It's been obvious for ages that Apple is deadly serious about the battle to offer the best streaming service on the market. Right from the start of Apple TV+'s life, it had some shows featuring big stars, after all.
We live in an age with some superstar directors, not only actors, though – and these are typically harder to attract to TV series, as opposed to lavishly-funded movies.
Well, Apple just nabbed a big one – the streamer has a forthcoming TV series directed by Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón (known for Gravity, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth and many more), and has just shown it off for the first time.
DISCLAIMER* — the new seven-chapter psychological thriller written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, premieres October 11.First look at Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Leila George, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. pic.twitter.com/LdgGe7qdE5July 30, 2024
It's called Disclaimer*, and these glitzy first-look images have been accompanied by a big spread in Vanity Fair taking the wraps off the series. Each still looks like a shot from a photographic art exhibition.
Disclaimer* stars Cate Blanchett as an established and powerful journalist, whose life is upended when a tell-all book is published featuring allegations about her past conduct. That the book is a novel makes things even more complicated – and the series takes its title from the text's opening salvo: "Any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence".
Sacha Baron Cohen will play her husband as their marriage goes from simplicity to conflict, and the rest of the cast is rounded out with some other big names: Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Leila George, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Given Blanchett's hugely celebrated performance in Tár, for which she won a Best Actress Academy Award, she's got experience when it comes to problematic public figures, so we can doubtless expect some really layered performing – and shades of grey.
Cuarón, meanwhile, is one of the most exciting directors out there, expert at both action-packed long shots that seem to never end but also intimate character studies that give scenes time to breathe. We can only assume there will be some innovative camera work in there at some point – it's his forte, after all.
The show isn't too far away, either. It's coming out on 11 October – and will run to seven episodes in total, so you can circle that date in your calendar and get ready to enjoy a very cinematic-looking experience at home.
