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Ken Kao’s Waypoint Entertainment signs a first-look deal with Watch This Ready after Cannes hit Splitsville
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Culture/The Apex Times/Aug 18, 12:59 PM EDT

Ken Kao’s Waypoint Entertainment signs a first-look deal with Watch This Ready after Cannes hit Splitsville

Waypoint Entertainment, led by financier-producer Ken Kao, has entered a first-look partnership with indie production company Watch This Ready, co-founded by Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino with producer Emily Korteweg, extending the duo’s earlier collaboration on “Splitsville,” which screened at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

2 min readEditor-approved Apex article

Waypoint Entertainment has struck a first-look partnership with Watch This Ready, an indie production company co-founded by filmmakers Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino and produced by Emily Korteweg, according to Deadline. The agreement positions Watch This Ready as a filmmaking pipeline for Waypoint’s slate, with the two companies tying the new deal to their prior work together on “Splitsville,” a film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Deadline reports the collaboration grew out of Waypoint’s involvement in “Splitsville,” a project starring Dakota Johnson and now linked to the companies’ expanded relationship through the first-look arrangement. The report frames the new partnership as a way for Waypoint to develop and acquire new projects with Watch This Ready, while giving the indie outfit a closer path to financing and packaging support tied to Waypoint’s production activity.

The news comes as Watch This Ready prepares its next slate following its Cannes exposure. Deadline describes Watch This Ready as co-founded by Marvin and Covino, with Korteweg serving as a producer, and the outlet characterizes the duo as having a history of collaboration that now extends beyond the single film. In the account, the companies’ earlier work is treated as the foundation for the first-look deal rather than a one-off assignment.

Deadline also states that the partnership includes a first project that has already been revealed, with the outlet pointing to Watch This Ready’s role in bringing the next effort into Waypoint’s immediate consideration. Specific creative details, including cast and story elements, were not included in the information provided for this report, so the new project cannot be further described here without additional documentation.

While the deal’s broader scope is that of a first-look arrangement, the reporting emphasizes the direct institutional connection between the two companies, highlighting the earlier “Splitsville” milestone as a practical reason the relationship has advanced. That Cannes premiere serves as the cited marker of international attention, with the new agreement indicating a continued push to translate festival visibility into ongoing development and production.

No timeline for production start dates, release windows, or the deal’s financial terms was included in the provided material. Industry observers typically look for those details in follow-up announcements from the companies or trade coverage, particularly for first-look agreements where development and packaging can take place over multiple cycles before films reach distribution.

Why It Matters

  • First-look deals can shape which projects move fastest into development and financing, affecting how quickly new film slates come together.
  • The partnership links an indie production team’s Cannes visibility to a financier-producer’s pipeline, which can influence creative packaging and production readiness.
  • An already-revealed first project suggests the agreement is intended to be operational immediately, rather than only a long-term option.
  • For audiences and industry stakeholders, the expansion may determine which upcoming comedy drama offerings receive development attention next, based on the deal’s scope.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Ken Kao-led Waypoint Entertainment has signed a first-look partnership with Watch This Ready.
  • Watch This Ready is co-founded by Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino, with producer Emily Korteweg also part of the company.
  • The deal is tied to the companies’ prior collaboration on “Splitsville,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
  • Deadline reports that a first project under the partnership has been revealed, though further details were not provided in the supplied material.
  • Deadline is the outlet that reported the first-look agreement and framed the Cannes connection as the foundation for the expanded relationship.