In a competitive situation, Apple has landed Blitz, the next feature from Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. He will write, direct and produce the film, which tells the stories of Londoners during the Blitz of World War II. It is set to begin filming later this year.
McQueen’s Lammas Park produces alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films, and Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer from New Regency. This reunites McQueen with New Regency, where he made the Best Picture Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave and 2018’s Widows. Blitz was developed and packaged by New Regency under McQueen’s first-look deal.
The film adds another high-profile feature with awards potential to Apple’s development slate, which is what made Blitz such a big target when it hit the market. For McQueen, it marks his return to the feature scene following his acclaimed anthology series Small Axe, which explored life for West Indian immigrants in London and won five BAFTAs. He then co-directed and produced three documentaries for BBC and Amazon: Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, Subnormal: A British Scandal and Uprising.
He is working on the the documentary Occupied City for A24, New Regency and Film Four, a World War II-era pic set in Amsterdam from 1930-45.
Apple Original Films is coming off its Best Picture Oscar victory for CODA and soon will debut Cha Cha Real Smooth, winner of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. The latter premieres globally June 17 in theaters and on Apple TV+.
McQueen is represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in the UK, CAA and Carlos K. Goodman at Goodman Genow Schenkman.
