If you’ve been reading our Future Of Film series (coughity plugginton), you might have seen our piece a couple of weeks ago about streaming services becoming movie players. Clearly inspired by that*, Netflix is taking its first steps into a larger world, partnering up with The Weinstein Company to release martial arts sequel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend on the site the same day it hits US cinemas next year.
Of course, premiering films via digital services is not new; indie movies have been tapping that well for a while. But the impact is more in the size of the film and the debate over release windows. There is already some controversy about the move, according to Variety, with a couple of cinema chains across the pond refusing to offer screens for the release.
The movie itself, now in production under the direction of Yuen Wo-Ping, adapts the fifth book of Wang Du Lu’s Crane-Iron Pentaology, originally called Silver Vase, Iron Knight (the original **Crouching Tiger **drew from the fourth tome). Michelle Yeoh is back as Yu Shu-Lien, with Donnie Yen as Silent Wolf.
With a script by John Fusco, the cameras are rolling now in New Zealand. The schedule calls for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend to arrive on August 28, 2015 in the US simultaneously on screens big and small. This is just one of the movies Netflix has a hand in, with the company continuing its push into original content for both movies and TV.
Whether it arrives in UK cinemas and the British arm of Netflix at the same time remains to be seen – but it’s definitely an interesting development.
*Hey, we can dream, right?