Apple tried to buy an existing studio to kickstart Apple TV+

Before it began commissioning individual series, and before forming its own in-house production team, Apple reportedly made several attempts to buy existing companies and studios.

Back in early 2017, AppleInsider reported on the news that Apple had seemingly been talking with multiple Hollywood companies ahead of what we now know would become Apple TV+. Those studios appeared to include Sony, Paramount, and the smaller independent firm, Imagine Entertainment, co-founded by actor/director Ron Howard. Now Bloomberg confirms the discussions and says that Imagine came close to being bought.

[Apple's Eddy] Cue pursued Imagine Entertainment, the production company led by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The two producers, whose work includes A Beautiful Mind, Friday Night Lights, and Empire, flew to Cupertino to present Cue with a term sheet.

Tim [Cook], a Happy Days fan, made a surprise appearance to see Howard, who played Richie Cunningham on the 1970s sitcom. But Grazer and Howard eventually bailed after deciding they didn't want to be employees of a large company, according to people familiar with the negotiation.

According to Bloomberg, it was only after the deal with Imagine Entertainment fell apart, that Apple hired Sony's Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht later in 2017.

It was these two who offered executive producers Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon a deal to make "The Morning Show." Through Van Amburg and Erlicht, Apple offered not only a $250 million budget including $1 million per episode for both Aniston and Witherspoon, but a commitment to make two seasons without first shooting a pilot.

Then the same pair commissioned Ronald D Moore to make "For All Mankind."

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According to Bloomberg, unnamed executives working across Apple TV+ shows have complained about how Van Amburg and Erlicht use Apple-style codenames and require nondisclosure agreements.

The melding of Apple and television has therefore not always gone smoothly, and Bloomberg quotes Van Amburg and Erlicht as acknowledging this.

At Apple's first Hollywood premiere, in October, Van Amburg and Erlicht addressed the sense of whiplash head-on. "Zack and I knew how to create a premium, high-quality, great show," Erlicht said.

"What, in retrospect, we didn't know how to do was create from scratch a premium service at Apple."

While Apple failed to buy Imagine Entertainment, it has since signed a first-look deal with the company to see its documentary projects.

Apple TV+ launches on November 1.

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18 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 5 years ago

Seems like Sony Pictures would still be a good takeover target. Other than Spider-man Into The Spiderverse, they've had a very rough decade.

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

Too bad they weren't able to reel in Ron Howard. He seldom misses. Ironically, he was the Director of "Apollo 13" which accurately portrayed the magnificence of the Apollo program -- where as Apple had to settle for the fake version twisting reality to serve some ideological agenda. (Or maybe that's why he turned them down!)

zoetmb 2655 comments · 17 Years

SpamSandwich said:

Seems like Sony Pictures would still be a good takeover target. Other than Spider-man Into The Spiderverse, they've had a very rough decade.

Then why buy it? Apple doesn't need a studio because most studios are nothing more than finance managers (ok, and distribution companies, but Apple, like most of the streaming services, doesn't really care about theatrical or physical distribution, except as it applies to being eligible for awards). Look at the credits for any film of recent years. There are usually multiple production companies involved. Some actually do production - the rest are simply providing financing because Hollywood studios no longer want to take the total risk themselves. Apple doesn't need a studio - what it needs are creative and successful production entities.

Now if Apple wanted a studio for its library, that's another matter, but Sony pictures doesn't have that big a library. Since 1960, Sony (including both Columbia and Tri-Star) only has about 1400 films in the library and many of those were theatrical distribution deals and/or co-pros in which they don't have full rights. 8 of the 12 Columbia pictures in 2018 were co-pros.

And who says Sony is willing to sell? I think Viacom might be more willing to sell Paramount, but maybe with CBS and Viacom re-merging, maybe not.

>>Through Van Amburg and Erlicht, Apple offered not only a $250 million budget ...

A $250 million budget for what??? That doesn't sound right. That's the budget for a super-hero movie, not a budget for a TV show on a streaming service.

hmurchison 11823 comments · 23 Years

AMC would be my favorite aquihire

CloudTalkin 916 comments · 5 Years

@zoetmb That $250 million number isn't so out place when viewed in proper context. If The Morning Show has a 10 episode season, that puts the budget for each episode at $12.5 million. Considering the two stars' salaries, it's not an unheard of figure. Spread it over the two years of the contract and there's your $250 million. Trying to compare it to the budget for a single tentpole movie really doesn't make sense. If the contract info is accurate, that number is not out of the ordinary.