Fox Entertainment announced an equity investment in the micro-short and vertical video production company Holywater, which will work together to develop the original screen set. It is noteworthy that part of the content will be derived from Fox’s existing IPs, including the “Summary of the current Fox episode and the re-engineering project”. The specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the partners committed themselves to “the imminent publication of a development agreement with the top Hollywood talent”.
The cumulative number of downloads of products under the Holywater flag has exceeded 55 million, and its main platforms include My Drama, a microstudies media application, and My Muse, which focuses on generating an AI-created stand-screen video. The company also owns My Passion, an independent digital book publishing platform that ranks first in the European and American markets. Driven by such companies as ReelShort, the vertical video mode is on its way to a resurgence. Under the agreement, the Fox Recreation Studio committed itself to creating over 200 stand-screen plays for My Drama in the next two years. The first two will be Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession in Atlanta. Fox revealed that the work of Gordon Ramsey and Bento Box Entertainment will also be included in development plans in the future.
Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade states: “The innovation of digital narratives is shaping the future of the entertainment industry, and investing in vertical video will help Fox build modern-oriented studios for sustainable long-term growth. Hollywater has always been at the forefront of technology and has ably applied technology-driven creativity. “Bohdan Nesvet and Anatoli Kassanov, co-founders of Hollywater, stressed that “one of the fastest-growing areas of the entertainment industry is vertical-screened media, whose goal is to mainstream the set of stand-screen plays by upgrading their quality and broadening their type. Cooperation with Fox confirms this vision and gives us scale and creative support for accelerated development.”
In June this year, the Fox Group invested in the creation of the Lighthouse Creative Park, which was further expanded through the Fox studio in Century City. In addition, the Fox Recreation Studio has recently entered into a unique two-way priority contract agreement with the Harper Collins-based Avon book.