NFL Goes Hollywood, Strikes Deal with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Studio

The NFL is turning to makers of a hit action movie for its next wellspring of content.

The league struck a deal with “Top Gun: Maverick” producer Skydance Media to create documentaries, as well as fictional movies and shows.

• The league hopes to develop broadly accessible content and a complement to HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which follows one NFL team per season.
• The NFL will make a substantial investment in Skydance Sports.
• Skydance was valued at more than $4 billion on a $400 million funding round last month. RedBird Capital Partners, KKR, and Tencent Holdings participated in the round. 

More Than Football

While the league itself is expected to be the core source of content for the venture, NFL chief media and business officer Brian Rolapp indicated that the team-up will explore other sports as well.

Skydance Sports, which launched in September 2021, signed a deal in October with soccer superstar Kylian Mbappe and his production company Zebra Valley to produce scripted and unscripted content.

The division also recently inked Ben Affleck to direct a film for Amazon Prime Video about Sonny Vaccaro, a key operator in signing Michael Jordan to launch NIke’s Air Jordan sneaker line.