Martin Scorsese Makes Apple First-Look Film & Television Deal For His Sikelia Productions Banner

EXCLUSIVE: Two and one-half months after it stepped up to become the producers of Killers of the Flower Moon, Apple has inked a first-look deal with its director, Martin Scorsese. The master filmmaker will base his Sikelia Productions banner at Apple in a multi-year deal for film and television projects Scorsese will produce and direct for Apple TV +.

The relationship kicks off with Killers of the Flower Moon, the Eric Roth-scripted adaptation of the David Grann non-fiction book which will star Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro will star in. Apple won an auction with the $180 million + film originally optioned by Paramount came back on the market. Deadline revealed on May 27 that Apple won a deal that has Paramount releasing the film theatrically. The film’s produced by Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas at Imperative Entertainment. The film is in pre-production and expected to get underway February in Oklahoma.

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Berthed for years at Paramount — in 2015 the studio extended the deal for four years — Sikelia Productions was established by the Oscar-winning Scorsese in 2003. The company manages and produces all of Scorsese’s projects including: 2019’s The Irishman, 2016’s Silence, 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, 2011’s Hugo, 2010’s Shutter Island, the 2006 Best Picture Oscar winner The Departed, 2004’s The Aviator, and the series Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl. The documentaries include: The 50 Year Argument, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, A Letter to Elia, Public Speaking, Shine A Light, and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. Upcoming on the docu front are An Afternoon with SCTV, an Untitled Fran Lebowitz project and Untitled David Johansen project, all of which are in post production.

Apple adds Sikelia to first look deals made with Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson for TV and feature documentaries; Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures; Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions; A24 and Imagine Documentaries; and kid programming factories Sesame Workshop and Peanuts.

Scorsese is represented by LBI Entertainment and WME.

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