Apple Acquires the Rights to WeWork Limited Series
A “WeWork” limited series is being developed by Apple.
Variety reported that Apple is adapting the Wondery podcast “WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork,” with Lee Eisenberg (“Little America”) and former Warner Bros. executive Drew Crevello attached as co-writers and executive producers. The project will be produced by Wondery, whose Hernan Lopez, Marshall Lewy, and Aaron Hart will also serve as executive producers.
Apple landed the rights to the untitled project but has yet to order it to series.
If Apple does move forward with the series, the project’s writers will have a veritable goldmine of corporate malfeasance to incorporate into the limited series’ plot. WeWork, a real estate company that offers shared workspaces for startups, was co-founded by Adam Neumann, Rebekah Neumann, and Miguel McKelvey in 2010. Though the company initially enjoyed rapid growth and favorable media publicity, the company’s image rapidly collapsed when WeWork’s planned initial public offering was canned in September 2019.
WeWork was subject to a string of damning stories about the company’s corporate culture (employees were treated to tequila shots and a Run-DMC music set moments after a mass layoff in 2016 was discussed), questionable business practices, significant financial losses, and Adam Neumann’s managerial style and extravagant spending (including purchasing a $60 million jet on the company’s dime). The company, once valued at nearly $50 billion, laid off nearly a fifth of its global workforce in November 2019.
Like the company he ran, Adam Neumann, who served as WeWork’s public face, was also the subject of intense media scrutiny last year. The 40-year-old businessman frequently made headlines for discussing his string of everyman goals — he wanted to become Israel’s prime minister, the president of the world, live for eternity, and become a trillionaire — and his apparent charisma helped WeWork acquire investors ranging from J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and the Harvard Corporation, among others. However, it is unclear if reports that Neumann allegedly smoked marijuana on a private jet to Israel impacted his chances of becoming the country’s prime minister.
Though Neumann was forced to step down from the company late last year, he received a record $1.7 billion severance package.
