Universal Pictures today announced it has entered into a two-year, first look production agreement with Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment. Since opening its doors, Skybound Entertainment has grown into a multiplatform entertainment company with award-winning television programming, film and digital content. The announcement was made by Co-Presidents of Production Peter Cramer and Jeffrey Kirschenbaum.
In 2010, Kirkman, who is the creator and executive producer of the award-winning AMC series “The Walking Dead,” started Skybound Entertainment with the intention to nurture creators and provide resources to produce content while retaining creative control of their properties. Kirkman partnered with longtime collaborator, and fellow executive producer of “The Walking Dead,” David Alpert in the endeavor.
“Robert and David have proven themselves to be incredible storytellers in a wide range of mediums, and we are thrilled to be Skybound’s partner in the feature realm. We feel confident that their wealth of ideas and expertise will lead to exciting, provocative films for our slate,” said Cramer and Kirschenbaum in a joint statement.
“In high school I watched ‘Army of Darkness’ pretty much every night before bed so I’ve seen that Universal logo steering around the planet we call home about a thousand times,” said Kirkman. “The idea of producing movies that will bear that logo is just unbelievably awesome. We couldn’t find better partners than the team at Universal. I believe this partnership is going to help David and I achieve all the goals we set out to accomplish when we founded Skybound five years ago.”
In addition to the creating the Eisner Award-winning “The Walking Dead,” Kirkman is the creator of many popular comic books including the long-running “Invincible,” all-ages “Super Dinosaur,” and the atmospheric exorcism comic, “Outcast,” which was released in June 2014 and recently received a series pickup for Cinemax with Fox International. Kirkman will serve as creator, writer and executive producer of the series, alongside Alpert who also serves as executive producer. Prior to Skybound, Kirkman became a partner at Image Comics in 2008. Under the Skybound umbrella Kirkman recently wrapped production on Air alongside Alpert, his first feature film as a producer. The film stars “The Walking Dead’s” Norman Reedus and Academy Award-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou. The feature will be released in theaters and VOD platforms this August.
As president of Skybound Entertainment, Alpert oversees operations and development of cross-platform properties including the company’s partnership with Samsung to develop virtual reality content for Milk VR. David is also a prolific television and film producer and manager. Alpert is the executive producer on “The Walking Dead” and its upcoming companion series, “Fear The Walking Dead”. His credits also include the upcoming Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart film American Ultra, and the recent George Lopez film Spare Parts.
Kirkman is represented by CAA, Circle of Confusion and attorney Shep Rosenman at Katz, Golden, Sullivan & Rosenman.
