EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV+ is hoping to find gold with its latest original podcast.
The tech giant is launching Missed Fortune, an audio series centered around the true story around one man’s years-long quest to find a million dollar treasure hidden in 2010 by eccentric art dealer Forrest Fenn.
It is the company’s latest original podcast as the company continues to ramp up its move into original audio series. Previous originals include The Line, Hooked, Run, Bambi, Run and Wild Things: Siegfried & Roy – a strategy that it has been expanding on after spending years merely in the distribution side of the podcast business.
The company, which runs its original podcasts through its television arm Apple TV+, will launch the first three episodes of the nine-part series on August 15.
It is hosted by journalist and former Outside Podcast host Peter Frick-Wright.
Since the hunt began, thousands of searchers went out in pursuit of the treasure, with at least five of them losing their lives in the process. Missed Fortune follows one searcher over the course of eight years, on a hunt that triggers a series of unintended consequences. As Fenn’s treasure gains international attention, people are forced to reexamine exactly what Fenn set in motion.
Missed Fortune follows the journey of Darrell Seyler, who spent years searching for the treasure and even went to jail after violating federal regulations in an attempt to find the loot in Yellowstone National Park.
The Fenn treasure, which included gold and jewels, was reportedly found in 2020 in Wyoming by former journalist and medical student Jack Stuef.
Missed Fortune is produced by High Five Content, the company behind Hulu documentary series Captive Audience and Spotify podcast Son of a Hitman, in association with Frick-Wright’s 30 Minutes West, which is behind podcasts including Bundyville and Cat People and Outside Magazine, which published numerous articles on the subject. It is exec produced by Frick-Wright, Andrew Jacobs and Robbie Carver.
It is the latest project centered around the Fenn treasure hunt. Cavalry Audio launched X Marks The Spot: The Legend of Forrest Fenn podcast in June, Studio 8 set up a feature film project – an action comedy inspired by writer Hudson Morgan’s misadventures to find the treasure – with Jake Szymanski, and in 2018, Fox developed an hour-long drama inspired by David Kushner’s book on the subject with McG and The Chi executive producer Elwood Reid.
Listen to the trailer here.
