Stranger Things Duffers Netflix Upside Down Spinoff and Play Death Note – Deadline

exclusive: next Record-breaking edition From the last two episodes of Weird thingsSeason 4, creators Matt & Ross Dover They created Upside Down Pictures and recommitted to Netflix with several new projects. To run upside down, they hired Hilary Levitt, a veterinarian with BBC America and MRC who recently ran her own Blazer banner in Hulu. Includes the series I helped develop The Black Orphan, Ozark, the Great And the shining girls.

Borrowing the company’s name from their Leviathan series, The Duffers will continue to rely on the formula that has been a driving force in the Weird things. The brothers said the new company would be guided by the goal of creating the kind of stories that inspired them growing up, “stories that take place at a beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where grand scenery coexists with intimate personal work, where the heart triumphs over sarcasm.”

While the first order of their business would be to settle the epic battle of good against evil between Eleven and Vecna ​​in Weird thingsIn the final season, the Duffers and Netflix expanded their list of projects for the future. It now includes:

• New series of live action of adaptation death note, Japanese manga and anime series written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata. The original focuses on a brilliant teenager who discovers a mysterious black notebook that gives him supernatural power over life and death, the latter resulting from writing a person’s name in the book. A teen becomes intoxicated with power when he decides to purge the world of unwanted people, while a law enforcement team tries to stop him. Netflix introduced a movie adaptation in 2017, but this is going to be an entirely new movie.
• Original series by Jeffrey Addis and Will Matthews (Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance).
• A series adapted from the novel Stephen King and Peter Straub in 1984 the spell Which the Duffers will design alongside Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television for Steven Spielberg. Created by Weird things‘Co-EP and writer Curtis GwenAnd the the spell It tells the story of a young man who travels between New Hampshire and an alternate world called the Territories to obtain an artifact that will save his mother’s life. While the spell Shares other traits with Weird thingsShe has science fiction. She has horror elements. She has a lot of heart. She has everything we like. She has the best werewolf character I think. Matt Dover said Deadline in an in-depth interview yesterday.
• A new play that takes place in the world and legends Weird things, produced by prolific UK theater producer Sonia Friedman, Stephen Daldry and Netflix. Daldry, whose credits include The Crown, Billy Elliot And the the reader, will also direct. 21 Laps will serve as co-producer.
• Live action mentioned above Weird things A Netflix spin-off series, based on an original idea from The Duffer Brothers, with productions of Upside Down and 21 Laps.

It all comes after that Stranger Things 4 Netflix topped the list of all-time most popular English-language TV with 1.15 billion hours watched in the first 28 days, making it only the second series to cross the billion mark for a streaming device. This number will be even higher when two episodes of Season Two of Volume Two are counted when they reach their 28-day viewing period. The fourth season became the biggest weekend show ever for an English language TV show on Netflix with 286.79 million hours watched. It also reached #1 in 91 countries for broadcast TV, becoming the most watched season on English-language TV in one week for Netflix with 335.01 million hours watched.

At the moment, the Duffers are taking a few weeks off before they start writing the final season of Weird things in August. They told Deadline the main goal was to “hold on to the drop” with the last 20 minutes they had already set. It primed Netflix executives tear-jerkers when the duo introduced the final season. The Duffers came out of nowhere when they got to Netflix – right after college graduation they got a Warner Bros deal to show their horror movies hidden They made their directing debut, then acted as writers/EPs for the M. Night Shyamalan TV show. Ord Pines So not letting them get away with such a resounding success seems like a strong move for the operator.

“Matt and Ross are an exceptionally unique talent with a vision so clear and pure,” said Netflix Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer. Ted Sarandos. “They are all about the details – it’s no coincidence that Weird things It broke through the zeitgeist to become the epic pop culture phenomenon that it is today. We are excited to continue telling new stories with them as they grow at Upside Down Pictures and to welcome Hillary as a creative partner.”

The Duffers set out for Leavitt to handle all of this development volume as they focus on ending the series.

“It wasn’t long until our first meeting with Hilary that we bonded with movies like Jaws, at home alone, And the Speed“We found a good spirit,” Al Dover said in a statement. “Hillary’s passion for storytelling is probably matched only by her passion for the storytellers themselves, whom she is so protective of. No wonder so many writers and directors gravitate to working with her. She is a truly rare talent, and we’re so grateful to have her by our side as we build upside down images.”

Said Levitt: “I remember the first movie I saw in the theater, the first VHS tape I got for Christmas, the first international solo I made on eBay because it was way cooler than the local movie. And the first time I met Matt and Ross. All these touching moments led to my This silly fantastic opportunity to build a company with the Duffer Brothers where we produce film and TV because we love film and TV. That love is at the core of Upside Down Pictures, where we can collaborate with other artists on projects across the entire spectrum of genre. We all love what we do and are excited to do more and more “.

The Duffer Brothers are represented by CAA and Alex Kohner from Yorn Levine.