Apple has just announced its first TV series that it will be producing in-house, securing a new entry in the successful Band of Brothers franchise. Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman (and their respective companies) are all continuing their involvement with the new series over at Apple.
The new Band of Brothers TV series will go for over 8 hours and have a budget of over $200 million. It will be based on Donald L. Miller's book 'Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought The Air War Against Nazi Germany'. The new Band of Brothers TV series will be centered around members of the Air Force during World War II.
Until now, HBO had been making the Band of Brothers and The Pacific TV shows securing a huge swath of Emmy awards during the series' run between 2002 and 2010. In total, Band of Brothers and The Pacific were nominated for 43 Emmy's and took home 14 of them.
Masters of the Air was originally going to be made by HBO but the company passed on it, which opened up the opportunity for Apple. Apple also have the type of cash laying around to fund $200M+ in a huge series like Masters of the Air, and they'll need a big home run like Masters of the Air to compete in the huge streaming wars that are building.