Steven Spielberg, the legendary filmmaker and director of the upcoming remake of West Side Story, has officially joined forces with Netflix. The streaming giant has reportedly cut a deal with Spielberg's Amblin Partners, which will see the company produce multiple films per year with no restrictions on genre or budget.
"Steven is a creative visionary and leader and, like so many others around the world, my growing up was shaped by his memorable characters and stories that have been enduring, inspiring, and awakening," said Netflix c0-CEO Ted Sarandos. In a statement, Speilberg added, "At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted and I started discussing a partnership, it was abundantly clear that we had an amazing opportunity to tell new stories together and reach audiences in new ways."
Recent projects from Amblin Partners include Sam Mendes' WWI epic 1917 and, more recently, Aaron Sorkin's Academy Award-nominated historical drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was released on Netflix. Amblin Partners has a number of other projects in the works, including the horror movie Last Voyage of the Demeter and Spielberg's upcoming remake of West Side Story. Spielberg's next directorial endeavor will be an semi- autobiographical film centered around his childhood growing up in Arizona. Titled The Fabelmans, the film will star Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as characters loosely based on the director's parents, and comedian Seth Rogen will portray the favorite uncle. This will be the first time Spielberg has made a film about his own formative years, following in the footsteps of other great directors like Francois Truffaut and his seminal coming-of-age film The 400 Blows.
News of the mega-deal came as a surprise to some, as Speilberg famously campaigned against Netflix's eligibility for an Oscar in 2019. This was much in part due to the fact that Netflix was actually renting out theaters for their short theatrical runs rather than licensing films for regular screenings, meaning that the streaming giant would actually keep the money made from ticket sales for itself. Spielberg also argued that Netflix's films should be entered in a category separate from movies that had traditional theatrical releases. While this drew criticism from film enthusiasts, it may be worth noting that made-for-television movies, a moniker some feel applies to Netflix original films, already have their own awards category at the Primetime Emmys.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy was forced to suspend any rules it had against streaming films, and with movie theatres being hit particularly hard by the global pandemic, it's no wonder Spielberg is ready to delve into the world of streaming. Other veteran filmmakers such as Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese have also teamed up with the streaming giant in recent years, making Netlfix one of the frontrunners for prestigious award contending films, something that would have seemed unheard of less than a decade ago.
West Side Story will be in theatres on December 10th, 2021.
Source: Netflix