Apple spending up to $30M per movie to make award-winning Apple TV+
Hollywood sources say that Apple is approaching Oscar contending filmmakers and offering $5 million to $30 million per project, to build an award-winning stable of content.
The creators of some of the first shows on Apple TV+ gathered at Apple Park
Apple is looking to produce half a dozen low-budget films per year, for its Apple TV+ service, which have the potential to be worthy of Oscar nominations, according to sources in Hollywood. The company has been targeting what the sources describe as "elevated" directors and other filmmakers, and offering them budgets of between $5 million and $30 million per film.
"They are taking meetings and hiring," once source told the New York Post.
The source compared Apple's move to being to create films like those of Focus Features, which made "BlacKkKlansman", "Boy Erased" and "Dallas Buyers Club." It's not known whether any deals have yet been made, but the same source says that Hollywood is not impressed with Apple.
"They are literally anxious and clueless about what they really want to do," said the Hollywood insider. "Half the [Apple] culture hates them making content, and the other half wants to meet stars."
The New York Post claims that Apple has the problem that it lacks a library of existing material where rival Disney is replete with old films and TV.
Analyst Dan Ives said that he expects Apple will eventually have to buy some studio's library.
"It's a content arms race," he said. "They have $250 billion of dry powder, and they generate $60 billion a year in free cash flow."
One issue that may be making studios and filmmakers less keen on reaching all Apple users, however, is how Apple is allegedly trying to micro-manage projects.
"Tim Cook is giving notes and getting involved," one producer told the Post. "They are making big changes, firing and hiring new writers. There's a lack of clarity on what they want."
Reportedly one of Tim Cook's repeated notes given to producers is "Don't be so mean!" and Apple seemingly wants only positive views of technology.
Any library or new project will be shown on the Apple TV+ service, which means it could reach everyone with an Apple device. As shown at its March 2019 sneak peek, Apple already has many new dramas and comedies in production, including "For All Mankind" by Ronald D. Moore plus Oprah Winfrey documentaries.
Apple TV+ is expected to launch in the Fall.
The creators of some of the first shows on Apple TV+ gathered at Apple Park
Apple is looking to produce half a dozen low-budget films per year, for its Apple TV+ service, which have the potential to be worthy of Oscar nominations, according to sources in Hollywood. The company has been targeting what the sources describe as "elevated" directors and other filmmakers, and offering them budgets of between $5 million and $30 million per film.
"They are taking meetings and hiring," once source told the New York Post.
The source compared Apple's move to being to create films like those of Focus Features, which made "BlacKkKlansman", "Boy Erased" and "Dallas Buyers Club." It's not known whether any deals have yet been made, but the same source says that Hollywood is not impressed with Apple.
"They are literally anxious and clueless about what they really want to do," said the Hollywood insider. "Half the [Apple] culture hates them making content, and the other half wants to meet stars."
The New York Post claims that Apple has the problem that it lacks a library of existing material where rival Disney is replete with old films and TV.
Analyst Dan Ives said that he expects Apple will eventually have to buy some studio's library.
"It's a content arms race," he said. "They have $250 billion of dry powder, and they generate $60 billion a year in free cash flow."
One issue that may be making studios and filmmakers less keen on reaching all Apple users, however, is how Apple is allegedly trying to micro-manage projects.
"Tim Cook is giving notes and getting involved," one producer told the Post. "They are making big changes, firing and hiring new writers. There's a lack of clarity on what they want."
Reportedly one of Tim Cook's repeated notes given to producers is "Don't be so mean!" and Apple seemingly wants only positive views of technology.
Any library or new project will be shown on the Apple TV+ service, which means it could reach everyone with an Apple device. As shown at its March 2019 sneak peek, Apple already has many new dramas and comedies in production, including "For All Mankind" by Ronald D. Moore plus Oprah Winfrey documentaries.
Apple TV+ is expected to launch in the Fall.
Comments
Put it me in the half who hates Apple making content. Competing with their customers.
(From G rated content to Planet of the Apps to an Oprah documentary on #Metoo Movement????
All of this just seems so obvious.
I personally think Disney+ hit it out of the park with amount of Content / Price.
As for Netflix - At least they are pushing boundaries - and trying.
Anyway - its early days..
The interesting thing here is that cost doesn’t imply quality at all in film mAking. On the flip side if these numbers are true Apple isn’t investing a lot per movie. You would think that they would look at each proposal individually and base budget on feasibility.
By the way good source material is huge here. This in part means you need people that read a lot and have the imagination to see how a great story might be turned into a movie. Even if they are being offered original scripts vs an attempt to derive from a novel, Apple still needs somebody that can read and grasp potential!
Now given all of that I'm not sure if Apple even has the right people in place to pick a project to throw money at. In the end they need to select more winners than losers. They literally have two dragons to slay, one is finding the right content and the other is finding the right team to put that to film. We have all seen rehashed content where one version of a myth comes out far better on the big screen than another.
LOL--Apple's video team doesn't know how to work with content creators? Time to read up on what's been going on so you can relax. Apple is going all in and has hired the top people in the industry to work for Apple Video, from Paramount, Sony Pictures, Disney, Amazon Video, Hulu, and Netflix, etc., including the folks who have made lots of the most highly acclaimed movies and television series, such as Breaking Bad, The Shield, etc.
""Tim Cook is giving notes and getting involved," one producer told the Post. "They are making big changes, firing and hiring new writers. There's a lack of clarity on what they want."
Reportedly one of Tim Cook's repeated notes given to producers is "Don't be so mean!" and Apple seemingly wants only positive views of technology."
That's not good at all. Everything about that behavior spells failure. Hire good people and let them do their job. I don't think micromanaging ever lead to success in entertainment.
Netflix isn't push any boundaries, are you kidding? Most of what they're doing is licensing a bunch of garbage, and putting their logo on it. That's why there's so much international "Netflix originals" now -- they buy shows from elsewhere.
Apple makes mistakes like any other company. In fact, it might be argued that Apple’s willingness to break new ground actually results in it generating MORE mis-steps than other, more conservative companies. Any venture into unknown territory comes with a risk of failure, so companies like Apple, that are willing to try new things, are more likely to experience flops than companies that always stick to known safe turf.
Personally, I’m just waiting to see what they come up with, with no real expectations. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
The service isn't even out. I think that's his problem with the naysayers. Give it 2 years post release and then give your opinion on why it has failed.
Maybe make a docudrama based on it. Might learn lots.
Showing technology only in a positive light is ignoring both reality and opportunity.
On Apple Music I’m confident there’s an opportunity for Apple to create a network of startup studios (maybe near Apple Stores) where promising artists could work with professional producers and studio talent to produce new music. In exchange for the opportunity, the artists might be required to be exclusive to Apple Music for a couple years. But that’s no big constraint because Apple Music is a lot bigger platform than trying to break in on your own without any distribution other than what you can pull together on your own.
I mention this Apple Music idea because Apple could do something similar with video content creators. There’s a ripe field of them waiting to be harvested, from Apple’s competitor, YouTube. Make some offers, create some shows. My nascent channel is in the expat vlogger niche and some in that niche, like Lost Leblanc (1.1 million subs), have very high production values and are excellent story tellers. Give that young guy a series and you’ll have a hit! The Food Ranger (3.2 million subs) is another. These guys have huge audiences with a production and talent crew of only one (themselves). Imagine what they could be with Apple backing them. Apple better jump before Netflix does. It’s crazy there’s so much fresh talent being left to its own devices, while a content war goes on for old libraries. Jump on this, Tim! The opportunity is going to go to others if you don’t. Already one among my vlogger friends, with just 44k subs, has been approached by The Travel Channel. Put a team on acquiring this type of talent and Apple could spend a lot less to entertain, inform and reach huge audiences. And fill it’s content stable.
It would be naive to takes those quotes at face value. They're probably either blatantly false, or hyper sensationalized and exaggerated, lacking context.