What happens when one of Hollywood’s most successful and well-loved filmmakers sign a content deal with a world-conquering consumer tech giant? In the case of Steven Spielberg and Apple, you apparently get the revival of the director’s long-dormant genre anthology show Amazing Stories. Let’s hope they keep that John Williams theme.
Image: NBC
As reported in The Wall Street Journal, Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is partnering with Apple and NBC Universal’s TV production unit to create a new version of Amazing Stories. Apple’s been fitfully trying its sleek glossy hand at producing its own original video content, with very mixed results. But the Journal quotes an executive as saying each episode of the new Amazing Stories will have a budget of more than $US5 million ($6.4 million). And while Apple hasn’t commented, NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke told the Wall Street Journal, “We love being at the forefront of Apple’s investment in scripted programming, and can’t think of a better property than Spielberg’s beloved Amazing Stories franchise.”
If you’re an ’80s baby, you might remember Amazing Stories as falling in line with the TV tradition embodied by The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Both classic TV series told sharp, done-in-one stories that had actors moving through sci-fi, horror and thriller genre plots. The success of shows such as Channel Zero and Black Mirror might mean that it’s the right time for Amazing Stories to come back.