Netflix has one hell of an ambitious plan for 2018. The streaming service recently announced plans to create 80 feature films in 2018, which left quite a few people startled, to say the least. Netflix has been steering hard into producing its own content for some time now, but it looks like it's hoping to enter an all-new level of productivity. Now the streaming service has just acquired its next major project. Netflix has snatched up the script for Kate, a female-led action movie, and given it a $25 million budget.
Kate is a hard action film from writer Umair Aleem. The script is described as being in the same vein of Kill Bill and La Femme Nikita. Evidently, the writer pitched the project by picturing Cate Blanchett (who is not attached to star) as Lee Marvin in a hard-boiled action thriller in which the titular Kate has just 24 hours to solve her own murder. "Uh, sold," said Netflix executives (and myself). The project is said to have been put on an aggressive fast track, with a shooting aiming to begin April while the right star and director are found in the meantime.
Kate already has a few producers guiding it towards production who have experience making both hard action and female-led films, including Atomic Blonde's Kelly McCormick, John Wick co-director David Leitch and Hunger Games and the upcoming I, Tonya producer Bryan Unkeless. That's already some impressive behind-the-scenes talent.
According to Deadline, this likely won't be the last of these kinds of deals that we hear about from Netflix. For the kind of film output Netflix wants, the streaming service will need to build up its backlog of development projects, something it doesn't really have with so few years in the movie-making business. It will need a lot of good material and fast, which is why it pounced on Kate (the pitch was said to be "right down the middle of the plate"). Netflix did a similar deal with the upcoming fantasy procedural film Bright, which it spent some $90 million on.
The big question surrounding Netflix and its production model right now is if it can devote the same level of quality to the high volume of films it hopes to make. Screenwriters could be seeing fast paydays with a lack of the development hell that the majority of scripts fall into at any given studio. The trouble is, the chances a film is forgotten or ignored is heightened, so people may not find that the fast result is worth it.
Netflix is surely going to be the talk of the town for a while, so stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information. Keep track of the ever-increasing volume of Netflix content with our Netflix release guide. For every new TV show and movie dropping this month, check out our October Netflix schedule.
