That’s great if you’re stoked for those Adam Sandler Netflix movies, but the real intriguing development of Netflix and Amazon and increasingly bizarre players like Overstock.com getting into the original content game is what it means for independent filmmakers. Ask HBO, and they know how to market a high level program to a specific, tailored audience. Whereas Hollywood knows how to sell a blockbuster, independent films often struggle to find an audience in theaters, but manage to find a second life on Netflix and VOD.
Enter Netflix, who Deadline reported on Friday inked a four movie deal with Duplass Brothers Productions, headed by Jay and Mark Duplass. And it almost doesn’t get more independent than them. The mumblecore pioneers, who have collaborated on a number of films and produced several more, including four films at this year’s Sundance, (The Bronze, Tangerine, The Overnight, Animals), have agreed to terms while in Park City in which Netflix will finance four films by the Duplass Brothers and support a brief theatrical release, similar to the terms struck for Netflix’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon deal.
No word yet on what those films would be, or if Jay or Mark would be directing or starring in any of them. But Netflix’s CEO Ted Sarandos told Deadline that they’ve been working with the Duplass’s since they were strictly a DVD mailing company.
Jay and Mark are currently at work on their HBO show Togetherness, and Mark will have a role in the upcoming thriller The Lazarus Effect.