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Behind the Screens: Netflix, Quibi, Star Wars at L.A.'s Upfront Summit
It was day two of the influential Upfront Summit at the Rose Bowl, a chance for top names in media, tech and finance to share their projects and go scouting for partners.
We got a peek behind the scenes at Netflix's efforts to expand their local language television output, and Star Wars' push to add diversity to its staffing and talent pool. Quibi CEO Meg Whitman divulged some of the new byte-sized mobile streaming service's $1.4 billion gamble, and its very generous terms for creators. Snap announced its own B itmoji animation series, personalized for each user. Our reporters Ben Bergman, Rachel Uranga and Tami Abdollah were there to cover it. We'll have more takeaways from the summit on Friday. Read on, and stay tuned.
Today's stories
Netflix is now the most nominated film studio at the Oscars and the studio is moving swiftly into producing "local language" television, says its chief content officer, in what appears to be a way differentiate itself from Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and the slew of other original streaming companies eating up market share.
"Our goal is not to just export Hollywood content around the world. We can find a good story from anywhere in the world and make it play anywhere in the world," Sarandos said Thursday at the Upfront Summit at the Rose Bowl, noting that even in the early days of mailing DVDs, the goal was to "take these underdeveloped films and give these a national platform."
With the highly-anticipated launch of the byte sized mobile streaming service Quibi a little more than two months away, CEO Meg Whitman defended the company's massive $1.4 billion fundraising total in front of a roomful of investors and company founders in Pasadena.
"There's no question it's a big bet," she said. "We had to raise enough money to create at launch a completely immersive experience." >>
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, walked into the Upfront Summit tent in the middle of sunny and bright Pasadena Thursday morning and brought a hush over the crowd as he spoke passionately against President Donald Trump, urging the audience to go out and vote him out of office.
"I've come to a conclusion that whatever your specific issue you care about, for your family and the world is, the No. 1 way to get there in nine months is to have a different president," Bharara said." So don't forget the forest for the trees, think about that in November." >>
When asked to direct "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the filmmaker said he felt a responsibility to cast actors who were as diverse as possible. "I'm not preaching, but we'll bring our values as much as we can to a project," he said. >>
The Upfront Summit heads into its second day on Thursday. But, there's still a bit of buzz from an unlikely speaker who closed out last night's roster of keynotes -- a surprisingly shy Paris Hilton, who said she was intimidated speaking to a room of hundreds of investors.
"I'm very nervous up here," she said. "I'm used to being at Tomorrowland or Ibiza with a thousand people dancing. Everyone is so serious here." >>
Snap Inc. is launching itself anew into the short-form videosphere in 2020 with Bitmoji TV, upping its popular avatar feature to present personalized live-action comic strips of you and your friends. A spokesperson says Thursday that their global release will start in February; it's an effort that may help Snap counter the surging use of TikTok, especially among Gen Z users. >>