Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions Signs First-Look Deal With Apple For TV Projects [Updated]

Update: This deal between Apple and Appian Way was originally said to include film projects, but that is not the case. Appian Way has since signed a first-look deal with Sony that encompasses film projects, so this Apple deal is just for TV and documentaries. Our original article continues.Leonardo DiCaprio is heading to the big Apple.

Appian Way Productions, DiCaprio's production company, has signed a multi-year first-look deal with Apple for upcoming film and TV projects, making him the latest high-profile name to partner with Apple during the technology company's push into the world of entertainment.

DiCaprio's name appears in all the headlines because everyone knows who he is, but this deal is also beneficial for Jennifer Davisson, who runs the company alongside DiCaprio and serves as the president of production. She and DiCaprio first worked together on a little-talked-about 2008 reality series called Greensburg, and then he hired her to co-run his company; she's since produced or executive produced films like Orphan, The Ides of March, Out of the Furnace, The Revenant, Live by Night, Richard Jewell, and more.

As for this new Apple deal, which we learned about thanks to Variety, the nascent streamer makes sense as a likely new home for upcoming Appian Way projects. Appian Way already has Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon lined up there for DiCaprio to star in (that film will be a partnership between Apple and Paramount), and they're also developing a TV series called Shining Girls, which stars Elisabeth Moss in a show about a time-traveling serial killer.

Currently, Appian Way has close to 50 projects in various stages of development. The company is working on a TV adaptation of the real-life space saga The Right Stuff for Disney+; a TV series called Island, based on acclaimed author Aldous Huxley's final novel; a live-action movie adaptation of Akira, directed by Thor: Ragnarok's Taika Waititi; that long-delayed TV adaptation of The Devil in the White City for Hulu; and a narrative movie adaptation of the Netflix documentary Virunga, which is being written by Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk director Barry Jenkins. That's just a small smattering of what they have in the hopper.

AppleTV+ is less than a year old, but the company has already locked down collaborations with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Justin Lin, Alfonso Cuaron, Idris Elba, Jason Katims, Lee Eisenberg, and Simon Kinberg. It's also secured deals for properties like Peanuts, Fraggle Rock, and the work of Where the Wild Thing Are author Maurice Sendak.