Apple and Brie do go quite well together, which perhaps is why Brie Larson signing on for an Apple TV drama makes so much sense. The Captain Marvel actress has reportedly signed on to star in Lessons In Chemistry for the streaming service.
Variety reported Friday that Larson would take the lead role and serve as executive producer in the project, which will go straight to series on Apply TV drama from Susannah Grant, who got an Oscar nomination for Erin Brockovich. The period piece actually does have a culinary angle to it, but also looks to be a series Apple has high hopes for given the casting.
The series is based on the upcoming debut novel from author, science editor, and copywriter Bonnie Garmus. Set in the early 1960s, “Lessons in Chemistry” follows Elizabeth Zott (Larson), whose dream of being a scientist is put on hold in a society deeming that women belong in the domestic sphere, not the professional one. When Elizabeth finds herself pregnant, alone and fired from her lab, she musters the ingenuity only a single mother has. She accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives – and the men who are suddenly listening – a lot more than recipes, all the while craving a return to her true love: science.
While there are plenty of Brie and Apple puns to be made here, the news is significant for the streaming service. It comes the same day another Variety report cited a study that claimed a large number of Apple TV subscribers are getting the service through various free programs. That certainly makes sense, at least anecdotally, given how many people got a year free of Apple TV+ with a new phone purchase since the service launched.
Turning those into people actually paying to watch Season 2 of Ted Lasso is certainly a project the company is working on if those numbers are to be believed, but perhaps adding Larson to the streaming stew is a step in the right direction.
[via Variety]