Apple TV+ —
Sci-fi is looking like a cornerstone of Apple TV+’s slowly growing library.
Samuel Axon
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Enlarge / A shot from For All Mankind‘s second season.
More science fiction is headed to Apple TV+, according to a new video and report. Apple has published a “first look featurette” video and related augmented reality app for its alternate-history space-program drama For All Mankind‘s second season, and the report claims that a drama about a robot accused of murder will soon begin production.
The latter will be a feature film called Dolly and is based on a short story written by Elizabeth Bear. According to Deadline, Apple acquired the film “following a competitive bidding war” involving four bidders, including multiple studios and another streaming company.
The film is described as a science fiction take on a courtroom drama, with the premise that a robotic doll murders its owner but “shocks the world by claiming she is not guilty and asking for a lawyer.”
Florence Pugh (Marcella, Little Women) has been cast in a leading role, and the screenplay will be written by Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3) and Vanessa Taylor (Game of Thrones, The Shape of Water, Divergent). No director has yet been attached.
As for Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore’s For All Mankind, the new video featurette fleshes out the alternate-history 1980s world that last month’s trailer first introduced. It’s filled with scenes of militarizing astronauts on the Moon and speeches by President Ronald Reagan, and it features returning actor Joel Kinnaman, also known for his role as the lead in the first season of Netflix’s Altered Carbon sci-fi series.
Here’s the video:
For All Mankind season two featurette.
Additionally, Apple has introduced an app called For All Mankind: Time Capsule that allows users to engage with various objects in augmented reality to learn more about the show, its timeline, and its characters. The app is the first of many AR experiences Apple plans to introduce in relation to its TV series and other properties.
Science fiction is set to become a mainstay of Apple TV+’s lineup. In addition to the above, the streaming platform launched with the critically panned post-apocalyptic series See starring Jason Momoa, and Apple also plans to premiere a TV series based on Isaac Asimov’s venerated Foundation series, starring Mad Men, Chernobyl, The Crown, and The Terror actor Jared Harris. Foundation is expected to premiere in 2021, though we haven’t heard much about it since the trailer debuted last summer.
The second season of For All Mankind is due out on February 19.