Apple means business. Last September, word broke that Oscar-winning La La Land and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle would be creating a new musical TV series for Netflix called The Eddy. It was a big get for Netflix, as the very in-demand filmmaker had agreed to direct two of the show’s eight episodes, helping set the tone for a series that takes place in contemporary multicultural Paris. But now Apple, which is getting ready to make a big splash in the TV world, has scooped Chazelle for an even bigger show with a bigger commitment.
Per the New York Times, Apple has landed the rights to a secretive new TV project from Chazelle, for which he will write and direct every single episode. That’s a huge commitment, and essentially solidifies this as the next authorial project from Chazelle whenever he gets around to making it. Moreover, he’s reteaming with his La La Land producers Fred Berger and Jordan Horowitz for the TV series, the latter of whom you know as the guy who corrected the Best Picture mixup on live TV at last year’s Oscars. MRC is the studio behind the series.
Details are being kept under extremely tight wraps for this mystery project, but the fact that Chazelle is writing and directing every single episode is huge. He wrote and directed both Whiplash and La La Land, but for the Netflix series The Eddy, Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) is writing every episode.
Chazelle is currently in the midst of filming his next movie, a Neil Armstrong story called First Man starring Ryan Gosling as the famous astronaut. That project is on track to hit theaters on October 12th, kicking off what’s sure to be a strong awards campaign, but after that it very much sounds like Chazelle will be entrenched in the world of television for a bit.
Apple has just started to put into development and production the first of its original series over the last few months, securing major deals that have folks at Netflix and Amazon sweating a bit. In addition to this Chazelle series, Apple also has a Reese Witherspoon/Jennifer Aniston series that takes place at a morning news program, a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories with the director himself producing, a thriller series starring Octavia Spencer, and a comedy series starring Kristen Wiig.
The streaming wars have only just begun, folks.
