J.J. Abrams, Sara Bareilles Team up for Apple’s Little Voices
Photos by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty, Jesse Grant/Getty TV News Apple
In their respective realms of the entertainment world, J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles both have a lot on their plates.
Bareilles recently starred in NBC’s live broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar opposite John Legend. She has been nominated for a Tony and a Grammy for the score she wrote for Waitress, her Broadway debut. She’s written a book, she’s made President Obama’s summer playlist and she is not the one-hit wonder you chalked her up to be in 2007, so knock that talk off.
Meanwhile, Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions is currently behind HBO’s Westworld, as well as Hulu’s forthcoming Stephen King-inspiredCastle Rock, and HBO’s Lovecraft Country for executive producer Jordan Peele and Demimonde, which Abrams created. Abrams is also set to write and direct the next Star Wars film that is due to begin filming in July.
And now—since, really, what’s one more thing?—Bareilles and Abrams are teaming up to co-executive produce Little Voices for Apple, per Variety.
Apple has ordered a 10-episode first season of what is being dubbed a “musical dramedy,” which is set to explore the process of finding your voice in your early 20s. The half-hour series has also been described as “a love letter to the diverse musicality of New York.” The first episode will be written and directed by Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam), who will also serve as showrunner. Nelson wrote the book for the musical adaptation of Waitress in a previous collaboration with Bareilles, who will provide original music for Little Voices.
Apple has yet to confirm specific details about its forthcoming streaming library. Instead, the company has made steady acquisitions of series and scripts, including an Emily Dickinson comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld, a reboot of Stephen Spielberg’s cult sci-fi series Amazing Stories, an adaptation of Curtis Sittenfeld’s short story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It starring Kristen Wiig and produced by Reese Witherspoon, as well as projects led by Damien Chazelle and M. Night Shyamalan.