According to several outlets, Netflix has scooped up the rights to Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s new basketball drama High Flying Bird, which stars Andre Holland, Zazie Beetz, and Melvin Gregg.
The streaming site plans to release the film globally sometime next year, marking the director’s first collaboration with Netflix. “We had several strong options for distributing High Flying Bird, but to borrow the patois of the movie itself, this deal felt like a slam dunk and the perfect way for me to begin my relationship with Netflix as a director,” Soderbergh said, per Variety.
High Flying Bird is written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who won an Academy Award (Best Adapted Screenplay) for Barry Jenkins’ masterpiece Moonlight, which also starred Holland as the adult character Kevin. Holland also previously worked with Soderbergh on The Knick.
The story centers around a sports agent, played by Holland, during a pro basketball lockout. Beetz plays his associate, as they present a rookie client, played by Gregg, with an interesting and controversial proposition. Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Kyle MacLachlan, Jeryl Prescott, Caleb McLaughlin, and Bill Duke will also star in the film.
Beetz, who's on Donald Glover’s show Atlanta, recently starred in Deadpool 2 and Chance the Rapper’s new movie Slice, which is now out.
This year, Soderbergh released his horror film Unsane and produced the women fronted heist movie Ocean’s 8. He reportedly filmed High Flying Bird like Unsane, in that he shot it on an iPhone.
