Steven Spielberg Writing TV Show That Can Only Be Viewed at Night
East Hampton director Steven Spielberg is digging into the worlds of streaming television and horror with Spielberg’s After Dark (working title), a new series for the Quibi streaming service that, as the title explains, viewers can only watch after the sun goes down.
The news comes by way of Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who made the announcement at the Banff World Media Festival in Canada last Sunday, Variety reports. “Steven Spielberg came in, and said, ‘I have a super scary story I want to do,’” Katzenberg said, according to Variety, noting that Spielberg is writing the show himself. The Oscar-winning director hasn’t written anything on his own in a while, Katzenberg pointed out, but added that he’d already completed “five or six episodes” of the 10–12-episode story.
Spielberg is also, Variety reveals, writing a reboot of his classic 1980s television anthology series Amazing Stories for the new Apple TV Plus streaming service.
The director presented his idea that Spielberg’s After Dark only be available to viewers after midnight, and Katzenberg and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman set their engineers to the task, using mobile phone GPS to make it happen, depending on each viewer’s location. A clock will appear on the phone when the show is available, and it will count down the time during which the show can be seen. When the clock hits zero, the show will disappear until the following night.
Sounds cool, huh?