Brad Pitt

Apple TV has launched a rare Black Friday deal that sees the subscription cost cut in half for six months.

Apple TV has unveiled a rare Black Friday deal that’s slashed its subscription cost by half. Across this Black Friday weekend, new and eligible returning subscribers can join Apple TV for £4.99 per month for six months.

This marks a 50% discount from the usual £9.99 and grants full access to series such as Slow Horses, Severance, Ted Lasso and The Studio, all while saving a cool £30. However, Apple TV has issued a ‘last chance’ warning to claim the deal before it expires on Monday, December 1.

It makes Apple TV the most affordable major streaming service when compared to the basic plans of Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, which all now cost £5.99. After the six-month promotional period, Apple TV will revert to its usual price of £9.99 per month unless cancelled.

Those who take advantage of this offer will be able to stream every episode of titles including Pluribus, the new sci-fi drama from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. Emma Thompson’s mystery thriller Down Cemetery Road, based on Slow Horses author Mick Herron’s debut novel, is also streaming now.

Coming to Apple TV soon are Brad Pitt’s F1 (December 12), Hijack season two (January 14), and Godzilla series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two (February 27). It comes as Apple’s streaming service quietly underwent a significant change in October, dropping the ‘+’ from its name and rebranding simply as Apple TV, reports Wales Online.

Get Apple TV half price for Black Friday

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£4.99

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TV fans can get Apple TV half price for six months as it drops from £9.99 to £4.99 until December 1.

The Apple TV half price deal is also available for Sky customers when subscribing via the Apple TV app, as part of Sky’s Black Friday sale. The provider has cut several TV packages to their ‘lowest ever price’, offering free Netflix subscriptions and more than 100 channels with options like the Essential TV and 500Mbps Full Fibre Broadband bundle (£35).

Apple TV has had a record-breaking year for its original content, with season two of Severance surpassing Ted Lasso to become the platform’s most-watched series ever. It also dominated the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, bagging a total of 22 wins for Severance, Slow Horses and The Studio.

The latter made Emmys history by scooping 13 awards – the highest ever for a comedy series – including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor for Seth Rogen. However, while Apple TV’s library is brimming with original content, it doesn’t offer the endless blockbusters and classic films found on rivals like Netflix or major Disney+ franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel.

What it does provide are exclusive titles featuring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey, as well as legendary filmmakers like Martin Scorsese. Customers can enjoy 50% off Apple TV when signing up by December 1.

Joseph Kosinski didn’t want to direct “F1” unless he was able to do it the hard way. That was the germ of an idea for what would eventually become one of the biggest hits of 2025: Create a movie about an underdog Formula One team that didn’t fake being at F1 races, but actually became a part of them.

“It was kind of like, ‘Yes, this is a little insane,’” said Kosinski, “‘but if we can pull it off, we’ll get something totally unique.’”

Kosinski doesn’t present as your average adrenaline junkie. He’s mellow and looks like he could work at a bank — in fact, he pursued architecture before finding a calling in film as a David Fincher protégé. Kosinski was trusted with blockbusters from his debut, 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” and in 2022 broke through with “Top Gun: Maverick,” which strapped Tom Cruise and other insurance liabilities into actual fighter jets as an alternative to relying on CGI.

“I think on ‘Maverick,’” Kosinski said, “I found out that the audience does appreciate when you shoot something for real. They can tell the difference between something done on a soundstage and done in a real situation. It’s something we are very attuned to and connect to.”

“F1” tells the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a leathery road dog of a driver who gets called back into Formula One by an old racing friend (Javier Bardem), who’s now the owner of a struggling team, desperate for a Hail Mary. The film is partially based in reality; the Hayes character is inspired by Martin Donnelly, whose promising career was cut short in 1990 by a gruesome crash. It’s also partially based in a fantasy in which someone old enough to have seen the 1966 epic “Grand Prix” in theaters would be allowed to sit in the driver’s seat of a modern F1 team.

Director Joseph Kosinski on the set of “F1.”

(Apple TV)

But the fantasy elements were designed to be offset by a hyperrealism that’s rarely afforded to film productions — not just in the ability to feature the actual teams and drivers, but also to film a significant portion of the movie at the races themselves. It helped that the production had Lewis Hamilton, one of the best drivers in the history of the sport, on board as a producer to help grease the wheels with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of F1. Even with Hamilton, though, Apple — which ultimately spent over $200 million on the movie — had to prove to the FIA that they could set up at an event like the fabled British Grand Prix at Silverstone and not cause a pileup.

“We had to rehearse the blocking and staging for about two weeks with a stopwatch in front of the FIA to prove to them that we could actually shoot a scene and get off the track before the race started,” said Kosinski, referring to a crucial scene when the characters played by Pitt and Tobias Menzies first meet.

Unlike “Maverick,” in which military pilots flew the jets, “F1” features driving from Brad Pitt and co-star Damson Idris, in some sense because it was the only way to get the shots they needed. “They’ve got four cameras in front of them that are whipping around and they’re having to do their lines and perform,” said Kosinski. “But mostly they’re trying not to die in front of 100,000 people.”

Every department — from the actors to craft services — had to learn how to operate at dangerous speeds and with higher stakes. Ben Munro, who did the production design with Mark Tildesley, explained that, normally, his department would have two weeks to build a set; in some cases on “F1,” such as a scene filmed at the McLaren headquarters, they would have just 12 hours, overnight.

“When you try to integrate with the real world, ultimate control becomes harder,” Munro said. “And as filmmakers, we’re used to being in ultimate control.”

The “F1” team developed new cameras to capture the film’s ultra-realistic high-speed racing.

(Apple TV)

The camera team too had to be adaptable and mobile (no VistaVision here), all while figuring out how to capture footage at 180 miles per hour that couldn’t be covered with more than a few takes. “First, we had to make a camera that didn’t exist yet,” said Claudio Miranda, the film’s cinematographer.

Miranda, who won an Oscar for “Life of Pi,” worked with Sony to develop small, agile “sensor-on-a-stick” cameras with Imax-worthy lenses to place around the cars. Coverage became essential — there were 16 camera positions to capture as much as possible. With both the racing itself and the hoopla around race weekend, the usual filmmaking mindset simply had to change: “I’m not always able to shoot sunset for this shot, or backlight for this quarter,” said Miranda, describing his thinking. “We traded all that in for the realism of the movie. But I think that’s unbeatable.”

Other than a few spinouts (and a stray Brad Pitt fan ruining a shot to get a selfie), the production was miraculously accident-free, despite taking almost two years to film. That may be due in part to the fact that, if you squint, it turns out that a film crew is similar enough to an F1 team to fit right in.

“Everyone had to be prepared for those nine-minute shoot windows in the same way that you’d have to be ready for a pit stop,” Kosinski said. “There was a really interesting kinship. And we really did feel like the 11th team after spending two seasons with them.”

The moment that sticks with Miranda is from the end of the production, in Abu Dhabi, when all the real F1 teams got their cars out for one grand scene together — a million-dollar setup, to undersell it by a few digits. “In the beginning, it did feel like we were this annoying little buzzard,” Miranda said. “I think that’s why I got really emotional when everyone wanted to help us out in the final race and bring the cars out. Because it felt like, at the end, we were kind of loved.”

EXCLUSIVE: David Michôd is the director of the new film, Christy, which is coming to cinemas on November 28

David Michôd is the creative force behind the upcoming film, Christy, featuring Sydney Sweeney, which arrives in cinemas on November 28 following its domestic box office debut.

The acclaimed Animal Kingdom director has brought to life the extraordinary true story of Christy Martin, a West Virginia native played by Sweeney who emerged as one of boxing’s most pioneering and divisive personalities.

“More than anything I loved the idea of making a movie about a woman with a really ferocious personality,” he told Reach titles.

“I just immediately got a sense that there was something about her that is very charismatic that I really liked, then met her and liked her even more – how beautifully vulnerable and kind and funny she is.”

The director revealed some of his all-time favourite films, including an “unbelievably overlooked masterpiece”.

Apocalypse Now

The epic psychological war drama from 1979 draws loose inspiration from Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness.

The picture charts the journey of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), tasked with a covert assignment to eliminate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a rogue Special Forces commander suspected of murder.

David said: “My favourite movie is Apocalypse Now. That movie made me want to make movies.

“I already loved movies but it was Apocalypse Now that made me want to make them. There was something about the giant, crazy adventure of that film.

“I just think it’s amazing. I was talking to someone about it who was reminding me of the fact it wasn’t universally well-reviewed when it was released, which seems insane to me.”

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

David simply stated: “I just think, unbelievably overlooked masterpiece.”

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a grand Western film from 2007.

Based on Ron Hansen’s 1983 novel of the same name, it features Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck.

The film explores the relationship between Jesse James and Robert Ford, focusing on the events that led up to the notorious killing.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a 1976 psychological thriller set in New York City post the Vietnam War.

The film stars Robert De Niro as veteran Marine and taxi driver Travis Bickle, whose mental state deteriorates as he works nights in the city.

David commented: “Taxi Driver is right up there for me, just so raw and visceral.

“But again, a movie about a character who does monstrous things, but whose vulnerability and brokenness are so right there on the surface.

“I remember when I was writing Animal Kingdom, I showed the script to people, and some of those people would say ‘Your central character isn’t likeable enough’.

“And I’d go ‘Have you seen Taxi Driver? That guy is kind of grotesque but you can feel him and that’s all you need to be able to do.”

Christy will be hitting cinemas in the UK and Ireland on November 28.