Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Internet personality and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk joined “Planet of the Apps”, an unscripted television show about apps and their creators co-produced by Apple and Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman and Howard Owens, Variety reported today.
Paltrow and Vaynerchuk will serve as mentors to contestants, as will musician-entrepreneur will.iam who was previously attached to the project.
“Developing and launching a business based on your own original idea can be exhilarating, but intimidating,” Paltrow said in a statement.
“This is a great opportunity to be part of a series that lets us use our experiences to help app developers break through and create viable businesses that will impact peoples’ lives.”
Silverman noted that the forthcoming show’s advisers are all entrepreneurs who have each “launched and built successful brands and can tap into their personal experience to offer advice to the app developers selected for the series.”
An open casting call for the reality show was posted last month at planetoftheapps.com, seeking up to 100 developers from San Francisco, Austin, New York and Los Angeles for potential participants. The winners will be rewarded with up to $10 million in venture capital funding and featured placement in the App Store.
The deadline for applications is August 26.
The series, set to debut in 2017, could end up on broadcast television.
Apple’s iTunes chief Eddy Cue said in March 2016 that “One of the things with the App Store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things.”
Apple also partnered with cultural news network Vice on the documentary series “The Voice” about the local music scenes and is working, in unknown capacity, on a dark semi-autobiographical drama, titled “Vital Signs”, that will star Beats co-founder and Apple executive Dr. Dre.
Photo: Pamela Littky for Variety
Source: Variety