Overview
- The partnership announced Tuesday gives Fox Entertainment Studios first-look rights to develop film and TV from vertical microseries produced by Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat under the Codeblack, Essence and Revolt labels.
- An initial slate of 25 live-action vertical titles in genres such as thriller, drama and faith-based storytelling will premiere on My Drama, Holywater Tech’s vertical-video platform, with Codeblack opening as the platform’s first branded channel.
- Fox Entertainment Global will handle worldwide distribution of the verticals after their initial runs on My Drama, and Fox previously took a strategic stake in Holywater Tech that ties the studio to the platform.
- Hartbeat’s three labels together claim a social following of more than 20 million, which the companies say will let them use audience data and real-time feedback to choose which short-form concepts to expand.
- The deal follows recent microdrama moves by Hartbeat and Fox and signals a broader industry push to turn short vertical series into scalable IP that can speed development and give creators a clearer path to longer formats.