Writer/producer Jason Katims signs multi-year deal with Apple

Variety reports that Jason Katims — writer, producer, and playwright — is departing his longtime home at Universal TV for a new multi-year overall deal at Apple. The tech giant is expected to debut a streaming service at some point this year.

Katims is best known as the creator of several television series, including Relativity (1996), Roswell (1999-2002), Friday Night Lights (2006-2011), Parenthood (2010-2015), About a Boy (2014-2015) and Rise (2018). His film credits include The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, and The Pallbearer, starring David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow. He began his writing career as a playwright. His plays include The Man Who Couldn’t Dance and Who Made Robert De Niro King of America.

Katims and his True Jack Productions banner will remain at Universal TV until this summer when his current deal expires before making the move to Apple, according to Variety.

Upcoming original programming titles from Apple include:

“Amazing Stores,” 

“Are You Sleeping,” 

“Home,” “Little America,” 

“See,” 

An untitled Damien Chazelle drama, 

an untitled Reese Witherspoon/Jennifer Anniston/Steve Carrell dramedy, “Dickinson” (a half-hour comedy starring Hailee Stenifeld), 

an Ronald D. Moore science-fiction drama dubbed “For All Mankind,” 

An untitled M. Night Shyamalan thriller series, 

A TV series adaption of “Foundation,” the Isaac Asimov science fiction novel trilogy, 

The half-hour dramedy “Little Voices” from producers J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles, 

“Little America” from the screenwriters (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani) of “The Big Sick” and producer/writer Lee Eisenberg, 

A drama series about pre-teen investigative reporter Hilde Lysiak, 

A TV series based on the “Time Bandits” movie, 

An English-language adaptation of the French short-form series Canal+, “See,” a world-building drama set in the future, 

A series based on the bestselling 2017 novel “Pachinko,” 

A half-hour scripted comedy from Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, “Defending Jacob” starring Chris Evans, 

A series produced by Anonymous Content and based on the New York Times article, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change,”

An AAU basketball drama series dubbed Swagger from NBA superstar Kevin Durant,

“My Glory Was I Had Such Friends,” a limited TV series for Apple. The one-hour limited drama stars and is executive produced by Jennifer Garner and executive produced by J.J. Abrams via his Bad Robot Productions banner. Based on the 2017 memoir of the same name by Amy Silverstein, “the story showcases the power of friendship and the resilience of the human spirit as it follows an extraordinary group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving heart transplant.”

Original series, specials, and shorts based on the “Peanuts” gang of characters created by Charles M. Schulz.