Box office? What box office?
This Friday, Netflix will release their biggest movie to date, Bright, a genre-bending action-horror film starring Will Smith as a human cop who is forced to work with an Orc (Joel Edgerton) to find a weapon everyone is prepared to kill for.
It’s a huge-budgeted holiday release for Netflix that isn’t dependant on box office numbers to deem it a success or failure. It’s quite literally “content” used to reward its loyal subscribers. They’re so committed to building this new universe that the streaming service has already ordered a sequel with Smith signed on, according to Bloomberg.
Bright is the company’s first attempt at a big-budget Hollywood production, bringing together a bona fide movie star in a fantasy, buddy-cop tale that could have come from any studio playbook. Directed by David Ayer, who also made Suicide Squad, it’s a warning shot to studios and theater owners that Netflix is targeting a big chunk of the $38.6 billion global box office, explains the site.
In the film, “Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves, and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.”
The Netflix original film, arriving on December 22, also stars Lucy Fry, Edgar Ramirez, Ike Barinholtz, Enrique Murciano, Jay Hernandez, Andrea Navedo, Veronica Ngo, Alex Meraz, Margaret Cho, Brad William Henke, Dawn Olivieri, and Kenneth Choi.
The film is written by Max Landis (Chronicle, Victor Frankenstein). David Ayer, Eric Newman, and Bryan Unkeless serve as producers.
