This would be a big departure for Matt and Ross Duffer, who have established themselves as television auteurs over at Netflix. They still have a few projects in the works with the streamer (including, of course, the final season of Stranger Things). But Paramount can offer something that Netflix can’t—or more accurately won’t—which is theatrical releases. The Duffers only have one film under their belt, 2015’s Hidden, but Paramount seems to be betting that the writer-directors have blockbuster potential. (Not an unreasonable assumption, at least based on the scale of Stranger Things.) Sweetening this potential deal is that it would reunite the Duffers with Cindy Holland, Paramount’s new head of streaming, who greenlit Stranger Things at Netflix (per Variety).
In its new era, the studio is focused on “restoring Paramount as the number one studio for filmmakers and talent in the world,” CEO David Ellison recently said (via Deadline). Its very first move once the merger closed was to acquire a new film from A Complete Unknown duo Timothée Chalamet and James Mangold. Deadline also recently reported that new sequels for Top Gun and Star Trek are priorities for the company. (Ellison was involved in both franchises through Skydance Media before it merged with Paramount.) Last month, Puck‘s Matt Belloni claimed that Ellison is also looking to make a big overall deal with Will Smith and his production company Westbrook. That would be a slightly riskier deal with Smith becoming persona non grata in Hollywood after The Slap, but he has historically been a big box office draw, and apparently that’s the guiding principle at new Paramount.
