Apple TV Cancels Remake Of Bruce Willis' 36-Year-Old Box Office Bomb (But There's A Catch)

Apple TV's The Bonfire of the Vanities has received some bad news, but there is a catch.

In April 2026, it was reported that Apple TV was developing a series version of The Bonfire of the Vanities, based on the bestselling 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe that was adapted into the 1990 critical and commercial failure following a Wall Street hotshot (played by Tom Hanks) whose mistress runs over a teenager, attracting the interest of a down-and-out reporter (Bruce Willis).

Now, just four months later, Deadline reports that the series adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities, from showrunner David E. Kelley and The Batman director Matt Reeves, is no longer moving forward at Apple TV. However, the studio behind the project, Warner Bros. Television, and David E. Kelley Productions are expected to begin pitching it to other potential buyers soon.

It was reported this past April that The Bonfire of the Vanities had landed at Apple TV. However, after several months in development, the streamer has decided not to move forward with the project. Sources say the decision stems from creative differences, with David E. Kelley reportedly dissatisfied with how the adaptation was being managed.

However, David E. Kelley continues to have a strong relationship with Apple TV+, where he remains involved with two series that have already been renewed for second seasons: Margo's Got Money Troubles, which recently earned eight Emmy nominations, and Presumed Innocent, which picked up four Emmy nominations last year.

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QUESTION 1 / 8TED LASSO

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Apple TV+'s breakout comedy about a relentlessly optimistic American football coach hired to manage an English Premier League team won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. Who plays Ted?

AJason Sudeikis BJon Hamm CWill Ferrell DBrendan Hunt

✓ Correct! Jason Sudeikis -- the former SNL cast member who originally played Ted in 2013 NBC Sports Premier League promos. He co-created the series with Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard), Bill Lawrence, and Joe Kelly. Sudeikis won back-to-back Emmys for Best Actor in a Comedy. A Season 4 is officially in production for 2026.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is Jason Sudeikis. Jon Hamm is Mad Men (and later showed up as himself in Ted Lasso Season 2). Will Ferrell hasn't done an Apple TV+ show. Brendan Hunt plays Coach Beard -- Ted's silent assistant -- and was a co-creator, but Sudeikis is the title character and won two Best Actor Emmys for the role.

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QUESTION 2 / 8SEVERANCE

02

Ben Stiller-directed sci-fi thriller Severance became a cultural phenomenon with its eerie Macrodata Refinement floors and "praise Kier" cultishness. What is the name of the sinister biotech corporation at its centre?

AApex Corporation BLumon Industries CWeyland-Yutani DUmbrella Corp

✓ Correct! Lumon Industries -- the unsettling corporation founded by the cult-like Eagan family, whose "severance procedure" surgically splits an employee's work memories from their outside life. Weyland-Yutani is from Alien; Umbrella Corp is Resident Evil; Apex is fictional but not this show. Lumon's retro-futuristic aesthetic (beige Macbook-era CRTs and long hallways) has become instantly iconic.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is Lumon Industries. Weyland-Yutani is the Alien franchise's evil megacorp. Umbrella Corp runs Resident Evil. Apex isn't a recognisable fictional company. Lumon is the creepy biotech behind Severance -- with its Kier Eagan cult of personality, waffle parties, and surgically separated "innies" and "outies."

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QUESTION 3 / 8BEST PICTURE

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In March 2022, Apple TV+ made streaming history when one of its films became the first from any streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Which film was it?

AThe Morning Show BGreyhound CCODA DKillers of the Flower Moon

✓ Correct! CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) -- Sian Heder's drama about a hearing daughter of a deaf family in Massachusetts -- won Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards, beating The Power of the Dog (the heavy favourite). Troy Kotsur's supporting-actor win was the first for a deaf male actor. The Morning Show is a TV series, Greyhound is Apple's Tom Hanks WWII film, Killers is an Apple film but was released later.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is CODA. The Morning Show is a series. Greyhound is Apple's 2020 Tom Hanks WWII film (a solid hit but not an Oscar winner). Killers of the Flower Moon -- Scorsese's 2023 Apple release -- was nominated for 10 Oscars but won none. CODA's 2022 Best Picture win made Apple the first streamer to break through in the category.

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QUESTION 4 / 8SLOW HORSES

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The scruffy, flatulent, ruthlessly cynical MI5 exile Jackson Lamb -- running the Slough House dumping ground for disgraced spies -- is one of modern TV's most acclaimed performances. Which veteran actor plays him?

AAnthony Hopkins BColin Firth CGary Oldman DJim Broadbent

✓ Correct! Gary Oldman -- Oscar winner for Darkest Hour -- plays Jackson Lamb opposite Kristin Scott Thomas' glacial Diana Taverner. The series adapts Mick Herron's Slough House novels and has become Apple's most quietly successful long-running drama, renewed through at least Season 6. Oldman has repeatedly called Lamb his favourite role of his career.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is Gary Oldman. Anthony Hopkins hasn't done an Apple TV+ series of this prominence. Colin Firth was reportedly in contention for different spy roles (including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's George Smiley, which Oldman also played). Jim Broadbent appears elsewhere. Oldman's Lamb is one of TV's most delightfully unpleasant protagonists.

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QUESTION 5 / 8THE MORNING SHOW

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Apple TV+'s flagship prestige drama on launch day -- a #MeToo-era newsroom saga about the on-air partners of a fictional morning TV show -- was anchored by two huge Hollywood names as its co-leads and producers. Who are they?

ANicole Kidman & Meryl Streep BReese Witherspoon & Laura Dern CJennifer Aniston & Nicole Kidman DJennifer Aniston & Reese Witherspoon

✓ Correct! Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon -- both also executive producers -- anchor the show as Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson. Reportedly each earned a then-record $1.1 million per episode. Steve Carell co-stars as the disgraced anchor whose firing kicks off the entire series. Aniston earned her first Emmy nomination for dramatic work for the role in 2020.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is Jennifer Aniston & Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon & Dern did Big Little Lies (on HBO). Kidman was also in Big Little Lies. Meryl Streep joined The Morning Show in later seasons (a supporting role). Aniston and Witherspoon lead and produce -- both reportedly making $1.1M per episode in one of streaming's richest-ever deals.

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QUESTION 6 / 8FOR ALL MANKIND

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Ronald D. Moore's alt-history space epic For All Mankind -- one of Apple TV+'s original launch titles -- jumps forward in time each season. What is the show's central point of divergence from real history?

AThe Soviets land on the Moon first BAliens contact Earth in 1969 CMars is colonised in 1970 DNASA is privatised in the 1960s

✓ Correct! The Soviets beat Apollo 11 to the Moon in June 1969 -- keeping the Space Race alive and turning NASA into a permanently ascendant institution. That single change cascades across decades: women astronauts are pushed early, lunar bases are built in the 1970s, Mars is reached in the 1990s, and so on. Each season time-jumps ahead a decade, showing how this different history snowballs.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is the Soviets landing on the Moon first -- June 1969, beating Apollo 11. That single change drives everything: continued funding, expanded NASA, women astronauts, a permanent lunar base by the 1980s, Mars missions in the 1990s. Aliens aren't in the show. Mars gets colonised, but much later. NASA remains public throughout the series.

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QUESTION 7 / 8DAY ONE

07

Apple TV+ launched with a small lineup of nine originals -- including The Morning Show, See, Dickinson, and For All Mankind -- at the aggressively low price of $4.99 a month. When did the service officially go live?

AJanuary 2017 BNovember 2019 CMarch 2020 DSeptember 2021

✓ Correct! Apple TV+ launched on November 1, 2019 -- just before Disney+ beat it to market by 11 days. Apple went in with a tiny roster of about nine originals (versus Disney+'s massive back catalogue) but compensated with $1 billion in original content spend and a one-year free trial for Apple hardware buyers. Its quality-over-quantity bet has since paid off in awards and prestige.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is November 2019 -- specifically November 1st, just 11 days before Disney+ launched (a deliberate piece of scheduling brinkmanship). Apple launched with only nine originals and priced at $4.99/month to try to get ahead of Netflix and Disney. The service went live just before the pandemic turbocharged streaming growth everywhere.

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QUESTION 8 / 8SILO

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Apple TV+'s post-apocalyptic thriller Silo -- starring Rebecca Ferguson in a 10,000-person underground society -- adapts a bestselling series of novels originally self-published as a 2011 short story. Who wrote them?

AAndy Weir BBlake Crouch CTed Chiang DHugh Howey

✓ Correct! Hugh Howey self-published Wool as a short story on Amazon in 2011; word-of-mouth turned it into a trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust) and eventually a publishing phenomenon. Apple's adaptation, retitled Silo, premiered in 2023. Andy Weir wrote The Martian and Project Hail Mary. Blake Crouch wrote Dark Matter and Recursion. Ted Chiang wrote the novella that became Arrival.

✗ Cut it off! The answer is Hugh Howey. Andy Weir is The Martian/Project Hail Mary. Blake Crouch is Dark Matter/Recursion (also recently adapted to Apple TV+, hence the mix-up). Ted Chiang is Arrival's source. Howey's Wool trilogy -- Silo's source -- started as a self-published Amazon short story in 2011 before exploding into a bestseller.

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The Bonfire of the Vanities marks David E. Kelley's second adaptation of a Tom Wolfe novel, following his work as writer and executive producer on Netflix's miniseries A Man in Full (2024), starring Jeff Daniels. Reeves is attached to direct the series adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Originally directed by Brian De Palma, with a script written by Michael Cristofer, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) follows a powerful Wall Street executive (Tom Hanks) whose greedy girlfriend (Melanie Griffith) runs over a teenager, causing his life to unravel in the spotlight and attracting the interest of an alcoholic tabloid reporter (Bruce Willis).

The cast also includes Morgan Freeman, Kim Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, Alan King, John Hancock, Clifton James, Kevin Dunn, Donald Moffat, Louis Giambalvo, Mary Alice, Kurt Fuller, Robert Stephens, Richard Libertini, Andre Gregory, Beth Broderick, Adam LeFevre, Marjorie Monaghan, Kirsten Dunst, Troy Winbush, Rita Wilson, Malachy McCourt, Helen Stenborg, Camryn Manheim, Richard Belzer, George Plimpton, Geraldo Rivera, and F. Murray Abraham.

At the time of its release, The Bonfire of the Vanities was panned by critics, resulting in a 15% Rotten Tomatoes score, who called it a hollow adaptation of a complex novel, undermined by poor casting choices and the loss of the book's essential irony. It stands as another example of Hollywood's grand ambitions ending in disappointment.

With a 26% audience score, The Bonfire of the Vanities also bombed at the box office, grossing just $15.6 million against its $47 million budget. The film's various controversies behind the scenes were chronicled in the 1991 book, The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood, by Julie Salamon.

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) is streaming for free on Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Plex.

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