This has Qt3 Forum participant appeal written all over it.
Ashly Burch, star of video games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Borderlands and Life is Strange is playing a QA tester.
If they could get Papa Burch in too…yegods…this could be really funny.
This would all be great if it wasn’t Apple. That’s a huge question mark right now, as it sounds like they’re in danger of being even more conservative than the broadcast networks when it comes to their content.
Really? I haven’t even looked at their other offerings. What’s going on with them regarding their content?
I can’t read this full article from last September since I don’t subscribe to WSJ:
But I heard about this from MacRumors.com who have excerpts of it here:
Quotes from the MacRumors story (a little hard to tell what they’re citing at what point exactly):
It also relates CEO Tim Cook’s alleged reaction to watching Apple’s first scripted drama, “Vital Signs,” a semi-autobiographical tale of hip hop artist Dr Dre.
According to the paper’s sources, Cook previewed the show and was “troubled” by scenes depicting drawn guns, sex and drug use, and reportedly told Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine that Apple couldn’t show it.
Across Hollywood and inside Apple, the show has become emblematic of the challenges faced by the technology giant as it pushes into entertainment. Apple earmarked $1 billion for Hollywood programming last year. But in the tone CEO Mr. Cook has set for it, whatever Apple produces mustn’t taint a pristine brand image that has helped the company collect 80% of the profits in the global smartphone market.
Apple’s entertainment team must walk a line few in Hollywood would consider. Since Mr. Cook spiked “Vital Signs,” Apple has made clear, say producers and agents, that it wants high-quality shows with stars and broad appeal, but it doesn’t want gratuitous sex, profanity or violence.
To clarify, they actually shot a show about Dr. Dre and then axed it after the fact.
According to the report, Van Amburg and Erlicht have successfully pushed some edgier shows, including a series made by M. Night Shyamalan about a couple who lose a young child. However, Apple executives reportedly pushed for changes in the show because they didn’t want content to venture into religious subjects or politics.
Emphasis mine.
I may be making too much out of this, the attitude may have changed, someone may have talked some sense into Tim Cook. As I said, it’s all still a big question-mark, but it has me nervous that all the big names and talent Apple has been signing might be squandered.
Insider’s take: I work for a company that is developing TV series and pitching them to various companies. Apparently our contact at Apple rejected one of our main projects because it was too dark/violent. For perspective, said project looks like Swiss Family Robinson compared to, say, Season 1 of True Detective, or any season of Walking Dead.
I was pretty surprised, and figured maybe they were just being polite because they didn’t want to say “your project stinks!”
Yeah, I hope that’s changed. It seems fairly self-defeating to commission a series from Day and McElhenny and want it to be tame, CBS Sitcom-fare.
Sigh…Matllock rides again? I’ll give this a shot, for “Sunny” reasons and the cast looks phenomenal. But hey, anything can suck, right?
Book the Pirates, Dano!
One day, in a near future not too far distant, Gordon, only you and I will get these references…
Hey, I just described a defense in a D&D campaign by referencing the pirates who get logs rolled all over them to (borderline) millennials and everyone got it.
You’ve raised my spirits today Cornchip.