Skip to main content

Apple wins the bidding war for Kristen Wiig’s comedy series

apple kristen wiig comedy series ghostbusters 2016
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Apple has its first scripted comedy series, and the currently untitled show has Kristen Wiig and Reese Witherspoon in prominent roles both behind and in front of the camera.

The tech giant won a reportedly competitive bidding competition for the 10-episode show, which will be executive produced by Wiig and will also star the Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids actress. Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, will produce the series.

Recommended Videos

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series is inspired by Curtis Sittenfeld’s upcoming short-story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It, with Colleen McGuinness (30 Rock) attached as creator and showrunner on the series. McGuinness will serve as an executive producer along with Wiig, Witherspoon, and Lauren Neustadter.

According to the description of Sittenfeld’s book on Amazon, the author “upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided.”

“In The World Has Many Butterflies, married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences,” continues the synopsis. “In Vox Clamantis in Deserto, a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate’s seemingly enviable life. In A Regular Couple, a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in The Prairie Wife, a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome-lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie.”

The series is the fifth scripted series picked up by Apple. To date, the company is already attached to an upcoming morning show drama executive produced by Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, and starring the two actresses. Apple also picked up Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Amazing Stories anthology series and the sci-fi drama See from Battlestar Galactica reboot creator Ronald D. Moore. The company is reportedly in the midst of a bidding war for J.J. Abrams’ next scripted series in addition to the aforementioned projects.

At this point, it’s unknown how Apple plans to deliver the shows it picked up to audiences, as it still needs a studio to finance the untitled comedy series.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Apple TV+ drops the first teaser for comedy thriller Sharper
Sebastian Stan in Sharper.

It's never too early to begin promoting next year's movies. And Apple TV+ is getting a head start with its new comedy thriller, Sharper. The first teaser for the film doesn't really tell us much of anything about it. Instead, it relies on the star power of its five leading cast members, only three of whom actually speak in the video. This is more about setting the mood than anything else, even though plot information is withheld as if it was a state secret.

SHARPER TEASER FINAL 20221101 16x9 PRORES

Read more
Surface’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Oliver Jackson-Cohen on their Apple TV+ series
Sophie and James stand next to each other in evening wear in a scene from Surface.

What if you woke up one morning and had forgotten everything about your past? Could you trust your significant other, friends, and family to fill you in on your missing memories? That's the situation presented in Surface, Veronica West's new psychological thriller series from Apple TV+. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Sophie, a woman who survives a suicide attempt in which she jumps off a ferry in the San Francisco Bay. The tragic incident causes severe memory loss so it's up to her husband James, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and friends to fill her in on the details of her past life.

Sophie appears to have a picture-perfect life that includes a wonderful job, a loving husband, and a beautiful home. However, Sophie begins to question why she decided to end her life if it was so picturesque to begin with. Through her interactions with Baden, played by Stephan James, Sophie soon uncovers the truth about her past. In an interview with Digital Trends, Mbatha-Raw and Jackson-Cohen discuss the appeal of psychological thrillers like Surface and the dilemma of playing secretive characters.

Read more
Jason Momoa will write and star in Chief of War For AppleTV+
Jason Momoa runs in a city street in Sweet Girl.

In 2018, Jason Momoa signed a deal with Apple TV+ to star in the sci-fi drama series, See. While the third season of See is already on the way, it's no longer his only project with Apple TV+. Via Deadline, Momoa has signed on to write, executive produce, and star in Chief of War, a new original miniseries.

Momoa created Chief of War with Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, and the eight-episode miniseries will dramatize "the epic and unprecedented telling of the unification and colonization of Hawaii." However, the key aspect of this project is that it will be written from the "indigenous point of view," which means that it will be offering a fresh perspective of Hawaii's colonization that hasn't really been offered in the mainstream media before.

Read more