Matt and Roff Duffer have created their very own studios based on the infamous location in 'Stranger Things', and will be teaming up with Netflix for a number of exciting projects.
Upside Down Pictures will now fall under the Netflix umbrella, joining the service following one of the most successful weekends the streamer has ever had.
The Duffer Brothers' creation, 'Stranger Things', launched the final two episodes of season four last Friday, and in doing so it catapulted the series into the billion-hours-viewed club. Said club was previously only reserved for the South Korean thriller 'Squid Game', but now the Millie Booby Brown-led franchise has also entered the arena.
Right now, the Brothers will be concentrating on making the fifth and final season of the franchise better than the 13-hour marathon of season four, but a number of future projects under the Upside Down Pictures banner have also been revealed to whet our appetite.
The creators have hired Hilary Leavitt to run their new venture, who has developed a number of interesting TV series in the past, including Jason Bateman and Laura Linney's 'Ozark'; Canadian thriller 'Orphan Black' with Tatiana Maslany; and Hulu's period comedy 'The Great', starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult.
Stranger Things
Expect the company's future productions to bear a similar tone to their Netflix hit, with the Duffers wanting to make stories that inspired them growing up: "Stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism."
First up on the agenda for Upside Down Pictures, following the upcoming season five of 'Stranger Things', will be the eventual spin-off. No details about the project have been revealed just yet, but the Duffer Brothers have stated that it will be "1000% different" and won't continue the storyline of any of the main cast members.
Next will be a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's 1984 novel 'The Talisman'. The fantasy story follows a young man who moves between New Hampshire and an alternate world called "The Territories" to retrieve an artefact for his dying mother. Matt Duffer said of the series: "It’s much more fantasy. It has sci-fi. It has horror elements. It has a lot of heart. It has everything that we love. And it’s got the best werewolf character I think, ever. Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television are also on board this project.
An entirely new take on 'Death Note' is also in development, which will be a live-action series based on the Japanese manga and anime series originally written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Netflix already has a film from 2017 in their back catalogue, but it was ill-received by fans and critics. The original manga series sees a teenager discover a mysterious black notebook, which gives him supernatural power over life and death, and sees him spiral into darkness.
There's also an original series from creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews in the pipeline, both of whom developed Netflix's Emmy-winning (but cancelled after one season) 'Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance'.
And finally, 'Stranger Things' will be treating the boards. A new stage play set within the world of the Netflix hit is being developed by UK-based stage producer Sonia Friedman ('Harry potter and the Cursed Child', 'The Book of Mormon'), with Stephen Daldry ('The Crown', 'Billy Elliot') lined up to direct.
Via Deadline.
