Variety is reporting that Apple’s video production execs, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, will head to the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Execs for the streaming giant “will arrive with checkbooks in hand as they look to make potential acquisitions that could fill out the content pipeline for the company’s still-under-wraps entertainment service,” the article adds.
Coming from Sony Pictures, Amburg and Erlicht joined Apple in 2017. Under their leadership, the studio’s slate of original primetime series more than tripled, growing to include many of TV’s most acclaimed shows. They have extensive expertise producing television for global audiences and creating programming for a wide range of services, including shows for Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Their roster of programs — which have won 36 Emmys and dozens of Golden Globes, AFI and WGA awards — have included fan favorites such as Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, Bloodline, Breaking Bad, The Crown, Damages, The Goldbergs, Justified, Preacher, Rescue Me, The Shield, Sneaky Pete and more.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a year-round destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto. The 2018 TIFF runs Sept. 6-16.
