Posted in: streaming, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, chapters, quibi, quick bites, short form, spielberg's after dark, steven spielberg, streaming, television, tv

"Spielberg's After Dark": New Steven Spielberg, Quibi Horror Series Can Only Be Watched After Dark

Published Mon, 10 Jun 2019 15:05:17 -0500

by Ray Flook

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If founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman have their way, come April 2020 viewers are going to be introduced to the world of "quick bites" – otherwise known as Quibi. Designed for the smart phone user, Quibi offers programming in 7-10 minutes episodes (or "chapters") with each "season" consisting of around 10-12 "chapters." For anyone wondering what the caliber of content would be for the service, consider this list of just some of the names set to produce and/or star in: Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi, Catherine Hardwick, Anna Kendrick, Doug Liman, Laurence Fishburne, and Antoine Fuqua.

Now you can add Steven Spielberg to that list, with Katzenberg revealing this weekend at the Banff World Media Festival in Canada that the legendary film director/producer is writing a horror series for the service. With a working title of Spielberg's After Dark, the project will consist of 10-12 "chapters" with a very interesting tech twist:

You can only watch Spielberg's After Dark… well… after dark.

Here's how it all came about – rather simply, we might add – straight from Katzenberg himself:

"Steven Spielberg came in, and said, 'I have a super scary story I want to do. He's writing it himself. He hasn't [written anything in a while] so getting him to write something is fantastic."

Having "written five or six episodes" so far, Spielberg came up with a very unique way for viewers to get more out of the experience: using the phone to track the user's time, the series will only be available to screen after the sun goes down. So Katzenberg and Whitman put the word out to their engineers to start working up options… and their answer? Viewers will have a clock appear on their phones that will count down to when the sun sets and the "chapter" becomes available – from there, the clock begins counting down again to when the sun rises and the "chapter" disappears.

"Those people who are the most skilled and talented in the TV industry today are going to be the ones who make Quibi a success," he said. "If we're right this becomes a growth for the entire industry… If we are successful, we will have brought on this third generation of film narrative."

– Jeffrey Katzenberg

Launching April 2020, Quibi offers viewers a two-week free trial period, with eight "super premium" programs available at launch. From there, 26 more signature projects ("lighthouse") will premiere every other Monday during the service's inaugural year. By the end of the first year, Quibi is expected to offer 125 pieces of content a week – or a 7,000 pieces. Quibi will have two pricing tiers, with the first tier costing $4.99 with one pre-roll ad before each "chapter" (10-second ad for videos less than 5 minutes; 15-second ad for videos in the 5-10 minute range. Viewers can choose to go "ad-free" at a cost of $7.99.

Variety

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