In their latest salvo against the majors, Netflix has picked up distribution rights for War Machine, an upcoming war satire from director David Michod (Animal Kingdom, The Rover) and producer/star Brad Pitt, Deadline reports. The film, loosely based on Michael Hasting’s Stanley McChrystal profile The Operators, marks the streaming service’s biggest investment to date in a theatrical release—though it will, of course, land on their homepage—and Pitt is the biggest star yet to make such a deal.
Deadline notes that while a Pitt-fronted film from a director of Michod’s mettle is a big get, it’s also “the kind of movie that is often hard pressed to find a large theatrical audience, and P&A [Prints & Advertising] is exorbitant to chase that business. Pitt and his advisers instead decided to experiment with the idea that potentially more people would see the film through the Netflix global streaming subscriber base, while still having it eligible for Oscar consideration just like any other theatrical release.”
The War Machine deal follows Netflix’s participation in a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel, the new film from Cary Fukunaga, and, um, those Adam Sandler movies (which they’d probably like you to forget about now). With the company releasing a major Brad Pitt movie, it’ll be interesting to see if the theatrical chains—who have problems of their own these days—will hold to the boycotts they threated on the previous titles.
