Indie studio A24, which took home three Academy Awards for 2016’s Best Picture winner Moonlight, has entered into a multiyear deal with Apple to produce movies for the tech company’s burgeoning slate of film and television projects.
The studio will produce an unspecified number of films for Apple, according to The Hollywood Reporter, making this the first major announcement regarding the tech company’s plans for the movie side of its media development strategy. There’s no word on what the studio’s first project for Apple will be.
Best known for producing Moonlight, A24 most recently brought Jonah Hill’s critically acclaimed drama Mid90s and Bo Burnham’s similarly praised Eighth Grade to theaters. Previously, the studio distributed several award-winning films, including Room and Ex Machina.
After initiating a move into producing original television and movie projects, Apple has been primarily focused on its small-screen projects. So far, series in various stages of development and production include a TV morning show drama from Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon that will bring Steve Carell back to television for the first time in seven years. Apple is also producing Steven Spielberg’s reboot of the sci-fi anthology series Amazing Stories, as well as a series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels. Oprah Winfrey also reached a deal with Apple to produce TV content for the company, and a new series from Whiplash and La La Land director Damien Chazelle is also in the works.
That’s not all of the projects in the works. The Big Sick writers Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani are bringing an immigration-themed anthology series to the company, and NBA star Kevin Durant is also reportedly working on a scripted series for Apple.
There’s still no word on how Apple plans to distribute any of the movie or television projects it’s developing. A24 typically handles theatrical distribution of its own films, but it also has a deal with DirecTV for the on-demand rights to its films after they leave theaters. With so many companies developing their own direct-to-consumer streaming platforms lately, it will be interesting to see where all of these projects end up.
