Legendary director Steven Spielberg is writing and directing a new horror project with the working title of Spielberg After Dark. Spielberg’s series is being made for Quibi, a digital-content startup co-founded by his longtime business partner Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman.
Quibi will produce video series by A-list Hollywood talent specifically for its own mobile platform on smartphone. Each program will likely be two to four hours in length, delivered in episodes of no more than seven-to-10 minutes apiece.
Spielberg wants people to watch the 10-12 chapters of his horror show after dark, so Quibi has developed software to allow smartphone users to access the content only when the sky is dark in their time zone (sunset to sunrise).
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 08: Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg speaks onstage during Producers Guild Of America’s 11th Annual Produced By Conference at Warner Bros. Studios on June 8, 2019 in Burbank, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Katzenberg talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the intriguing idea. “Steven Spielberg came in and said, ‘I have a super scary story…,’ but he said, ‘I only want people to watch it at midnight … It’s a creepy idea and when they watch it, I want it to be creepier.”
Quibi is set launch on April 6, 2020 in North America, while a global rollout will happen later. The digital startup is going to offer eight “super-premium” movies in episodic fashion during a two-week free preview. After that, Quibi plans to deliver 26 “lighthouse” or signature movies (akin to The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu) every second Monday for viewers subscribing to the first year of the service.
Cost? The service expects to spend about $1 billion on content in year one, plus $470 million more in marketing and promotion. “It’s a big bet, and a high bar,” Katzenberg admitted during his keynote address at the Banff World Media Festival.
SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES – FEBRUARY 01: OPPO phone displayed at The OPPO launch at Carriageworks on February 1, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images for OPPO Australia)
Even though smartphone users watch video content just 10 percent of the time, Katzenberg believes there’s a market for Quibi’s shortform content on the go. “No one is doing what we’re doing today,” he explained to the Banff audience. “We’re no more competing with them [streaming giants like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu] than Spotify is competing with them. … What we’re doing is taking what is a tried-and-true form of consumption and now offering people a premium version of it.”
So what do we think? Does a mobile-focused video platform have a place in our lives between Netflix, Hulu and the rest? And are we okay with needing to watch Steven Spielberg’s spooky show after sunset, or do we want the freedom to watch at noon if it pleases us?
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