Netflix’s planned content for 2016 defies belief – with House of Cards season 4, Daredevil season 2 and plenty more pegged for the coming months – and The Hollywood Reporter brings word today that the online platform may have just set up its biggest project thus far.
Entitled Bright, the supernatural crime drama was first hatched by Suicide Squad team David Ayer and Will Smith. Negotiations are underway for Netflix to acquire the hot property, with Joel Edgerton also in line to star. THR cautions that a deal is far from finalized, but with such high-profile stars attached, Netflix will be keen to lock down an agreement soon.
Max Landis (Chronicle) penned the script, with the core premise described as so: “The setting is a world where magical creatures live side by side with humans and the police have a division handling crimes involving magic. A human cop (Smith) is forced to work with an Orc (Edgerton) to find something that unsavory elements are prepared to kill for — a powerful wand.”
Tethered with a production budget of $80-100 million, on paper Bright reads as a concoction of the buddy cop dynamic found in End of Watch – also helmed by David Ayer – and one of Will Smith’s golden oldies: Men in Black.
Buoyed by the reception of Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, Netflix is looking to build upon its successful start in the movie business, and David Ayer’s Bright is certainly an exciting place to start. One potential hitch to that plan is Warner’s eagerness to fire up production on a Suicide Squad sequel in 2017, and we’ll keep you posted as this story develops.
