Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have announced that a TV spin-off and stage play based on the Netflix series are officially in the works.
Netflix announced on Wednesday (July 6) that the duo have formed Upside Down Pictures, a new production company where they’ll develop film and TV projects as part of their overall deal with the streaming service signed in 2019.
Along with the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, there’s five other projects in development at the company. These include a live-action spin-off based on an original idea by the Duffer Brothers, which they recently described as being “1000 per cent different” to the main series.
A stage play set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things is also in the works, directed and produced by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader) alongside producer Sonia Friedman (The Book Of Mormon, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child).
The Duffer Brothers have formed Upside Down Pictures, a new production company through which they will develop film and television projects as part of their overall deal with Netflix.
Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the projects that are currently IN DEVELOPMENT:
— Netflix (@netflix) July 6, 2022
The Duffer Brothers are also helming a new live-action TV adaptation of Death Note, based on the Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba. Death Note was previously turned into an anime series in 2006 and a live-action film by Netflix in 2017.
The other projects are an original series from Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, along with a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s novel The Talisman, from Curtis Gwinn (Stranger Things, The Leftovers).
According to the Duffer Brothers, their new company will seek to create the kind of stories that inspired them growing up – “stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism”.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the brothers recently teased plans for the Stranger Things spin-off. “I’ve read these rumours that there’s gonna be an Eleven spin-off, that there’s gonna be a Steve and Dustin spin-off, or that it’s another number,” they said. “That’s not interesting to me because we’ve done all that. We’ve spent I don’t know how many hours exploring all of that. So it’s very different.”
They added: “The most important connective tissue I would say is the storytelling sensibility of it. There is story that connects to the Stranger Things world, but it really is more about how we’re telling that story.”
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