Apple Announces Their AppleTV+ Streaming Service and Here Are Some Videos and Details
Apple has announced their big streaming service plans with the reveal of AppleTV+. They’ve spent billions of dollars in the creation of original content for the service just in the last year, and they are saying that it will be a “new service unlike anything that’s been done before.” They are expecting to spend $2 billion this year!
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the heads of AppleTV+, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, and they shared a promotion video featuring the directing talents of Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, M. Night Shyamalan, Ron Howard, Octavia Spencer, Sofia Coppola, and more. You can watch that below.
AppleTV+ will become “the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers featuring exclusive original shows, movies and documentaries.”
AppleTV+ will be ad-free, available on demand, and viewable both online and offline. Apple is planning to launch it in over 100 countries sometime this fall, but they have yet to reveal how much it will cost. You’ll be able to access AppleTV+ through the redesigned Apple TV app on iOS, Mac, Roku, Fire TV, and TVs from various manufacturers.
As for the content that will be made available upon launching, here’s an announcement video showing off some footage of the projects that are being produced. Below the video is a listing of the projects thanks to Polygon:
SERIES
AMAZING STORIES
Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi-fantasy-horror anthology series based on the 1985 anthology of the same name. Apple ordered a 10-episode first season of Amazing Stories.
ARE YOU SLEEPING
This drama series will focus on America’s obsession with true crime podcasts and the possible consequences of that obsession. Octavia Spencer plays an investigative journalist turned true-crime podcast host. Aaron Paul plays a serial killer, with Lizzy Caplan playing twin sisters whose parents were brutally murdered.
CALLS
Calls is an experimental French series that will tell stories through real-life audio and very few visuals.
CENTRAL PARK
Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard is the creator of Central Park. The series is a musical animated comedy that will feature a family of caretakers who live and work in New York’s iconic park and end up saving it — and the world. The movie stars Josh Gad, who also serves as a producer the show, Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Kristen Bell (The Good Place), Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games), Daveed Diggs (Hamilton), and Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms) will provide the voices.
DEFENDING JACOB
Defending Jacob is a crime series about a father dealing with his 14-year-old son’s murder charges. It will star Chris Evans (Captain America) and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) as Jacob’s parents and Jaeden Martell (It) as Jacob.
DICKINSON
A coming-of-age comedy about the life of Emily Dickinson, Dickinson stars Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) as the 19th-century poet. Also joining the cast are Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) as Emily Dickinson’s mother and Toby Huss (King of the Hill) as her father.
FOR ALL MANKIND
A science-fiction series that centers around the big what-if of “what if we continued the space race,” For All Mankind stars Joel Kinnaman (House of Cards) and Michael Dorman (Patriot), along with Shantel VanSanten (One Tree Hill) and Wrenn Schmidt (Boardwalk Empire).
FOUNDATION
This is based on Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi saga of the same name, and it will explore the thousand year story of the Foundation, a civilization based on the psychohistory philosophies of Hari Seldon.
HELPSTERS
Sesame Workshop is developing two new shows for Apple, one live-action and one animated. The live-action show is called Helpsters and will star puppets teaching preschoolers how to code.It’s explained that “We use the big ideas behind coding to solve problems.”
HOME
Home is a documentary series that will give an inside look into the world’s most luxurious living spaces.
LITTLE AMERICA
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon (The Big Sick ) created this anthology series about immigrants in America, based on true stories and covering the range of human emotions. There will be humorous stories and emotional ones, but all will be focused on the human experience.
LITTLE VOICE
Little Voice is a romantic-comedy series produced by Sara Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, J.J. Abrams, and Ben Stephenson. It’s about finding your voice in your 20s and finding your way in the world. It’s about a young woman who moves New York with the dreams of becoming a musician.
MAGIC HOUR
Based on young aspiring journalist Hilde Lysiak, who launched her own local newspaper, Magic Hour will follow a young girl who moves to a small town and begins to uncover mysteries. Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) stars as Hilde, with Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) as her father.
THE MORNING SHOW
Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, star in the series which will tell the tale of a group of morning talk show hosts based on the non-fiction book Top of the Morning by Brian Stelter. The show will explore the complex relationships between men and women in the workforce.
MY GLORY WAS I HAD SUCH FRIENDS
Based on a memoir by Amy Silverstein, which focuses on the author’s experiences with heart failure and how her friends came to support her, My Glory Was I Had Such Friends stars Jennifer Garner as Amy Silverstein.
PACHINKO
An adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko which is a historical novel that follows a Korean family as they migrate to Japan in the early 20th century and spans nearly 80 years.
SEE
Jason Momoa stars in a sci-fi series from Steven Knight about a future where the human race has lost its sense of sight. A set of twins who can see threaten to disrupt the status quo. Momoa plays Baba Voss, a fearless leader and warrior. The series also stars Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave), Hera Hilmar (Mortal Engines) and Dexter’s Christian Camargo.
SWAGGER
Inspired by basketball superstar Kevin Durant’s childhood, Swagger will explore the world of AAU basketball and the dreams and hopes of aspiring players.
MOVIES
THE ELEPHANT QUEEN
A nature documentary about elephants, The Elephant Queen which is narrated by the silky voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave).
HALA
Hala centers around a teenage girl raised in a conservative Muslim household who is caught between a culture clash of her home life and her school life.
ON THE ROCKS
Sofia Coppola and Billy Murray will reunite for the first Apple and A24 joint venture. Rashida Jones joins as a woman who is reunited with her estranged, grandiose, playboy father on an adventure through New York City.
WOLFWALKERS
Wolfwalkers is an animated film about a young woman who tries to hunt down wolves in Ireland, but ends up deciding to save them instead. It comes from Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart (The Secret of the Kells and Song of the Sea).
OTHER TITLES
OPRAH DOCUMENTARIES
Oprah has partnered with Apple for exclusive content, including two documentaries: one focusing on toxic labor and sexual harassment in the workplace and another focusing on mental health.
ASTRONAUT SNOOPY
Apple signed a deal with the production company behind Peanuts. The first project out of this deal will be a few shorts focusing on STEM and using Astronaut Snoopy as a character. Peanuts Worldwide and NASA recently joined up on a venture to inspire a passion for space and STEM in the next generation of students.
UNTITLED CIA DRAMA
A CIA-centered drama starring Brie Larson and based on the real-life experiences of CIA-operative Amaryllis Fox.
DAMIEN CHAZELLE SERIES
La La Land director Damien Chazelle will helm a drama series.
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN SERIES
Master of twists and turns M. Night Shyamalan will helm this psychological thriller, which revolves around young parents and a nanny.
RICHARD GERE DRAMA
This drama stars Richard Gere and is about two Vietnam vets who are best friends. Their lives complicate when they find out that the woman they were both in love with has been killed.
COMEDY FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT US IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creators Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day will head this series, which is set in a video game development studio. It’s their first collaboration since It’s Always Sunny. Danny Pudi and F. Murray Abraham will star.
SHANTARAM
Based on the novel of the same name, Shantaram follows an escaped Australian convict who finds a new life in India.
TIME BANDITS
A remake of the 1981 fantasy film, Time Bandits features time-traveling pirate ships, tears in time and space, and a little boy at the center of it all.
LOSING EARTH
A climate change drama based on Nathaniel Rich’s New York Times Magazine story “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change,” Losing Earth will tell the story of activists who tried to change the course of climate change from 1979 to 1989