Renowned director JJ Abrams shook his head at an offer to make an exclusive $ 500 million movie for Apple

JJ Abrams' Bad Robot Productions has just signed a $ 250 million deal with WarnerMedia, but in the process, the director rejected a $ 500 million offer from Apple.

In particular, Abrams and his colleagues at Bad Robot, including co-CEO Katie McGrath, are said to be less excited about signing a 100% exclusive agreement with Apple to produce content for the company's new streaming service. company - Apple TV Plus. His agreement with WarnerMedia allowed Abrams to direct, write, and produce projects at Bad Robot for other third-party companies. Abrams still has many ongoing projects at Paramount Pictures, a Star Wars movie coming out in December, and other titles under discussion, so the above clause is a staple. Important elements must be included in any overall agreement.

In addition, Abrams and his team have expressed other concerns about Apple's TV Plus business model, such as the lack of series for Abrams to produce. Some of the director's most famous works are multi-part films, or movies like Star Wars and Star Trek. In addition, considering Abrams' significant role in creating these blockbusters, the unclear commitment of making movies to theaters clearly is not attractive enough. While Apple will spend money on original films (the company is attending the Toronto International Film Festival to find and buy good titles), it is unclear whether Apple will be willing to commit to the launch model. movies coming out of theaters.

This is a conflict issue for companies that only specialize in streaming, like Netflix, Amazon, and now Apple. To bring a movie to a major movie theater chain like AMC or Regal, studios like Netflix, Amazon and Apple must pledge not to stream it simultaneously on their services for 12 weeks. Sometimes Amazon agrees with this deal, but Netflix has never. Netflix has shown theaters for a limited time on a number of well-known, Oscar-winning movies, the longest - only 21 days.

Avoiding movie theaters of streaming services is a move that makes directors like Christopher Nolan feel unhappy, and it seems like this is a big reason Abrams made the decision to give up. Bad Robot could make up to $ 1 billion thanks to the big blockbusters Abrams is participating in, showing that cinema is an important part of the company's business.

Abrams rejected the $ 500 million agreement as an example of how streaming companies will have to learn how to compete with traditional studios and broadcast networks. Although Netflix is ​​trying to find a way to make concessions between big directors like Martin Scorsese (whose film The Irishman, it is not allowed to be released in theaters as the director asks) and the audience. Apple has not made it clear whether it has any plans to release its proprietary content to theaters.

However, Apple's efforts to attract Abrams and Bad Robots show that the technology company wants to build more unique content for itself. Apple is currently relying on third-party companies to produce shows and movies for TV Plus, and it certainly doesn't want to rely on it forever.

Abrams is currently developing at least 1 series for Apple TV Plus. In his new agreement with WarnerMedia, he could develop another 2-3 series. Abrams doesn't "shut down" with Apple - he just doesn't want to work with only one company.

Reference: TheVerge