Apple enters Desert with Arquette, Stiller

Apple TV+ has ordered a comedy starring Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette and executive produced by Ben Stiller.

Ben Stiller (photo: Montclair Film via CC)

High Desert follows Peggy (Arquette), a former addict who decides to make a new start as a private investigator after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California.

Apple Studios will produce the half-hour comedy series alongside Red Hour Films and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Arquette and Stiller will both exec produce the project, which follows their successful collaboration on Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, another show directed by Stiller and starring Arquette.

Stiller, who will also direct the first episode, and exec produces through Red Hour Films alongside Nicky Weinstock. Molly Madden and Tom Lassally exec produce on behalf of 3 Arts Entertainment.

The series has been created and written by Nancy Fichman (Nurse Jackie, Damages), Katie Ford (Miss Congeniality) and Jennifer Hoppe (Grace & Frankie, Nurse Jackie, Damages), who will also serve as exec producers.

It marks Apple’s second partnership with Arquette and Stiller following the series order for Severance, an upcoming workplace thriller starring and executive produced by Arquette and Adam Scott (Parks & Recreation), and directed and executive produced by Stiller.

Other upcoming Apple Studios shows include an as-yet-untitled Team Downey and Adam Perlman drama series; Masters of the Air, a limited drama series executive produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone; and the films Emancipation, Killers of the Flower Moon and Snow Blind.