New Regency Signs TV Deal With Graphic Novel Publisher TKO Studios (Exclusive)

New Regency, the production entity which counts Little Women, Bohemian Rhapsody and The Revenant among recent hits, is placing a bet on an original comic book intellectual property.

The company has entered into a development and production partnership with TKO Studios, the indie publisher behind Sara, a comic centered on Russian snipers fighting Nazis, and Sentient, a sci-fi story about a colony spaceship.

Under the terms of the deal, New Regency will have the right to exclusively develop television projects from TKO’s library of IP. TKO’s Salvatore Simeone and Tze Chun will develop, produce and package all shows with New Regency.

Founded by Simeone and Chun in 2017, TKO is known for publishing original comics and graphic novels by top creators such as Jeff Lemire, Garth Ennis, Roxane Gay, Gabriel H. Walta, Steve Epting, Steve Niles and Steve Orlando, among others.

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Its first line of titles debuted in 2018 with an innovative “binge release model” that simultaneously publishes entire storylines in both print and digital formats. TKO’s roster includes 11 Amazon #1 best-sellers while title Sentient, written by Lemire, became the company’s first comic to earn an Eisner Award nomination for best limited series.

“TKO is proud to partner with New Regency,” said Simeone and Chun in a statement. “Their track record creating groundbreaking film and television aligns with our history of publishing critically acclaimed thought-provoking genre stories. We feel our companies’ combined strengths make an ideal partnership and forges a new model for TV adaptation that will benefit all parties, including our incredible creators.”

New Regency chairman and CEO Yariv Milchan called TKO “innovators and leaders in their field,” adding, “we have been longtime fans of their exceptional material.”

While best known for its longtime film output, New Regency is active on the TV front, developing a series based on its 2005 hit Mr. and Mrs. Smith that has Donald Glover attached. And the company recently produced the British drama series The Beast Must Die, starring Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo, which aired in the U.S. on AMC.

On the movie side, its upcoming releases include Deep Water with Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, an untitled original upcoming film from David O. Russell starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers and Chris Rock; as well as Robert Eggers’ Viking epic, The Northman, starring Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe.