Henry Faherty
There were reports a few weeks ago from Collider that surrounded a potentially massive deal for the supernatural cop thriller “Bright”, set to be directed by David Ayer and star Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. Netflix was at the front of the pack to win the rights and now, according to Deadline, they have. The studio has paid approximately $90 million for the film, with half of that strictly going to the production budget.
Not only that, screenwriter Max Landis is receiving at least $3 million in the deal. So this win by Netflix is no minor one by any means. And because it will be a spec script, Landis is a part of one of the biggest deals of its kind in many years. The curious thing about Landis’ high payment is looking back at his recent works. Last year alone he penned the scripts for “Victor Frankenstein” and “American Ultra”, both of which flopped at the box office. So hopefully that won’t track record won’t continue with this new project.
But with a great director like Ayer at the helm and Smith in the lead role, this should prove to be a profitable investment for the studio. The thriller follows a human cop (Smith) who ends up having to work with an orc (Edgerton) so that he can locate a precious wand that many others are after. It’s looking like it could be an R-rated buddy-cop movie, maybe even similar to “Men in Black”. Ayer is currently in post-production on “Suicide Squad”, but production on “Bright” is reportedly going to begin this fall.
This type of deal for Netflix marks a major turning point for them; their production of exclusively-streamed television shows, documentaries, and small indie films has increased over the past few years, but this is their most expensive deal to date by far. And similar to their highly-acclaimed war drama “Beasts of No Nation” in 2015, there may also be a limited theatrical release for the film besides solely being streamed for the studio’s subscribers. But whether or not that’s just so the film could get awards consideration is unknown.
