantastic premise.
It might be Oldman’s finest performance. He’s said it will be his last and threatens to retire. He’s loved playing this role that doesn’t require hours of makeup and a prosthesis or some fancy dialect to compliment that. The thick, often exasperated London dialect we’re hearing come out of his mouth is as close to the real Oldman as he’s ever played.
Hijack is another excellent concept with the outstanding Idris (who really doesn’t need a last name). If you haven’t seen it, the series Luther is well worth your time too.
The Essex Serpent with Danes and Hiddleston was slower, but beautiful and interesting nonetheless. It’s hard not to feel you haven’t spent time in the late 1800s in England and that you’re probably tracking mud into the house. This is well-done historical fiction and an interesting interplay between science and superstition, and the “place” of men and women.
The original content on AppleTV+ continues to hit an extremely high bar in terms of quality. It reminds me of the golden years of HBO when it was the only place one could count on for exceptional original content. As HBO and its parent company struggle to figure out who it will be post-merger, AppleTV+ simply continues to produce the highest percentage of quality stuff of any streaming service out there, by far.
I’ve been teased since the early 90s of being an Apple Evangelist. Even by Guy Kawasaki, the original/office, cabinet-level “Apple Evangelist from that decade. I’ve rung that bell so many times over the decades since, it’s hard to be taken seriously by some when I praise things Apple is doing so right.
That being said, AppleTV+ continues to blow my mind.
It would have been a success for Apple’s business model, even if less than half of the shows were worth watching, but I reckon it’s closer to three-fourths or better.
I truly don’t know how Apple is able to do so many areas of business right, but AppleTV+ is must-see TV.
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