With its thundering foray into living rooms around the world, Netflix has proven itself to be a real beast in the world of streaming video.
Now the Los Gatos-based provider of on-demand Internet content is unveiling “Beasts of No Nation,” the company’s inaugural original movie.
With Oscar buzz already attached even before it screens this Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, “Beasts” will be available to Netflix customers starting Oct. 16. And while Netflix’s true mission is to continue to grow its worldwide audience, now hovering at more than 65 million people, word of a high-quality and award-worthy full-length feature film could be considered a shot over the bow of the traditional movie-making business.
And Hollywood’s old guard is not amused by upstart Netflix’s treading on their territory, as pointed out by Bloomberg:
The largest U.S. cinema chains, which usually show movies exclusively for 90 days before the films go to home video, won’t screen “Beasts of No Nation.” Amy Miles, chief executive officer of No. 1 Regal Entertainment Group, said on July 30 that her company doesn’t see a benefit to releasing a Netflix movie.
Instead, the film will be shown exclusively at about 20 Landmark Theatres.
Miles “doesn’t see a benefit?”
What!?!?!?!?!?
The film, a war drama set in an unidentified West African nation where civil war tears apart the family of Agu, a boy who is forced to join a group of mercenary fighters, was directed, written and filmed by Cary Fukunaga. Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala, the movie stars Idris Elba, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe.
Even during its filming, “Beasts” was gaining notoriety. As Variety’s film editor Ramin Setoodeh wrote here, Elba was almost killed in an accident during filming:
The indie drama, about an African tyrant known as “the commandant” who recruits an innocent boy into his army of youth soldiers, took Elba into the depths of Ghana’s jungles for a guerrilla-like shoot. One afternoon, as the actor waited for the next scene, he leaned against a tree overlooking a waterfall, lost his footing and fell over the ledge. Luckily, there was a narrow ridge that saved him from a 90-foot drop.
Check out this trailer from Netflix:
And even while the folks who dole out the Oscars begrudgingly welcomed Netflix to the fold, they sure said a lot by not saying much:
“All of us in the academy want the theatrical experience to be a major component of why you see a movie,” said producer , whose credits include “Pulp Fiction” and “Freeheld,” which is screening at Toronto as well. “Knowing that the movie is playing in Toronto, knowing it’ll be in a theater, makes me view it differently,” said Shamberg, a member of the Motion Picture Academy that hands out the Oscars.
Photo by Elise Amendola/Associated Press
