Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, and Jennifer Aniston are bringing shows to AppleTV+
The Apple streaming service has finally been revealed: AppleTV+. At the March Event, Apple announced an array of original content from many creative minds including Steven Spielberg
Apple's new streaming service was announced on Monday
As with any Apple press conference, the March Event was keenly anticipated across the world. They introduced some nifty new software – sounding both expansive, with Apple News+, and frightening, with the invention of an actual Apple credit card. But it was the developments of Apple TV+ that people were most eager to know about.
Streaming services are growing to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime (even Disney are making one). But Apple, long admired for advancing personal technology to futuristic heights, is probably the most under pressure.
Although the AppleTV+ section of the event has been heavily criticised for not revealing vital information about pricing or content strategy, there was a large list of new and original shows to feel excited for.
The Brains Behind the Fiction
Apple have cobbled together an array of excellent creative talent to front their original content. Eminent filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Sofia Coppola, and Ron Howard are all involved. The event showed tasters of their shows, and brief talks about them, but very few details were revealed.
Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories
Spielberg is bringing back his ‘80s TV series Amazing Stories for AppleTV+. Originally a sci-fi comic reaching back to the 1920s, it's an anthology series with one 'amazing story' for each episode.
During his speech about the show, Spielberg revealed the plot for one episode: a WWII pilot who flies through the sky and into a different time.
Oprah's Back
Oprah Winfrey is making a couple of documentaries for Apple. One is about workplace harassment called Toxic Labour, and the other tackles mental health.
She's also hosting another iteration of Oprah’s Book Club, a regular show for discussing books – which was originally a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show and continued on her website. Oprah made a surprise appearance at the Apple event and claimed her book club would be ‘the biggest, the most vibrant, the most stimulating book club on the planet’.
And now the News with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell...
Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell star in The Morning Show, a new satirical newsroom drama set around a daytime TV show. As Witherspoon describes: 'we pull back the curtain on the power dynamics between men and women in the high-stakes world of morning news shows'.
The series is loosely based on CNN journalist Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning, written from his experiences as a correspondent.
Something for the Kids
The most surprising appearance – more than Spielberg, more than Witherspoon, even more than Oprah – was by Big Bird from Sesame Street. A wide selection of original kids’ content is being organised in collaboration with Sesame Workshop, including a preschool show teaching kids the basics of coding.
Other Shows
Serenity and Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight brings a new post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, See. It stars Jason Mamoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) and Viola Davis (Widows).
Little Voice is a New York-based series from J.J. Abrams and singer Sara Bareilles, which follows a female musician working her way up the music business.
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, co-writers of The Big Sick, are making an anthology series inspired by the lives of immigrants in America. It's called Little America.
Watch the entire Apple event below.
AppleTV+ is coming this Autumn
Streaming services are growing to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime (even Disney are making one). But Apple, long admired for advancing personal technology to futuristic heights, is probably the most under pressure.
Although the AppleTV+ section of the event has been heavily criticised for not revealing vital information about pricing or content strategy, there was a large list of new and original shows to feel excited for.
The Brains Behind the Fiction
Apple have cobbled together an array of excellent creative talent to front their original content. Eminent filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Sofia Coppola, and Ron Howard are all involved. The event showed tasters of their shows, and brief talks about them, but very few details were revealed.
Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories
Spielberg is bringing back his ‘80s TV series Amazing Stories for AppleTV+. Originally a sci-fi comic reaching back to the 1920s, it's an anthology series with one 'amazing story' for each episode.
During his speech about the show, Spielberg revealed the plot for one episode: a WWII pilot who flies through the sky and into a different time.
Oprah's Back
Oprah Winfrey is making a couple of documentaries for Apple. One is about workplace harassment called Toxic Labour, and the other tackles mental health.
She's also hosting another iteration of Oprah’s Book Club, a regular show for discussing books – which was originally a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show and continued on her website. Oprah made a surprise appearance at the Apple event and claimed her book club would be ‘the biggest, the most vibrant, the most stimulating book club on the planet’.
And now the News with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell...
Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell star in The Morning Show, a new satirical newsroom drama set around a daytime TV show. As Witherspoon describes: 'we pull back the curtain on the power dynamics between men and women in the high-stakes world of morning news shows'.
The series is loosely based on CNN journalist Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning, written from his experiences as a correspondent.
Something for the Kids
The most surprising appearance – more than Spielberg, more than Witherspoon, even more than Oprah – was by Big Bird from Sesame Street. A wide selection of original kids’ content is being organised in collaboration with Sesame Workshop, including a preschool show teaching kids the basics of coding.
Other Shows
Serenity and Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight brings a new post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, See. It stars Jason Mamoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) and Viola Davis (Widows).
Little Voice is a New York-based series from J.J. Abrams and singer Sara Bareilles, which follows a female musician working her way up the music business.
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, co-writers of The Big Sick, are making an anthology series inspired by the lives of immigrants in America. It's called Little America.
Watch the entire Apple event below.
AppleTV+ is coming this Autumn
