Twentieth Century Fox has signed Japanese producer Taka Ichise (The Grudge) to a three-year, first-look deal.

Variety reports the studio will have the producer work on English-language and Japanese-language projects; it's the first overall studio deal for the director-producer.

Taka has produced more than 50 genre features for local, regional and worldwide markets; he's best known for producing the Japanese horror pic Ju-On and Ju-On 2, as well as their American remakes The Grudge and The Grudge 2.

The deal will begin immediately.