Apple jumps for Kevin Durant drama

Apple is developing a drama based on the early life and career of basketball star Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant
(photo: Keith Allison)

Swagger will detail the experiences of the Golden State Warriors forward’s childhood basketball days, centring on the Amateur Athletic Union basketball in which he used to participate.

The series will be coproduced by Durant’s burgeoning Thirty Five Media prodoc and Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television. Durant and Grazer will exec produce alongside Francie Calfo for Imagine and Thirty Five Media’s Rich Kleiman. Reggie Rock Bythewood (Notorious) is attached to write, having previously worked with Imagine on Fox limited series Shots Fired.

Swagger is the latest in the growing number of high-profile original commissions coming from Apple. Along with the unnamed Jennifer Aniston- and Reese Witherspoon-starring morning show drama for which the company outbid other digital giants, Apple is developing Are You Sleeping, an original series based on a novel by Kathleen Barber. The series, starring Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures), will be produced by Witherspoon’s prodco Hello Sunshine and Chernin Entertainment/Endeavor Content.

The tech giant has also commissioned a straight-to-series drama from La La Land director Damien Chazelle, and futuristic drama See from Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight.

Apple recently added former Paramount exec Dana Tuinier to its senior team as creative executive for comedy, joining other recent appointments such as Channel 4’s Jay Hunt and Amazon’s Morgan Wandell. The company is armed with US$1bn to invest in programming.