Netflix continues to make big moves in the film industry. At Cannes, they’ve wrapped up a deal to acquired Bubbles, a stop-motion animation film based around Michael Jackson‘s chimpanzee companion, Bubbles.
The deal is based around the spec-screenplay by Isaac Adamson that topped the 2015 Black List. The film will tell the offbeat story of Jackson and Bubbles’ friendship through the eyes of the chimpanzee.
Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) is set to co-direct with Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox). The deal is reportedly worth close to $20 million amid a flurry of bids by different studios and services.
This is the first big deal landed at this years festival and is naturally making waves considering it’s based solely on a spec-script, thus Netflix and other bidders must have been very convinced by what little they have seen of the script. Having an up and coming director like Waititi on board must help, as well as Gustafson, who worked on arguably the best stop-motion animation film of the last decade.
Having already made headlines at the festival thanks to the inclusion of their films Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories, Netflix continues their ascension towards being big players in the movie market. Now they just need to hope that these big money deals pay off with excellent quality films – and a larger subscriber count, of course.
#Peace.Love.Bubbles
