Upscale launches as a full-service microdrama producer built on book rights
Deadline reported on 9 September 2026 that Upscale Media Films is formally launching as a production company for the microdrama market, pairing controlled book properties with a standing in-house crew.
What this basis means: Reported by a named news outlet, and traceable to neither a filing, a research vendor, nor the company itself.
Upscale Media Films, which is producing a slate of vertical shows with Kevin Hart's Hartbeat, has formally launched as a full-service production company for the microdrama market, Deadline reported on 9 September 2026. The same report also refers to the company as Upscale Productions.
Chief executive and founder Malik Davis described a model based on controlling a portfolio of published book properties and pairing them with a standing crew that develops, casts, shoots, edits and delivers in-house, which he said removes development and packaging spend.
The company's first slate adapts novels by Blake Karrington for the microdrama platform aTwist. Deadline reports the catalogue has sold more than 16.5m units and generated more than 271m page reads, figures attributed to the company. Karrington now works inside Upscale on the adaptations.
Upscale is also producing Exotic Foods, a ten-episode horror anthology made with what the company calls a hybrid AI-assisted production workflow. Its named team includes a chief AI officer. No funding, investor or valuation was disclosed.
Companies Upscale Media Films, Hartbeat, aTwist