INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Apple is continuing to flesh out its lineup of TV series for its upcoming streaming service and Netflix competitor, assumed to be offered
sometime next year as part of a subscription bundle with Apple Music
The company latest addition is a dramatic mystery series, currently known as the untitled Hilde Lysiak project
The show is inspired by the real-life story of the 11-year-old investigative reporter who scooped local news outlets by being the first to
expose a murder in her hometown ofSelinsgrove, PA.
Lysiak may not be a household name, but her story is impressive.
The Columbia Journalism
Review profiled her online news operation,Orange Street News, in a story titled, &Is this 8-year-old newspaper better than yours&
The young
reporter is not a hobbyist at her chosen profession — she attends town meetings, she covers neighborhood crime without police cooperation,
and she shows up on the scene of breaking news, the article explains.
She also beat the local daily paper in being the first to cover a
murder in the area when she was only 9 years old
When criticized by Facebook commenters (aren&t they lovely) for being a kid covering graphic news like this before all the facts were in,
she fought back.
&I just like letting people know all the information,& the reporter said.
&Because of my work, I was able to inform the
people that there a terrible murder hours before my competition even got to the scene
In fact, some of these adult-read newspapers were reporting the wrong news or no news at all,& she explained in a YouTube video.
As to how
she got the scoop, Lysiak said, &I got a good tip from a source and I was able to confirm it.&
Her site today continues to feature a number
of crime reports, included break-ins, drugs, abuse, assaults and more, alongside stories of local interest, like the gas smell that shut
down Orange Street, for example.
Clearly, Lysiak work is great fodder for a feel-good show about smart and ambitious kids, but it also one
of increased importance in an era where journalism itself is under attack.
Apple has givena straight-to-series order to the untitled Hilde
Lysiak project, which will have 10 episodes in its debut season.
The series is produced byAnonymous Content and Paramount Television, is
created and executive produced by Dana Fox (How To Be Single and Ben and Kate) and Dara Resnik (Daredevil), along with executive producers
Joy Gorman Wettels (13 Reasons Why) and Sharlene Martin (Smallville)
Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, Now You See Me 2) will direct and executive produce.
The show will begin by following a young girl who moves from
Brooklyn to the small lakeside down her father had left behind
The protagonist will then work to unveil the truth regarding a cold case that everyone in town, father included, has tried to bury.
Hence
the &inspired by& label — in real life, Lysiak father didn&t try to bury the truth.
In fact, he inspired her pursuit of chasing stories by
taking her with him to the newsroom of the New York Daily News, where he had worked as a journalist himself.
The show will join a varied
lineup at Apple, which now includesa reboot of Steven Spielberg Amazing Stories, a Reese Witherspoon- and Jennifer Anniston-starring series
set in the world of morning TV,an adaptation of Isaac Asimov Foundation books,a thriller starring Octavia Spencer,a Kristen Wiig-ledcomedy,a
Kevin Durant-inspiredscripted basketball show, adocumentaryaboutextraordinaryhomes, aseriesfrom &La La Land&s& director and a series about
Emily Dickinson, among others.
