In the battle for content dominance, big money tends to win out.
Netflix has committed an impressive $90 million to producing a cop movie starring Will Smith.
The streaming service giant is said to have won the deal for Bright after a “two-week bidding battle”, as reported by Deadline.
The R-rated (equivalent to 18+ in the UK) police thriller will star Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, with a chance that David Ayer will direct.
Ayer is responsible for movies like Training Day (writer), End of Watch (director), and Fury (director). He’s also the writer and director for Suicide Squad, which releases later this year.
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The script, meanwhile comes courtesy of Max Landis, who wrote Chronicle (2012) and Victor Frankenstein (2015). Landis is also penning the upcoming 2017 Power Rangers movie.
Bright is a huge coup for Netflix, as this will be one of the company’s first truly big-ticket feature films.
It’s said that the script will cost $3 million, while shooting is expected to burn through a further $45 million.
According to Deadline, the auction took two weeks because there were two other parties angling for the deal.
Warner Bros is reported as having teamed with MGM, and were willing to shell out anywhere up to $50 million. PalmStar’s Kevin Frakes, meanwhile, committed a total budget of $60 million.
The film will begin principal photography in Los Angeles this autumn, although there’s no release date just yet.
