Universal Pictures has revealed its plans to make another five movies with filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov in the ‘Screenlife’ format.
The movie comes after the success of films such as 2018’s ‘Searching’ with John Cho and 2014’s ‘Unfriended’ which had stories told through the mediums of Desktop Computers, Smartphones and the like.
During an interview with Deadline, Bekmambetov stated “During this crazy time, we have been living in Screenlife mode, and it is very organic to produce movies because they can be done while people are home in their safe place,” he told Deadline. “We are all in different cities, and we can record screens without meeting each other. It’s the nature of this language, this Screenlife format, to work like this.
Bekmambetov went on to reveal that the new slate of movies wouldn’t be genre-specific, with both rom-coms and horror both on the table.
“We agreed it will be five Screenlife movies in different genres, and of course I will discuss with them the cast and the directors, but they trust me. Because every Screenlife movie we’ve made was successful in different ways, some creatively and some commercially, and because it’s a new language. We know there will be romantic comedies, sci-fi, horror, fantasy and detective stories like Searching. These will be very relatable to audiences that absolutely understand this language because it’s how we live.”
The upside to filming in this format is the cost-effectiveness of the production, ‘Searching’ was made on a $1 million budget, but thanks to rave reviews and striking a chord with audiences it went on to make $75 million.
