Apple has already closed some shows because they might offend its Chinese business partners but it now appears that they have managed to offend Sofia Coppola. Coppola has moaned about Apple ditching her pricey drama series because they didn't like Apple bosses did not like her heroine.

"The Custom of the Country" is based on a 1913 novel by Edith Wharton. The is about Undine Spragg, a greedy woman who wants to climb the social ladder in New York. The series was supposed to have five episodes, with Coppola claiming that the show had the budget of "five 'Marie Antoinettes'", referring to her 2006 production that cost $40 million; that would mean the Apple series would have cost a whopping $200 million if Coppola wasn't exaggerating.

However, it seems that Apple had not read the book when it commissioned it. It appeared that they thought it was all about a woman who overcame all sorts of obstacles in the Big City thanks to her trusty iPhone and faith in Steve Jobs. 

Apple-funded productions traditionally place Apple gear in the hands of the good guys but supply the bad guys with Windows gear.

"Apple just pulled out. They pulled our funding," Coppola told The New Yorker in an interview. It's a real drag. I thought they had endless resources.

She added that the project involved many arguments with Apple bosses, who were mostly blokes who did not get the character of Undine." Coppola said.

"She's so 'unlikable'. But so is Tony Soprano!"

As for breaking up with the streamer, Coppola added, "It was like a relationship that you know you probably should've gotten out of a while ago."

"The Custom of the Country" was announced in 2020. "Undine Spragg is my favourite literary anti-heroine, and I'm excited to bring her to the screen for the first time," Coppola said in a statement.

Coppola added to the BBC, "I just see all these men getting hundreds of millions of dollars, and then I'm fighting for a tiny fraction of that. I think it's just left over from the way the culture of that business is. It's frustrating, but I'm always fighting to get it, and I'm just happy to get to make my movies independently and find people who believe in them. There's a challenge and freedom in making things small because if you have a big budget, you have a lot of input from studio executives, and I would never be able to make a movie like that."

The issue appears to be that Apple believes its streaming service should be about promoting the company and its weird religion, while Hollywood thinks it should be about providing entertainment it wants to make.