Director Steven Spielberg has signed a deal with Netflix, via his company Amblin Partners, to make several films a year for the streaming platform.
The partnership does not necessarily mean that the director will direct feature films for Netflix himself, as the agreement concerns Amblin.
In recent years, the company has produced 1917, Green Book: On the Roads of the South (Oscar winner for best film in 2020) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The press release published on Monday 21 June did not specify whether the films produced for Netflix would receive a theatrical release.
Amblin Partners was formed in 2015 and is the union of several production companies, including DreamWorks Pictures (separate from DreamWorks Animation, which produces animated films).
The agreement between Amblin and Netflix marks a turning point for Steven Spielberg, who has long been fairly critical of streaming, worrying in particular about the threat it posed to theatrical cinema.
In April 2019, he rectified this in an interview with the New York Times, saying he had never been opposed to the platforms. Since then, Steven Spielberg has directed episodes of the Amazing Stories series for the Apple TV+ service, which will go online in March 2020.
For the 74-year-old director and producer quoted in the statement, the partnership announced on Monday 21 June is “a fantastic opportunity to tell new stories together” with Netflix “and to engage with viewers in new ways“.
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