From Apple Goes to Hollywood. Will Its Story Have a Happy Ending? in Monday’s New York Times:
Known for its bold designs and its big marketing campaigns, Apple relishes its status as a dominant force in the corporate world. So it was noteworthy when one of its executives, Eddy Cue, struck a note of humility during a discussion this month at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Tex.
“We don’t know anything about making television,” said Mr. Cue, a senior vice president who oversees the team in charge of the company’s original programming initiative. “So what skills does Apple bring to that? And the viewpoint is: very little. There’s other things we bring. We know how to create apps, we know how to do distribution, we know how to market. But we don’t really know how to create shows.”
My take: But Apple IS creating shows. Pay no attention to what Eddy Cue says. Watch what Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht do.
And it’s all backed by a strong long tern vision.
Ala carte TV anyone?
Link (2) https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/drakes-hotline-hollywood-inside-an-ambitious-push-film-tv-1055765
The “Vital Signs” five episode series concentrating on Dr. Dre’s life was an interesting development for me. I thought the project would act as a video/movie support beam under Apple’s head of content creation Larry Jackson for Beats One and a radio station called The Pharmacy by Dr. Dre on Apple Music — which Dre hasn’t appeared on in over a year.
Yet for a five-part program that unofficially was to drop in August 2017 according to actor Ian McShane who plays Vengence in Vital Signs, could it have been that bad that Apple decided to not release the finished project even after conducting multiple reshoots … or is Apple simply developing a cache of movie projects to launch simultaneously on their own upcoming movie streaming App?
With several high profile employees initially acquired from Beats having now departed Apple, I think Apple needs meatier projects to drop before Vital Signs in order to salvage the bad taste left in our mouths after regurgitating Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps. Obvious, right?
And what will come of the upcoming productions from Drake? Would those fall under Apple Music, iTunes, Apple Studios, etc.?