Apple Signs First Look Deal With Imagine Entertainment

Over the past year, the tech giant has signed pacts with big-name talents like Martin Scorsese, Idris Elba and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Apple has struck a first-look deal Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. The multi-year pact will see the banner produce a slate of scripted features, exclusively for the streamer.

Apple has also extended its existing first-look deal with Imagine Documentaries, first inked in Jan. 2019 prior to the launch of the streaming service. The two companies have since partnered on a couple of projects, including Bryce Dallas Howard’s Dads, one of the first docs to debut on the streamer.

Grazer and Howard’s Imagine has long been one of the biggest names in Hollywood, holding one of the richest deals in town at Universal for decades. But that deal ended in 2016, with Imagine not setting another feature deal until now.

As for Apple, this is just the latest big-name pact. Over the past year, the tech giant has signed first-look deals that include features with big-name talent Martin Scorsese, Idris Elba and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The tech company launched its service with only a handful of indie feature acquisitions and a pact with A24 for a slate of films. It has spent much of the past year on a buying spree, picking up splashy packages out of virtual markets like the Will Smith-starrer Emancipation from director Antoine Fuqua and grabbing once theater-bound features from COVID-stricken studios like Tom Hanks-fronted Greyhound. Apple also signed on to finance and produce Ridley Scott Napoleon Bonaparte drama Kitbag and the Scorsese-DiCaprio team-up Killers of the Flower Moon.

Apple’s recent and upcoming releases include the Billie Eilish doc from R.J. Cutler and the Russo Brother’s Cherry.

View this article at The Hollywood Reporter.