Apple TV+ scrapped show based on Gawker after Tim Cook heard about it

AppleInsider

Apple reportedly killed an Apple TV+ series chronicling the rise of Gawker Media after CEO Tim Cook personally intervened, according to a new report.

Credit: Apple

Earlier in 2020, the Apple streaming platform was said to be working with former Gawker staff on a dramedy series about the subversive blog network. Since then, no word has surfaced on the project.

On Sunday, however, The New York Times reported that Apple TV+ scrapped the show after Cook discovered its development and sent an email in response. Sources told the publication that Cook was "surprised" to learn Apple was making a show about Gawker, and reportedly "expressed a distinctly negative view" toward the now-shuttered media company.

Gawker Media had caused problems for Apple several times during its run, including when its tech site, Gizmodo, obtained an iPhone 4 prototype. That situation led to then-CEO Steve Jobs pleading to get it back, and a police raid on a Gawker editor's house.

The media organization also ran stories that publicly outed Cook as gay, six years before the Apple chief executive came out in a public essay on equality published in 2014.

Now the show, which was dubbed "Scraper" and pitched to Apple TV+ by Gawker veterans Cord Jefferson and Max Read, is back on the market and another streaming platforms may pick it up. The New York Times reports that the Apple executive who brought the show in, Layne Eskridge, has left the company.

Among streaming platforms and studios, Apple TV+ has been among the most clear about its "corporate red lines."

Apple's Services chief Eddy Cue has reportedly told partners that "the two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China." Cue also told Apple TV+ creators to "avoid portraying China in a poor light," according to BuzzFeed News

Back in 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cook had also scrapped a Dr. Dre biopic because it had too much violence and nudity. Apple has also instructed M. Night Shyamalan to keep crucifixes off the walls of "Servant."

SpamSandwich

Since the quotes about China come from BuzzFeed, I give no credibility to them.

lkrupp

"Apple's Services chief Eddy Cue has reportedly told partners that "the two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China." Cue also told Apple TV+ creators to "avoid portraying China in a poor light," according to BuzzFeed News”


This pro-China mentality is spreading in Hollywood because China is funding a lot of movies these days. Hollywood today would’t dare make a movie like Seven Days in Tibet, Red Corner, and others that were critical of the Chinese government and its legal system. The actor Richard Gere was banned from the Oscars for his support of Tibet and the Dali Lama, and that was in 1993. Since then Hollywood movie studios have become more and more dependent on Chinese investments and avoid criticism of the regime at all costs. Let me know when Hollywood makes a movie about the plight of the Uighurs. Yet just about every movie coming out of Hollywood portrays the Unites States as an evil empire that needs to be destroyed and rebuilt.

22july2013

Besides offending China, but for similar reasons (i.e., money) many Hollywood movies are given different variants for different countries so as to not offend viewers (or sometimes for other reasons.) For one example, the movie Pearl Harbor (2001) has a Japanese version that has several alterations. One of the alterations is to use the date "December 8th" instead of "December 7th" for copies in Japan because the actual date of the attack in Japan as December 8th due to the International Date line. That edit actually makes sense (although consumers in Japan should be smart enough to know about the International Date line) but they also made several other edits that seemed to be to avoid offending Japanese viewers (when you are selling movies, you can't allow historical facts to affect your sales.)

These variations were usually enforced using DVD Region Codes, when movies were sold on DVDs, so that you physically couldn't play a DVD movie in the wrong region. Now we're more into streaming movies. I'm not sure if movies that are streamed to different countries are maintaining those "regional variations." I would like to ask Apple if their streamed movies (including Apple TV+) implement these intended regional differences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code <--

The question we should ask is whether it makes sense for a movie company to be making "regional variations" in its movies to account for local sensitivities, now that streaming makes the concept harder to implement (because, e.g., VPNs.)

Murvel

Who’s surprised? I’m not. And I bet those two taboo things are going to be over two dozen in a couple of years.

anantksundaram

It's not a good look for Apple TV+, already accused -- arguably with some justification -- of anodyne content. Nor is Eddie Cue's quote about "nudity and China". 

(Other, somewhat more credible news outlets are reporting the same thing.)

radarthekat

anantksundaram said:

It's not a good look for Apple TV+, already accused -- arguably with some justification -- of anodyne content. Nor is Eddie Cue's quote about "nudity and China". 

(Other, somewhat more credible news outlets are reporting the same thing.)

What’s Disney’s stance these days on hard core nudity and offending foreign countries, whether China or otherwise?  There’s nothing wrong with having a red line as long as you don’t egregiously distort history to avoid crossing it.  You can simply choose to not address certain subjects that would, if accurately
portrayed, cross your line.  

randominternetperson

22july2013 said:

The question we should ask is whether it makes sense for a movie company to be making "regional variations" in its movies to account for local sensitivities, now that streaming makes the concept harder to implement (because, e.g., VPNs.)

Why should we be asking that question?  Perhaps if I were a big investor in a studio, I would, but otherwise how is it my business?  Should we also ask Ford or Fiat why they change the model names for their cars for different markets?

macgui

randominternetperson said:

Should we also ask Ford or Fiat why they change the model names for their cars for different markets?

If I had that question and the ear of either Ford or Fiat or any other manufacturer, I'd sure as fuck be asking them the question. Why not. Demanding an answer is a totally different thing dontcha know. Just because it's not my business doesn't mean I can't ask. It's not like asking of somebody's wife is "all natural" or if those are aftermarket.

Slightly more on point instead of rank curiosity, I give major props to MBKHD for asking Craig Federighi why there's no native Weather or Calculator app on the iPad. Craig didn't see that one coming and pretty much danced around the question. Somebody should be asking questions like that.

22july2013 said:

The question we should ask is whether it makes sense for a movie company to be making "regional variations" in its movies to account for local sensitivities, now that streaming makes the concept harder to implement (because, e.g., VPNs.)

First, I'd say region codes were really enacted to enforce licensing agreements, not because versions might contain or have omitted content an intended market might find offensive or objectionable.

Second, If a studio (or whomever) wants to sell to a specific market or region, they have to offer something that will sell. If that means tailoring a product for that market, then that's what they do. It really is the studio's call, or whoever is footing the bill and making (or losing) the big bucks, and big decisions. We just vote with our wallets and/or rage in forums.

rotateleftbyte

22july2013 said:

 (when you are selling movies, you can't allow historical facts to affect your sales.)

Holllywood has never cared about historical accuracy when it comes to making movies. (I won't say money because we all know that due to their corrupt accounting rules, no film makes money)

Hollywood will quite happily make a film that portrays an American doing something when it is a fact that someone from another nation did that thing. They'll do the reverse and make someone from anothet country the evil one when the historical facts show differently.

They were on the MAGA bandwagon decades before Trumpy thought of it.

Bums on seats and merchandising and sequels is what is all about.

Rayz2016

Don't think I've ever seen 'reportedly' used so much in a single article.

Doesn't sound remotely credible, rather like the story that Cue and Cook were involved in censoring scripts. 

Back in 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cook had also scrapped a Dr. Dre biopic because it had too much violence and nudity.

And they went on to make See.

Er … okay.

EsquireCats

No one needed a revisionist history of Gawker that painted them in some kind of likeable and friendly light. They were a trash rag that seemed to exist solely to settle the publisher’s petty grievances. 

avon b7

It's not great that they supposedly decided to make these moves but it's their baby and so I give them a lot of slack here. 

If Apple were a public service broadcaster it would be different but that's not the case.

If the Gawker show had appeal I personally would let it run. Apple likes to use the word 'courage' and perhaps it would have represented a good example of that. The same goes for China but if it's a question of economic interest, I can understand the reasons for the 'don't rock the boat' stance even though I don't share them. 

You can be hard on certain subjects as long as you are fair in how you treat them. 

juha otus

It's time to let Tim Apple and his army of China-boot-licking SJWs go, they're messing Apple up and interfering with business decisions. AppleTV+ has nothing but SJW-compliant content, and seems like AppStore is the same.

rcfa

Cue also toldApple TV+ creators to "avoid portraying China in a poor light," according to BuzzFeed News

Great! So don’t make a movie about Tibet, the Korean War, Vietnam either.

We’re lucky Hitler wasn’t allied with the Chinese, or else the standard go-to villains of every unimaginative, lackluster Hollywood flick would be off-limit, too.

And Apple News? I guess they won’t be able to talk about human rights violations or the Dalai Lama either. Songs critical of China, are they going to be purged from Apple Music?

I was contemplating getting an Apple One subscription, but I might watch propaganda for personal edification, but I’m certainly NEVER going to pay for it.

Obviously Apple’s “values” are thoroughly green, as in money, and all the rest of it is only show to create an image to attract financially more potent spenders.

Disgusting! 🤮

And, no, I don’t hate China as a country, culture, nor have I something about it’s people.
But it’s regime is more murderous than that of the Nazis, and making that a no-go-topic is on the same level as being a Holocaust denier, and functioning as an extension of China’s censorship authorities in “the land of the free”. Absolutely horrific!

rcfa

That should be one of the best reasons for the anti trust authorities to split up Apple:

when the integrity of the content reaching the American public is at stake due to hardware manufacturing and sales considerations, then its time to split the services branch from the hardware and software branch.

randominternetperson

rcfa said:

That should be one of the best reasons for the anti trust authorities to split up Apple:

when the integrity of the content reaching the American public is at stake due to hardware manufacturing and sales considerations, then its time to split the services branch from the hardware and software branch.

You get that Apple TV+ is an entertainment venture, right?

Do you criticize Disney also for their lack of hard-hitting political documentaries?

GeorgeBMac

lkrupp said:

"Apple's Services chief Eddy Cue has reportedly told partners that "the two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China." Cue also told Apple TV+ creators to "avoid portraying China in a poor light," according to BuzzFeed News”


This pro-China mentality is spreading in Hollywood because China is funding a lot of movies these days. Hollywood today would’t dare make a movie like Seven Days in Tibet, Red Corner, and others that were critical of the Chinese government and its legal system. The actor Richard Gere was banned from the Oscars for his support of Tibet and the Dali Lama, and that was in 1993. Since then Hollywood movie studios have become more and more dependent on Chinese investments and avoid criticism of the regime at all costs. Let me know when Hollywood makes a movie about the plight of the Uighurs. Yet just about every movie coming out of Hollywood portrays the Unites States as an evil empire that needs to be destroyed and rebuilt.

LOL.... No, China Hate is spreading like a virus that was spawned in Trump's House of Hate and Smear.

Now we need a vaccine for it.  
And Trump told us what that vaccine would be:  Light -- shine light on it.   (The light of truth)

GeorgeBMac

radarthekat said:

anantksundaram said:

It's not a good look for Apple TV+, already accused -- arguably with some justification -- of anodyne content. Nor is Eddie Cue's quote about "nudity and China". 

(Other, somewhat more credible news outlets are reporting the same thing.)

What’s Disney’s stance these days on hard core nudity and offending foreign countries, whether China or otherwise?  There’s nothing wrong with having a red line as long as you don’t egregiously distort history to avoid crossing it.  You can simply choose to not address certain subjects that would, if accurately
portrayed, cross your line.  

Yeh, but the haters want to hate -- and they get their panties all in a bunch when you stop their tantrums.

Rayz2016

Same old same old

GeorgeBMac

rcfa said:

Cue also toldApple TV+ creators to "avoid portraying China in a poor light," according to BuzzFeed News

Great! So don’t make a movie about Tibet, the Korean War, Vietnam either.

We’re lucky Hitler wasn’t allied with the Chinese, or else the standard go-to villains of every unimaginative, lackluster Hollywood flick would be off-limit, too.

And Apple News? I guess they won’t be able to talk about human rights violations or the Dalai Lama either. Songs critical of China, are they going to be purged from Apple Music?

I was contemplating getting an Apple One subscription, but I might watch propaganda for personal edification, but I’m certainly NEVER going to pay for it.

Obviously Apple’s “values” are thoroughly green, as in money, and all the rest of it is only show to create an image to attract financially more potent spenders.

Disgusting! ߤt;br>
And, no, I don’t hate China as a country, culture, nor have I something about it’s people.
But it’s regime is more murderous than that of the Nazis, and making that a no-go-topic is on the same level as being a Holocaust denier, and functioning as an extension of China’s censorship authorities in “the land of the free”. Absolutely horrific!

That's all true -- if you believe the propaganda from Haters Incorporated.

BTW, the guy who started the hate campaign is the fascist who supports Neo-Fascists.   "Fine People"   "Stand By.   Stand Down"