Yahoo Finance Steven Spielberg to produce ‘multiple films a year’ for Netflix in movie world shock
The film world has been rocked by the news that Steven Spielberg will be uniting with Netflix.
Just two years after the director found himself embroiled in a streaming service controversy, it’s been revealed that he’s signed a deal that will see his production company, Amblin Partners, make multiple films a year for them.
The deal won’t see Spielberg’s future films, including a new version of the musical West Side Story, released on Netflix.
In a statement, Spielberg, 74, said: “At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the centre of everything we do, and from the minute Ted [Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer] 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.”
He added: “This new avenue for our films, alongside the stories we continue to tell with our longtime family at Universal and our other partners, will be incredibly fulfilling for me personally since we get to embark on it together with Ted, and I can’t wait to get started.”
The news comes after it was reported that the Jurassic Park director attempted to block Netflix films from competing at the Oscars.
In 2021, it was claimed that he was proposing changes to eligibility rules that would see films released on streaming services unable to compete at the ceremony.
He later denied he was preventing this from happening, and clarified his opinion in a statement.
“I want people to find their entertainment in any form or fashion that suits them,” Spielberg told The New York Times. “Big screen, small screen – what really matters to me is a great story and everyone should have access to great stories.
“However, I feel people need to have the opportunity to leave the safe and familiar of their lives and go to a place where they can sit in the company of others and have a shared experience – cry together, laugh together, be afraid together – so that when it’s over they might feel a little less like strangers. I want to see the survival of movie theatres. I want the theatrical experience to remain relevant in our culture.”
The lines have also blurred since then. While Netflix has given exclusive theatrical runs of a week or more to some of its most prominent releases, traditional studios like Disney and Warner Bros have embraced more hybrid release models that send movies simultaneously to streaming services, mainly due to the pandemic.
Additional reporting by Agencies
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