Apple Scraps Richard Gere Drama 'Bastards'

How do I put this? Well, Apple TV+ has a series of shows planned for the upcoming mega launch BUT one massive show has already been canceled even before it gets released.

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Bastards, the eight-episode dark drama starring Richard Gere and based on the Israeli drama, will not move forward at the iPhone maker's forthcoming streaming service.

Picked up straight to series late last year, Gere was set to star as one of two elderly Vietnam vets and best friends who find their monotonous lives upended when a woman they both loved 50 years ago is killed by a car. Their lifelong regrets and secrets collide with their resentment of today's self-absorbed millennials and the duo then go on a shooting spree.

Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Apple originally landed Bastards in a competitive situation with multiple other outlets bidding for the package from WME, Keshet (who produced the Israeli series), Fox 21 and Howard Gordon's (Homeland) Teakwood Lane banner. Apple stepped up with a rich offer and won the bidding war. Gordon and Warren Leight (Law & Order: SVU) were poised to co-write the series and serve as showrunners.

Gordon and Leight collaborated on two scripts and, sources say, were met with notes from Apple about the show's tone of vigilante justice. Sources say Gordon did not want to focus on the larger metaphor of friendship between the two Vietnam vets and wanted to focus on the darker elements of the series, with Fox 21 executives backing the veteran producer. Leight departed shortly afterward and Apple, which multiple sources note is looking for aspirational programming, wanted to ensure the series was focused on the heart and emotion of the central friendship.

Apple and Gordon/Fox 21 could not come to a middle ground and the tech company opted instead to release the project and pay a sizable financial penalty. Not long after, Gordon departed his longtime home at Fox 21 sibling 20th Century Fox TV for a rich overall deal with indie studio Sony Pictures Television. Bastards, which has been carved out of Gordon's Sony deal, remains without a home. It's unclear if the dark drama — poised to have been Gere's highest-profile TV role — will find a new home.