The partnership includes an initial slate of 25 live-action series for My Drama and gives Fox Entertainment Studios first-look rights to develop films and television series based on stories launched under the Codeblack, Essence and Revolt brands.
Fox Entertainment and Hartbeat, the company founded by Kevin Hart, have announced a strategic partnership to turn short-form vertical content into new intellectual properties for film and television. Under the agreement, Fox Entertainment Studios will have first-look rights to evaluate film and television projects based on microseries launched under the Codeblack, Essence and Revolt brands.
The initiative will kick off with an initial slate of 25 live-action vertical series available on My Drama, the vertical video platform developed by Holywater Tech, a strategic partner of Fox. The offering will include a dedicated Codeblack section, which will become the platform’s first branded channel.
Following their initial distribution on the platform, Fox Entertainment Global will handle the international distribution of the vertical series. Meanwhile, Fox Entertainment Studios will be able to identify stories with the potential to evolve into longer-form productions, expanding their opportunities for exploitation across television and film.
“Hartbeat has a powerful creative voice and an exceptional instinct for stories that resonate with audiences,” said Hannah Pillemer, head of scripted content at Fox Entertainment Studios. According to the executive, the agreement will enable the company to identify new ideas emerging from the vertical content ecosystem, assess audience reception and provide the best-performing stories with a pathway to film and television.
“My vision has always been to bring the leading cultural brands serving our audience together in one destination, and the partnership with Essence and Revolt makes that vision a reality,” said Jeff Clanagan, founder of Codeblack and president and head of distribution at Hartbeat.
The executive emphasized that these brands have built relationships of trust with their audiences over decades, while the vertical format offers a new avenue for developing stories aimed at those communities. “The vertical format is where these stories begin, not where they end,” he said.
For their part, Anatolii Kasianov and Bogdan Nesvit, co-founders and co-CEOs of Holywater Tech, said the initiative will expand My Drama’s offering and create new opportunities for brands, creators and audiences to connect.
