Maybe it’s time to stop being surprised every time Netflix picks up a high profile movie and just accept that the streaming company is now a major player along with the Hollywood studios. And certainly, with the majors putting their focus on blockbusters, there’s more room for guys like Netflix to snap up the kinds of movies that in days of yore, would’ve been at a studio.
And so bear that in mind as Deadline reports that Netflix has acquired the distribution rights to "War Machine." Last year, "Animal Kingdom" and "The Rover" helmer David Michôd signed up to write and direct the movie based on Michael Hastings‘ best-seller "The Operators," that tells the true story of the rise and fall of General Stanley McChrystal, the commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Brad Pitt was previously signed up to produce and will now star was well, with the movie taking on the tone of a "satirical comedy." Here’s the book synopsis:
A shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stake maneuvers, and the political firestorm that shook the United States.
In the shadow of the hunt for Bin Laden and the United States’ involvement in the Middle East, General Stanley McChrystal, the commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was living large. His loyal staff liked to call him a “rock star.” During a spring 2010 trip, journalist Michael Hastings looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration. When Hastings’s article appeared in Rolling Stone, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was unceremoniously fired.
In The Operators, Hastings picks up where his Rolling Stone coup ended. From patrol missions in the Afghan hinterlands to senior military advisors’ late-night bull sessions to hotel bars where spies and expensive hookers participate in nation-building, Hastings presents a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of what he fears is an unwinnable war. Written in prose that is at once eye-opening and other times uncannily conversational, readers of No Easy Day will take to Hastings’ unyielding first-hand account of the Afghan War and its cast of players.
This one looks to be next on Pitt’s slate, with a worldwide release planned on Netflix in 2016, and of course, an awards-qualifying theatrical run. But we’ll see how the latter pans out given how hard theaters are already resisting Netflix and their model which bumps right up against the theatrical business model.
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