Jason Katims inks overall deal with Apple
David Farnor | On 22, Jan 2019
Jason Katims has signed an overall deal with Apple.
Apple’s fledgling TV service, which still hasn’t launched yet, is investing in a wide variety of content to compete with more established streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but it’s also playing catch up on a talent front, with Netflix and Amazon increasingly inking deals directly with creators such as Shonda Rhimes, Neil Gaiman and Ryan Murphy. Taken it one step closer to its rivals is a new agreement with Katims, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning showrunner.
Katims’ CV is an impressive one, boasting both Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. Both of those have seen him stay at Universal TV for over of a decade, also turning his True Jack Prods. banner into a pod based out of at Universal, where he has generated About a Boy and Rise for NBC, The Path for Hulu and Away for Netflix.
Now, he’s been lured away from his studio home in a multi-year contract with Apple. The overall deal will see him develop and exec-produce new shows. While Katims will continue to work with Universal on Sisters, his Apple contract will kick off in the summer, when his Universal deal formally ends. He will be joined at Apple by True Jack’s development head Jeni Mulein, and also joins a former associate from Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, Kerry Ehrin, who has also inked an overall deal with Apple.