Apple Sets Horror-Comedy Series ‘Widow’s Bay’ From Katie Dippold & Hiro Murai

Apple TV+ has ordered the 10-episode horror-comedy series Widow’s Bay from creator, showrunner and executive producer Katie Dippold (The Heat, Parks and Recreation).

Emmy Award-nominee Hiro Murai (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bear) is set to direct the pilot and will produce through his Super Frog banner alongside Claudia Shin and Carver Karaszewski.

Widow’s Bay is set on a mysteriously cursed New England island and follows its superstitious citizens, led by a mayor who refuses to believe their warnings.

Dippold was a writer on NBC’s Parks and Recreation before she sold her spec feature The Heat, directed by Paul Feig and starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. The Heat won an American Comedy Award for Best Comedy Screenplay and a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comedic Movie. She followed The Heat by co-writing Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, also directed by Paul Feig with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones starring. Dippold graduated from Rutgers with a degree in Journalism before moving to New York to perform at the UCB Theater. She then moved to Los Angeles for her first writing job at Mad TV.

Murai is a filmmaker and director who most recently executive produced and directed the Prime Video series Mr. & Mrs. Smith, for which he received his latest Emmy nod for Oustanding Director on a Drama Series for his work on the show’s premiere episode. Murai and additional executive producers were nominated for a group Emmy for the show’s nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. Mr. & Mrs. Smith scored 16 total Emmy Nominations for the show’s freshman season.

He is a group Emmy winner as an executive producer of the FX/Hulu hit The Bear in 2023 when the series won Outstanding Comedy Series.

Murai previously collaborated with Donald Glover as an EP and director of the Emmy award-winning FX series, Atlanta. The series earned 6 Emmys and 19 nominations, including four for Murai’s personal work directing. Additionally, he was the director and EP of the Emmy-nominated Station Eleven.