The Lovecraft Country creator and showrunner, Misha Green has inked a multiple-year overall deal with Apple, following what sources say was a competitive bidding process for the writer/exec producer.
The deal reunites Green with former Sony TV presidents-turned-Apple heads of worldwide video Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht and former WGN America chief and Apple’s head of U.S. programming Matt Cherniss.
At Apple, Green will create and develop new TV projects exclusively for the iPhone maker’s TV+ streaming platform.
The Apple pact comes after HBO passed on a second season of Green’s Lovecraft Country, despite the showrunner openly expressing interest in keeping the genre drama that reunited her with Smollett going for multiple seasons. Lovecraft Country was based on Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, with season one covering the entirety of the book. Green said season two would have been called Lovecraft Country: Supremacy, which was to begin in a new world — the “Sovereign States of America.”
Despite HBO owning the show in-house — it was produced by corporate sibling Warner Bros. TV and counted Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams among its exec producers — the premium cable network heard the pitch for season two and ultimately opted to pass on renewing the series.
At Apple, Green will join a roster of overall deals that includes Kerry Ehrin (The Morning Show), Alena Smith (Dickinson), Jason Katims, Jon Stewart, Idris Elba, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Sharon Horgan, Tracy Oliver and Sharon Horgan, among others. Apple launched an in-house studio last year as the streamer, like others, continues to make ownership of its pricey original programming a top priority.
Green, who is next writing and directing the next Tomb Raider sequel for MGM, is repped by CAA and Del Shaw.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
