Netflix has bought the global distribution rights to Steven Soderbergh’s latest movie High Flying Bird — which, true to the iconic director’s previous word, was shot on iPhone.
This is the second movie by the Academy Award-winning director to be shot using one of Apple’s handsets. After the release of his last movie Unsane, Soderbergh said he was leaning toward shooting all his future projects on iPhone. It seems that he wasn’t kidding!
High Flying Bird tells the story of a sports agent who pitches a rookie basketball client a controversial business proposition. It is based on a script written by Oscar-winning Moonlight screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, and stars André Holland, Zazie Beetz, Zachary Quinto, and others.
The movie was reportedly shot “in double quick time” earlier this year, before being snapped up by Netflix.
“We had several strong options for distributing High Flying Bird, but to borrow the patois of the movie itself, this deal felt like a slam dunk and the perfect way for me to begin my relationship with Netflix as a director,” Soderbergh said. The streaming company is planning on launching the film in 2019.
Our only question: Why couldn’t it have been Apple? Okay, so Netflix is a far more proven distribution entity when it comes to movies, but how perfect would it have been for one of Apple’s first movies as an original content provider to have come from an established director who ditched convention to shoot his movies on iPhone? Maybe next time!
Source: Deadline
