La La Land's Damien Chazelle is diving headfirst into television.
The Oscar winner, who already has a deal with Netflix for musical TV drama The Eddy, has landed a straight-to-series order at Apple for what is being billed as an "innovative" drama.
In a first, Chazelle is going to write and direct every episode of the show. An episode count as well as additional details about the untitled drama's premise are all being kept under wraps.
Chazelle will reunite with his La La Land cohorts Jordan Horowitz and Fred Berger on the Apple show. Both exec produce via their Original Headquarters and Automatik banners. The series is produced by Media Rights Capital, marking the company's first project with the tech giant and iPhone maker. The company also produces Starz drama Counterpart on which Horowitz serves as an exec producer and launched Netflix into scripted originals with House of Cards.
Chazelle will exec produce The Eddy and direct two episodes of the IMG-produced series that is set at a club. British writer Jack Thorne penned the series, which Chazelle shopped prior to La La Land. After the feature broke out — it earned six Oscars, including best director for Chazelle and best actress for leading lady Emma Stone — The Eddy was taken back out to buyers and eventually landed at Netflix.
For Apple, the untitled Chazelle drama joins a roster of scripted originals that also includes the morning-show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon; Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories anthology; a Ron Moore space drama; Steven Knight's See; and a comedy starring Kristen Wiig. The tech giant is expected to spend $1 billion on scripted originals. What still remains to be seen is just how Apple will unspool its pricey originals.
Chazelle is repped by WME, Exile Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson. On the film side, he's currently working on Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, starring Ryan Gosling, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke and Jon Bernthal.
