'Amazing Stories' Preview: Steven Spielberg's anthology reboot brings magic with five unique stories
Bringing back the magic of Steven Spielberg's original anthology series, which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, Apple TV+ is all set to revive the world of fiction and fantasy.
With fictional episodes that are set to transport the audience to worlds of wonder through the lens of today's most imaginative filmmakers, directors and writers, the series debuts on Friday, March 6.
Created by Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis, the first episode titled 'The Cellar' stars Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti and Sasha Alexander.
Reminiscing how the original series inspired them, Horowitz told EW, "I was a kid when it aired and I remember being incredibly excited that there was going to be a Steven Spielberg movie on my TV screen every week."
"Once we started to work on it, we looked back at some of those episodes, and it was this amazing feeling of what Steven does so well — it brought back that feeling of childhood wonder, that feeling of hopefulness, that feeling of anything's possible in the world that I had as a kid. It brought back that sense of inspiration that really fueled us as writers and producers to make the show," he recalled.
Shedding light on the first episode, Kitsis added, "One of the things I've always loved so much about what Steven does is the extraordinary hits the ordinary. As you see in 'The Cellar', it starts out with everyday life so that when the extraordinary or amazing comes into it, you really feel like it could happen in your life."
Delving deeper into the themes of the series, Horowitz reflected on how the stories will be about "human connection and finding a connection between people in different ways."
The five-part series will air its episodes in weekly installments. In no particular order, the episodes are named 'The Heat', 'The Rift', 'Signs of Life' and 'Dynoman and the Volt' featuring the charismatic late actor Robert Forster.
Reflecting on of the most crucial episodes, Kitsis said, "I can't wait for people to see 'The Heat' — it is unlike any 'Amazing Stories' that was ever done. Robert Forster's performance in episode 3 — it's one of his final performances, but it is spectacular and every time I watch it, I cry. It was great to re-team with Josh Holloway again — we even snuck in two Sawyer ['Lost'] lines. Each one is really something we love."
In another TVLine interview, he expanded upon some of the best episodes and said, "There’s this great World War II episode with Kiefer Sutherland in it, 'The Mission', that I think is 'the Burgess Meredith episode'."
Talking about the order of the episodes, Horowitz said, "We also put a lot of thought into the order in which these episodes appear so that when you see the season unfold, you’ll see there is a variety and if we achieve what we set out to do, it won’t feel repetitive. But hopefully, they all feel of a piece, in that they all fall under this 'Amazing Stories' umbrella."
He added that 'The Cellar' feels like "we’re planting a flag in one direction so next week we can go in another." Talking about 'The Heat', he said that it "starts in a completely different place and tells a completely different kind of story."
The directors include 'Game of Thrones' fame Mark Mylod, 'The Americans' fame Chris Long, 'Unbelievable' fame Michael Dinner, Sylvain White and Susanna Fogel. Meanwhile, it also has a brilliant set of writers, including Don Handfield, Richard Rayner, Leah Fong and Jessica Sharzer.