Peacock announced the first three original films from Universal Pictures that will debut directly on the streaming service following a major in-house distribution agreement that was signed with Universal Film Entertainment Group last year.
Peacock carved out the rights to release titles from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Illumination and DreamWorks Animation 45 days after they premiered in theaters. The NBCUniversal streaming service also secured a handful of titles that would debut directly on the platform.
So here are the initial three projects set to debut in 2023:
Produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill Company, the familiar felling Shooting Stars is a scripted biopic, filmed in James' hometown of Akron, Ohio. It will continue the aging basketball star's media fixation ... on himself and his own youthful rise to fame.
It's an fruitful creative orchard James has visited numerous times before.
SpringHill emerged in the video business in 2014, working with Starz to produce Survivor's Remorse, an original series focused on an African-American basketball player, struggling to reconcile is disadvantaged youth, and all his family and hangers-on from that time who are still with him.
James, meanwhile, was recently seen in a CGI-enabled Super Bowl ad for Crypto.com in which he plays his current iteration counseling his teenage self in his childhood bedroom.
Academy Award-nominees Rachel Winter and Terence Winter are producing Shooting Stars alongside SpringHill.
Also included in the initial slate: Filmmaker John Woo will remake -- and "reimagine" -- his 1989 Chinese thriller classic The Killer.
Meanwhile, Will Packer, producer of Girls Trip, is now working on Praise This, which stars Chloe Bailey as "the newest member of a community's church choir who pushes her members in a hipper musical direction and whose involvement with an irreverent hip-hop star may kick off — or jeopardize — her own musical career."
“We know people join Peacock to watch movies, so we are constantly adding more to serve fans,” said Peacock President Kelly Campbell. “Together with the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, we are excited to deliver fresh, exclusive, original films next year to our customers in addition to the legendary Universal Pictures blockbuster films and beloved franchises streaming now.”
