Apple is near a deal for an untitled science fiction series created and co-written by Simon Kinberg and David Weil. Kinberg has been the creative backbone of the X-Men franchise at Fox, and Amazon is casting up the Weil-created series The Hunt, with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon directing, and Al Pacino and Logan Lerman starring in a fact-based drama about Nazi hunters.
The Kinberg/Weil series hails from Platform One, and if it makes would mark the first series green light for the company run by CEO Katie O’Connell Marsh. Genre Films’ President of TV Audrey Chon would be an executive producer on the show, along with Kinberg and Weil. Specifics are under wraps for right now, but sources said this is a large-budget, ambitious, character-driven genre show that will go into production this summer.
Kinberg completed his feature directorial debut on the X-Men: First Class installment Dark Phoenix for June 7 release by Fox, and next directs for Universal and FilmNation 355, the global spy franchise launch that Theresa Rebeck is scripting with Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, Marion Cotillard and Bingbing Fan starring.
The Apple series is just the latest TV project for Kinberg, whose Genre Films will have five shows in production this year. Beyond the Noah Hawley-created FX series Legion, the Kiefer Sutherland-starrer Designated Survivor for Netflix, and the Marvel/Fox co-production The Gifted, Kinberg is partnered with Get Out director Jordan Peele on a reminagined The Twilight Zone which premieres this year on CBS All Access.
