The high-profile television version of Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" will reportedly no longer be made for Apple TV because of creative differences.
This would have been the third version of Wolfe's famous 1980s novel about greed and Wall Street, and it was to be made by "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" writer/producer David E. Kelley. Now according to Deadline, the deal is off and the production team will shop the series around to other streamers and networks.
Neither Apple nor the production team at Warner Bros. Television officially announced the series was in development, but it was first reported to be in the works in April 2026. Now unspecified sources say that Apple TV and Warner Bros were not creatively aligned over the project.
What that means is that Apple wanted one thing and Warners wanted another. Specifically, it's said that David E. Kelley was not happy about how the show was being handled.
According to AppleInsider sources, Apple TV tends to be very hands-off with productions unless its executives are unhappy with initial footage. "The Bonfire of the Vanities" will have been far from filming yet, so the issues must have been over the script creation stage.
Whatever the reason, Warner Bros Television is now reportedly shopping the series around to other networks and streamers. This always happens when a drama goes into what's sometimes called turnaround, but the process has a mixed to poor track record.
Once a show has been announced, another streamer will be wary of being seen to be picking up another one's cast-offs, for instance. Apple TV picked up "Pachinko" when other streamers couldn't afford it, but that deal happened before the show was widely known to be in development.
Nonetheless, in this case David E. Kelley has a strong track record for creating hits. These include "Margo's Got Money Troubles" and "Presumed Innocent," both for Apple TV, and Kelley is continuing to work on their subsequent seasons.
