iHeartMedia has entered a partnership aimed at producing fictional podcasts to potentially become film and television projects. The deal is with Blumhouse Productions, a company best known for its horror titles such as Glass and The Purge. iHeartMedia and Blumhouse’s first co-production is called The Mantawauk Caves. The supernatural horror story comes from writer, director, and producer Dan Bush.
The podcast episodes will be available on iHeartRadio and other digital platforms, as well as receiving distribution on iHeartMedia’s broadcast radio stations. Future efforts to make film and TV adaptations from these podcasts will also be co-produced by Blumhouse and iHeartMedia.
“We’re such avid fans of great podcasts at Blumhouse — the compelling storytelling that engrossing podcasts offer — and we were eager to partner with iHeartRadio to curate a slate of dark, fictional stories together,” said Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse. “We’re thrilled the partnership has already produced The Mantawauk Caves, the first of what we hope are several successful collaborations.”
“We think fiction is one of the next big genres in podcasting, tapping into the incredible imaginative power we all have – the theater of the mind – and so we couldn’t be more excited to bring this slate of shows into the world, starting with The Mantawauk Caves,” iHeartPodcast Network President Conal Byrne said. “Blumhouse is truly masterful at creating some of the best suspense thrillers and horror movies around and, with their help, we can’t wait to introduce a series of captivating, world-class audio content to the iHeartPodcast Network.”