Apple has finalized a multi-year overall deal with Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning Roma and Gravity filmmaker. Under the pact, which has been in the works for some time, Cuarón through his production company Esperanto Filmoj will develop TV projects exclusively for Apple TV+, the tech giant’s new streaming service that is prepping for its November 1 launch.
No other details have been made available, but we hear the pact spans five years and is a state-of-the-art deal.
Cuarón’s TV development will be exclusive to Apple+. On some of it, he is expected to collaborate with longtime partner Anonymous Content where the filmmaker has a non-exclusive deal. He also plans to team up with other creative collaborators. Cuarón’s longtime producing partner Gabriela Rodriguez will run Esperanto Filmoj’s day-to-day operations out of its London headquarters.
The Mexican filmmaker is coming off two individual Oscar wins for his Netflix film Roma, for Best Director and Best Cinematographer. The film also won Best Foreign Language film. He also won Best Director and Best Editor Oscars for Gravity. His credits include Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
In May, Cuarón reconnected and re-signed with his with previous agency WME, where he was based before leaving in 2017 shortly after he had signed with Anonymous Content for management, based on his long relationship with principal and producer Steve Golin. Golin passed away in April but the Anonymous Content tie continues.
Apple TV+ has been signing overall deals with creators as it steps up its streaming ambitions to challenge the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Cuarón joins a roster that includes Kerry Ehrin, Jason Katims and Justin Lin.
The streaming service will offer on Day 1 of launch nine original TV series including The Morning Show starring Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell; Ronald D. Moore’s For All Mankind; the Jason Momoa-starrer See; and Dickinson with Hailee Steinfeld as young poet Emily Dickinson.
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