Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis have inked a sizable four-year extension with ABC Studios.
Days after the series finale, Once Upon a Time creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis have lined up their next project — and it’s a big one.
Kitsis and Horowitz have been tapped to replace Bryan Fuller to serve as showrunners on Apple’s forthcoming Amazing Stories anthology. Additionally, they have inked a sizable four-year deal extension with ABC Studios, which has been their home since signing on to Lost as staff writers in 2004. The deal is said to be a rich pact that could make Kitsis and Horowitz the highest-paid drama producers at the studio following Shonda Rhimes’ move to Netflix. The deal keeps the duo at ABC Studios through 2022.
Kitsis and Horowitz will serve as writers and exec producers on the 10-episode production from Universal Television and Amblin Television. They join Amblin’s Justin Falvey, Darry Frank and Steven Spielberg on the Black Mirror–type anthology.
Fuller was first attached to Amazing Stories in October 2015, when the individual episodic anthology was set up at NBC. The series originally ran for two seasons in the ‘80s on the broadcast network, when it explored strange, fantastic and supernatural stories. Fuller was set to pen the original script for Universal Television — which produced the original series — and Amblin’s Falvey and Frank. Spielberg, who created the original series, was not involved at the time but is now credited as an exec producer on the Apple series, which will reimagine the original.
Fuller — and exec producer Hart Hanson — exited Apple’s Amazing Stories in February, citing creative differences. The split is said to be amicable. Fuller is said to have wanted to do a Black Mirror–type show, which sources say was not something the iPhone maker had in mind.
Amazing Stories will be Kitsis and Horowitz’s first series after ABC’s Disney-themed fairy tale drama Once Upon a Time. The show, which became an international hit and cash cow for the Disney-owned network and studio, wrapped its run May 18 after seven seasons. Once was the duo’s first pilot. Their subsequent series have included spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Freeform’s Dead of Summer.
Kitsis and Horowitz are repped by WME and Jared Levine.
