Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment has set up a documentary unit and hired RadicalMedia partner and President of Entertainment Justin Wilkes to run it, Deadline reports. The new unit, Imagine Documentaries, will be based in New York.

The outfit will develop and produce feature documentaries along with non-scripted television projects.

Wilkes “has worked closely enough with Grazer and Howard to have developed a shorthand,” Deadline notes. “Wilkes collaborated with Grazer and Howard on Jay Z’s ‘Made in America’ (on which Howard made his docu debut as director) and more recently on the hit National Geographic series ‘Mars.’ Wilkes co-created and exec produced that series, whose second season debuts this fall.”

The report adds: “Imagine has always shown an interest in the documentary, with earlier efforts including ‘Katy Perry: Part of Me,’ ‘Inside Deep Throat’ and ‘Beyond the Mat.’ The venture follows Imagine’s Howard-directed Grammy-winning ‘The Beatles: Eight Days a Week’ and the upcoming docu on Luciano Pavarotti, which Howard is also directing.”