Will Smith, the LAPD, an Orc, and a Broadsword: What Was That Weird Netflix Trailer During The Oscars?
Netflix slyly wedged in a peek at their upcoming Will Smith movie, Bright, among the glitzy dresses and unexpected snafus of this year's Academy Awards. The spot starts with a few shots ripped straight from a modern-looking cop drama, then it sprinkles in a bit of strangeness.
Some weirdness is afoot.
For nearly fifteen years, David Ayer built his reputation on gritty urban cop dramas like End of Watch, Harsh Times, and Training Day. Not until his latest film, Suicide Squad, did he dip his toe into more fantastical waters. This film looks to be a fascinating mix of fantasy elements with Ayer's earlier reality-based aesthetic. The story takes place in an alternate timeline where orcs and magic exist in modern day LA. Will Smith plays a human cop who begrudgingly works with an orc, played by Joel Edgerton, to investigate a series of crimes connected to a mystical broadsword. I think there is some potential for that premise to be really fun, but it's also possible it could lean too heavily on fish out of water buddy-cop comedy cliches (humans be like this, orcs be like this). My only fear is that the elevator pitch went something like this, "Think Beverly Hills Cop, but instead of a black guy and a white guy, it'll be a human and an orc." Hilarity ensues– or maybe not. The trailer doesn't exactly read as jokey, so I think that might be a good sign, but I don't have a ton of confidence in writer Max Landis based on his previous work (Victor Frankenstein, American Ultra, Chronicle)
The other notable bit from this trailer comes at the very end. Apparently, the movie will only be available on Netflix. That is weird because this wasn't exactly a cheap movie (Wikipedia reports a $90 million budget, which must be true because it's on Wikipedia), and "only on Netflix" means it won't get a box-office release, which in turn means it doesn't pull in ticket revenue. The streaming service has dabbled with exclusive original movie content over the last couple years, but those have all been couched safely within the lower to moderate budget range, and aside from Sandler's four-picture deal, have skewed more toward art-house and indie audiences. As far as I can tell, this is their first foray into exclusive big-budget film-making, and it's going to be an interesting experiment. Will Smith has fallen a long way from his Mr. July Fourth days of being the biggest box-office draw on the planet, but he still has some clout. The goal, of course, would be to bring in new subscriptions instead of sell tickets, a prospect that could pay longer dividends for Netflix than the traditional theater-to-DVD model. If successful, this could revolutionize the way movies are released, for better or worse. Personally, I'm not ready to say goodbye to the theater experience, but I'd be stupid not to acknowledge the inevitability of where we seem to be headed.
