Steven Spielberg’s Company Signs Deal With Netflix
Steven Spielberg is one of the filmmakers who’s only made movies for the big screen. Long one of Hollywood’s biggest champions of the theatrical experience, he’s kept producing movies exclusively for theaters even as some of his colleagues like Martin Scorsese have begun working with streaming services like Netflix to fund his projects. In fact, just last winter Spielberg’s production company, Amblin, renewed their distribution deal with Universal Pictures.
A half a year later, Amblin has signed another deal — with Netflix. According to the press release, the deal ‘will cover multiple new feature films per year.” Here’s what Spielberg has this to say about the news:
At Amblin, storytelling will forever be at the center of everything we do, and from the minute Ted [Sarandos, Netflix Co-CEO] 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. 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 with him, Scott, and the entire Netflix team.
With this, Netflix gets yet another major filmmaker in its stable. And Amblin, well, they get more money to make more movies. Spielberg’s next film as a director, meanwhile, is a remake of West Side Story. It opens in theaters (and only in theaters) on December 10, 2021.