Steven Spielberg Is Writing A Horror Series For Quibi
Steven Spielberg is the latest big name to attach himself to Quibi (short for "quick bites," apparently), the upcoming mobile streaming platform from Jeffrey Katzenberg. According to Variety, Spielberg has already written several episodes for a new horror series, which will be split up into "chapters" rather than episodes. As Katzenberg notes, Spielberg hasn't written anything himself for quite some time, so that's a pretty enticing hook – and possibly enough to make me download this Quibi thing. Working under the title Spielberg's After Dark (sexy saxophone plays), the series will consist of around 10-12 chapters, but there's a catch: Spielberg asked that the chapters only be made available to watch after midnight (spOOOoOOOooky), and Katzenberg says they're cooking up a way for Quibi to limit the streaming timeframe based on mobile location tracking. Basically: Your phone tells Quibi where you're at, and the chapters will become available to stream at midnight in your timezone. (Some users will inevitably game the system by changing the timezone/location in their phone settings.)
Spielberg's After Dark (sexy saxophone plays) joins a growing roster of content coming to Quibi – a mobile-exclusive streaming platform that places an emphasis on short-form content, which Katzenberg believes will be more attractive for today's younger consumers. Katzenberg balked at the "short-form label," however, noting that their content is intended to be "watched on the go," hence the chapter breaks. Quibi will launch in April 2020 with eight "super premium" titles (aka movies) on deck. The company will also have 26 "lighthouse" productions releasing every other Monday for the first year – these are what Katzenberg calls "signature productions," or in-house titles comparable to House of Cards or The Handmaid's Tale. Oh, and Quibi will release 125 pieces of content a week, which comes out to 7,000 pieces of content in the first year alone. (Pretty soon America will ditch the imperial system and just start measuring everything in terms of "content units.")
In addition to Spielberg's After Dark (sexy saxophone plays), Quibi recently ordered revivals of Punk'd and Singled Out from MTV. Variety also reports that Quibi has several other creatives lined up to contribute content, including Steven Soderbergh (but of course), Antoine Fuqua, and Guillermo del Toro.
