Having already established an unassailable lead as the most popular streaming service, Netflix look set to continue their quest for world domination by playing Hollywood’s major studios at their own game. There are so many hoops for filmmakers to jump through in trying to get a movie made that Netflix have made themselves a viable alternative to some of the biggest names in the business, because they’re one of the rare production companies that don’t demand much creative control.
Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay and David Fincher are just three of the A-list directors that have taken their talents to streaming, with The Irishman in particular being turned down by several studios due to budget concerns before Netflix happily stumped up the reported $200 million to make it happen, which in turn saw the streaming giant land themselves another awards season favorite.
While they might have conquered prestige TV and made serious headway in terms of acclaimed dramas, Netflix are still on the hunt for a blockbuster franchise that they can call their own. The biggest brands in the business tend to revolve around effects-heavy spectacle and fantastical universes, and in a recent interview, Vice President of Original Film Tendo Nagenda made their intentions pretty clear.
“We’re looking at big, broad-audience, PG-level adventure films as something that we want to get into. Something along the lines of the first Star Wars, or Harry Potter 1 and 2. A lot of family live-action, fantasy, spectacle movies that we think are big and can play great. A Jumanji-type of story. That is the next frontier. Well, we look at it as what aren’t the studios focused on. New ideas. We want to encourage great talent to think that way. George Lucas created Star Wars, it wasn’t based on a book. If you have that kind of imagination, like the Wachowskis with The Matrix, we feel like we’re the place to take the chance on those types of innovative ideas and filmmakers.”
Their first stab at the blockbuster genre was Will Smith’s Bright, which drew a lot of viewers but suffered from poor reviews, and the intended sequel remains stuck in development hell. Netflix‘s two biggest action-orientated hits ever, meanwhile, are Extraction and The Old Guard, which cost less combined to make than 6 Underground did, and with the Russo brothers recently signing on to direct $200 million espionage thriller The Gray Man with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the lead roles, and Dwayne Johnson’s mega-budget Red Notice arriving next year, they show no signs in slowing down their efforts to grow their portfolio of in-house franchises anytime soon.
Published: Aug 4, 2020 07:56 am