Apple has signed a first-look multi-year film and TV deal with filmmaker Martin Scorsese who will now base his Sikelia Productions at the tech giant and produce and direct projects for the Apple TV+ service.
It’s not clear how many projects Scorsese will produce for Apple as part of the deal, but it signifies a serious effort by the company to compete in the race for high-profile projects amongst SVOD services.
Scorsese was already working with Apple on his newest film, the over $200 million budgeted “Killers of the Flower Moon” which is currently in pre-production ahead of a shoot in February. Paramount will distribute the feature theatrically.
Sikelia Productions has produced and managed all of Scorsese’s projects since 2003 and currently has untitled Fran Lebowitz and David Johansen projects in development.
The deal also follows on from similar deals Apple has just made with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures, distributor A24 and individual talents like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alfonso Cuaron and Oprah Winfrey.
A recent Fast Company report indicates Apple has plans to release a dozen new movies a year on Apple TV+ with two to four of them being blockbusters.
Source: Indiewire
