Apple snaps up three Amazon Studios execs to bolster original content efforts
- dec
- 26
The three executives from Amazon Studios are heading to Apple to help direct the company's original content plans.
As it ramps up original content efforts, Apple has brought over three executives, Tara Sorensen, Carina Walker, and Tara Pietri, from Amazon Studios. This is a major talent acquisition for the company, as Amazon has found a good deal of success with its original programming.
From Variety:
Tara Sorensen, the head of Amazon kids programming, will take on a similar role at Apple as the company pushes more into developing original content. She will report to Apple's chief content officers Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, themselves former Sony TV executives. Along with Sorensen, international development executive Carina Walker and business affairs chief Tara Pietri will also depart Amazon for Apple, with Pietri leading Apple's legal affairs division. Walker will again be an international creative executive, reporting to fellow Amazon alum Morgan Wandell.
Given Amazon's success on the original content front, Apple likely hopes that these new additions to its entertainment arm will prove to be a major boost to its own efforts.
These additions follow a number of high profile entertainment hirings by Apple this year. This includes Van Amberg and Erlicht, who have worked to develop shows such as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, as well as former Hulu exec Philip Matthys and Jennifer Wang Grazier from Legendary Entertainment.
As for actual upcoming content, Apple has a few projects in development. Amazing Stories, from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television, has been ordered by the company, as has an as-yet-untitled drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston set in the world of network morning shows. Apple has also given a straight-to-series order for an untitled sci-fi drama from Battlestar Galactica creator and Outlander showrunner Ronald D. Moore.