Deadline is reporting that Apple have landed the rights to Steve McQueen‘s next film project, Blitz, in a competitive bidding situation. The deal reunites McQueen with New Regency, where he previously made Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave and heist drama Widows.
McQueen will write, direct and produce the film, which tells the stories of Londoners during the Blitz of World War II. Filming is expected to begin sometime later this year.
This deal makes a ton of sense for Apple, who are just coming off their first Best Picture winner in the form of CODA. Blitz sounds like the kind of movie that also usually performs well at awards season, with a historical subject matter and an acclaimed director whose films have already become Oscar staples. It’s no surprise that this was a competitive bidding war.
This will mark McQueen’s return to the big screen after his acclaimed anthology series Small Axe, which explored life for West Indian immigrants in London and won five BAFTAs, aired on the BBC a few years ago.
Since then, McQueen has co-directed and produced three documentaries for BBC and Amazon: Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, Subnormal: A British Scandal, and Uprising. He’s currently working on another doc titled Occupied City for A24, New Regency and Film Four, which, similarly to Blitz, takes place in World War II, but this one is set in Amsterdam from 1930-45.
We’ll wait for casting details for Blitz to arrive – expect practically every working actor to be interested. Apple’s next big film release is Cha Cha Real Smooth, which garnered acclaim at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. That arrives on Apple TV+ next week – Friday, June 17.
#Peace.Love.Blitz
