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Thunder Road Films and Lit Entertainment Group Launch TR/AK, New Media Company Focusing on Original Stories and Creators
Confirmed
In Short: Thunder Road Films and Lit Entertainment Group have partnered to launch TR/AK, a new media company dedicated to creating commercially ambitious and original film and television for global audiences.
Thunder Road Films and Lit Entertainment Group have partnered to launch TR/AK, a new media company dedicated to creating commercially ambitious and original film and television for global audiences. The venture brings together the company behind the John Wick franchise and a management and production company repping an expansive roster of today’s leading writers and creators, including Shogun’s Justin Marks.
TR/AK is about bringing those teams together, backing great writers and filmmakers for projects that can connect with audiences around the world, according to Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road Films. Adam Kolbrenner, founder of Lit Entertainment Group, adds, 'The more we talked, the more we realized we had a shared vision and ambition in creating the most expansive and dynamic independent company in town.
Thunder Road is currently in production on Hivemind, an environmental thriller starring Samara Weaving and Nicholas Braun, and has an upcoming slate that includes A24’s The Peasant, Amazon MGM’s The Kellys, and the latest in the John Wick franchise starring and directed by Donnie Yen.
Alongside its lit roster, Lit reps a library of more than 10,000 stories and characters through partnerships with NeoText, Weird Tales, Heavy Metal, Meridia Books, Weekly World News, Zenescope Comics, and others.
What's confirmed
- Thunder Road Films’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee have partnered with Lit Entertainment Group’s Adam Kolbrenner to launch TR/AK, a new media company centering commercially ambitious and original film and television for global audiences.
- The more we talked, the more we realized we had a shared vision and ambition in creating the most expansive and dynamic independent company in town.” Lit Entertainment Group’s Kolbrenner added, “Basil, Erica and the Thunder Road team have built their company by trusting their instincts and doing the work required to get ambitious movies made.
What's still developing
- Kanzaki published the original seven-volume light novel series Black Bullet under Kadokawa 's Dengeki Bunko imprint from July 2011 to April 2014.
- The volumes from November to December 2026 will contain the same story as the original novel series with some additions and edits, but starting from the volumes in January 2027, the story will diverge from the original, with the volumes releasing in February 2027 ultimately having a different ending.
- The release schedule of the rebooted volumes are as follows: In addition, Kanzaki will launch an original work titled Aku no Shinzui (The Quintessence of Evil) under Dengeki Bunko in spring 2027.
- Thunder Road is currently in production on Hivemind, an environmental thriller starring Samara Weaving and Nicholas Braun that we scooped after breaking news last year of Peter Gaffney’s spec sale to Badlands, the nascent indie genre label teaming Thunder Road with longtime Sony exec Scott Strauss.
- CAA Media Finance-Evolution was a strategic advisor on the transaction.
- The Thunder Road and Lit brands, while remaining independent after the TR/AK launch, have recently collaborated on three movies from spec screenplays by Lit clients.
- Lit Entertainment clients include David Guggenheim, Aaron Guzikowski, Ben Jacoby, Matt Lieberman and Justin Rhodes.