We have a major Sundance acquisition, folks. And it ranks up there with some of the largest sums ever spent on a title in Park City.
After Searchlight Pictures spent $10 million on Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain last weekend, Netflix has shelled out $17 million for It's What's Inside, the acclaimed horror film from writer-director Greg Jardin. The official logline is below:
A pre-wedding party descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend shows up with a mysterious suitcase.
Horror has been one of the surest bets in Hollywood for the last decade. Although that of course won't mean much to Netflix. They remain focused on streaming numbers, and releases just a small number of awards contenders in just a handful of theaters each year. It seems unlikely they'll change that strategy for this film, but no release date - theatrical or digital - has been announced yet. The Netflix pick-up isn't that shocking considering Jardin has been one of their in-house promo guys for the last several years, producing trailers and extra content for the likes of 13 Reasons Why, When They See Us and the live-action Cowboy Bebop. It's What's Inside marks his feature film debut.
Check out Jardin's clever video for Hollerado's "Americanarama" below. It's one of my favorites.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
