Kevin Hart's Hartbeat Signs Vertical Series Deal With Fox Entertainment

By Elena Vasquez

Kevin Hart's production company Hartbeat has signed a vertical series deal with Fox Entertainment. The agreement gives Fox Entertainment Studios first-look rights to develop feature films and television series from vertical series released under three Hartbeat subsidiary brands: Codeblack, Essence and Revolt. Those brands carry a combined social following exceeding 20 million.

Codeblack has partnered with Holywater Tech, a Fox partner that operates the vertical video platform My Drama, to launch its first dedicated branded channel. Hartbeat's vertical series will premiere on that platform, with Fox Entertainment Global distributing them worldwide after their initial runs.

How many titles are in development?

Twenty-five live-action titles are already in the works. The slate spans dramas, thrillers and faith-based content, and the companies describe it as "the first stage of intellectual property development," according to the press release. Stories that connect with audiences will advance into film and television development, with Fox Entertainment Studios holding the first look.

What do the executives say?

Hannah Pillemer, Fox Entertainment Studios' head of scripted, framed the deal as a real-time testing ground. "Hartbeat has a powerful creative voice and an exceptional instinct for stories that connect with audiences," Pillemer said. "This partnership gives us an opportunity to identify bold ideas in the vertical space, see what resonates in real time, and give those stories a path to grow into film and television."

Jeff Clanagan, founder of Codeblack and president and chief distribution officer of Hartbeat, cast the deal as the culmination of a long-built audience relationship. "Codeblack, Essence and Revolt have spent decades earning this audience's trust," Clanagan said. "Now that audience has one home for stories made for them, in the format where they already spend their time."

Clanagan added: "Vertical is where those stories start, not where they stop. The culture builds the audience, the audience chooses the stories, and with Fox the stories that win become film and television for the world."

Is this the first Hartbeat-Fox deal?

No. Last year Hartbeat signed a first-look deal with Tubi, the streaming service owned by Fox Corp., for four creator-driven films. That slate includes "Sundown," a supernatural feature written, directed by and starring Kinigra Deon. The new agreement extends the relationship from creator-driven streaming films into short-form vertical content intended as a development pipeline.

The structure is the takeaway: Fox gets a low-cost proving ground for intellectual property, and Hartbeat gets a global distribution path for vertical series that perform. If audience response drives which stories graduate to film and television, the 20-million-follower base across Codeblack, Essence and Revolt becomes the deal's real arbitrage.