As well as debuting the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel, Netflix has some other big news: it’s just signed a deal with Adam Sandler to fund and produce four of his movies that will run exclusively on the streaming service.
The four movies will be made by, and star, Sandler. There’s no mention of these films ever making it into a theater—and in fact, Sandler will continue to make movies with traditional studios at the same time—so instead they’ll appear exclusively online. In a press release, Sandlerexplained why he agreed to the deal:
“When these fine people came to me with an offer to make four movies for them, I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only….Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks. Let the streaming begin!!!!”
Quite. Love or hate Sandler, it’s a big name to be taken on by a relative upstart like Netflix. Clearly, the streaming company is embarking on a foray into the world of major motion pictures. Whether it will be successful remains to be seen—but judging by Netflix’s record for original content, we have every reason be optimistic. [Re/code]
