The Hollywood Reporter says writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams turned down a $500 million offer from Apple for his Bad Robot production company because he didn’t want to be limited to movies and TV shows that were Apple-only.
Quoting unnamed sources, the article says that Abrams and Katie McGrath, his Bad Robot partners, are said to be interested in turning Bad Robot into a consumer brand, so they met with executives at Apple, including video heads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, to discuss the company taking a large financial stake in their company. The tech giant purportedly offered a deal in the $500 million range that would have seen the production set up shop exclusively for Apple.
The Hollywood Reporter says that the offer was declined because that meant Abrams and company wouldn’t be allowed to work on outside projects for companies like Disney (Star Wars) or Paramount (Star Trek) and TV projects would not be sold to third-party outlets. Also a concern was Apple’s lack of a theatrical distribution model.
But there’s still an Abrams/Apple connection. He and actor Jennifer Garner (who starred in Alias) will reunite for My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, a limited TV series for the Apple TV+ streaming service, which is set to debut Nov. 1
Based on the 2017 memoir of the same name by Amy Silverstein, “the story showcases the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit as it follows an extraordinary group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving heart transplant.”
