Unlike last year's Emmys, Netflix didn't get much love at the Oscars. So what does the streaming titan do? It goes after a huge, new movie project from A-list actor Will Smith and A-list director David Ayer.
Variety reports that Netflix, which in case you haven't been paying attention is going hard on original movies in 2016 and beyond, is close to purchasing the rights for Bright, starring Smith and Joel Edgerton, written by screenwriter Max Landis (Chronicle, American Ultra and Victor Frankenstein), and directed by Ayer (Suicide Squad, Fury, End of Watch).
There is zero info on what this movie is about, but it is apparently one of the hotter projects being shopped around right now. Here's how Variety described what little is known about it:
Plot details are unknown, but sources suggest the project will be in the vein of “End of Watch” but set in a world where Orcs and fairies live among humans. Sources also say the story is not set in present day.
Netflix has already shown that it will spend the money to get the originals it wants. The company reportedly spent $60 million on the Afghan war satire War Machine, starring Brad Pitt. Among the other original films Netflix has in the pipeline right now: an EDM movie titled XOXO starring Sarah Hyland (Modern Family), Girlfriend's Day, starring Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) and the first Pee-wee Herman movie in decades.
Will Smith starring in a Netflix original kind of brings some of the Oscars controversy full circle. Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith were the most high-profile people in Hollywood to boycott the Oscars after they failed to nominate a single black person in any category, while many pointed to Idris Elba failing to get a best actor nod for the Netflix original Beasts of No Nation as the worst snub of the entire Oscars.
