On Sunday Quibi founder, Jeffery Katzenberg announced that Steven Spielberg is writing a horror series for the platform. However, Quibi users will only be able to watch once their phone knows it’s dark outside. Katzenberg attended the Banff World Media Festival in Canada over the weekend. There he answered questions about the platform and revealed a few upcoming programming plans.
“Steven Spielberg came in, and said, ‘I have a super scary story I want to do,’” Katzenberg said. “He’s writing it himself. He hasn’t [written anything in a while] so getting him to write something is fantastic.”
Reportedly, Spielberg has already “written five or six episodes (which Quibi calls “chapters”) of a 10- or 12-chapter story.” The program is being developed under the title “Spielberg’s After Dark.” Which closely resembles another work-in-progess from Spielberg, who is also developing a revival of his series “Amazing Stories” for Apple TV Plus.
However, for this project Spielberg wanted viewers to only be able to watch the program after dark. Since phones can track users locations, Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman put the challenge to their engineers. As a result, a clock will appear on phones, that will display a countdown until sun sets wherever that user is at. When the sun comes back up the countdown restarts and the show will disappear until the next night.
“If we’re right this becomes a growth for the entire industry”
Quibi, short for “quick bites”, is a mobile-based platform for viewers on the go. The platform is set to launch on April 6, 2020. The service will feature shows with episodes running 7 to 10 minutes, according to Katzenberg. Besides Spielberg, lots of horror talent have already been tapped to produce content for Quibi. Its projects include works from Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi, and Jason Blum of Blumhouse.
“Those people who are the most skilled and talented in the TV industry today are going to be the ones who make Quibi a success,” he said. “If we’re right this becomes a growth for the entire industry… If we are successful, we will have brought on this third generation of film narrative.”
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