“Stranger Things” Auteurs Matt and Ross Duffer spoke for the first time on Thursday about their blockbuster deal with Paramount at the Los Angeles Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit. In August, the Duffers announced that their company was entrusting Netflix with Paramount, an exclusive four-year deal for film, television and streaming projects.
“When Matt and I were talking about what we wanted to do next, it was really wanted to do a film, especially an original film, a big original film,” Ross Duffer said. “And theater is very important to us.”
He added that they were not seeking a new contract. The brothers are still deep in post-production for the final season of “Stranger Things,” which will premiere in November. Instead, Paramount approached them, and the prospects for the theatrical distribution “has really been thrilling us.”
“It was something we dreamed of because we were little kids,” Ross Duffer said.
They said they would specifically focus on making original films, but Matt Duffer said they would be open to seeing existing properties within the umbrella “we really respond to.” But the bar seems very expensive.
“The market is full of IPs, and sometimes it’s like an IP that doesn’t mean anything,” Matt Duffer said. “I don’t understand that. How does it bring value? I like the failed IP. Someone shaking and missed. Then you have the opportunity to do it properly.”
Duffers emphasized that he has no plans to become a prolific producer of the large stables of shows and films. “We don’t want to be like bad robots,” Matt Duffer said. “Ross and I can’t juggle that much.” Instead, they want to emulate what 21-lap co-head Shawn Levy did with them when they agreed to produce “Stranger Things” in 2015, despite not making TV.
“We like to identify truly talented people, help them create their vision and then get them out of the way,” Matt Duffer said.
The upside-down photo also develops Paramount’s television project, focusing on “8-10 episode seasons” rather than the classic network show for CBS. “I’m tired of watching the 20-episode season,” Matt Duffer said. “We weren’t interested in any of them. We only watched the films. We had little interest in television, so that’s the odd thing that we ended up on television.”
Instead, they plan to create an event series similar to “Stranger Things.” “When television shows are announced each year, the returns are reduced,” Matt Duffer said. “I like buildups.”
The Duffers are operating with Netflix in two new series, “The Boroughs,” which is scheduled to debut in 2026, and “Super Bad Things Will Come.” It’s imminent. And Duffers was cautious about what it was, although it is expected that the executives will produce a spinoff of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” rather than as a showrunner.
“If we’re going to do it, we just want to make sure that it’s really exciting,” Matt Duffer said. “We’re really careful about what we’re bringing to Netflix. Is it really going to be mad at them if they give this?”
As for the final season of “Stranger Things,” the Duffers didn’t want to ruin too much about what to expect, but Ross Duffers said the season’s premiere would stand up directly to hunt the character Vecna. “This isn’t just normal life, and then something supernatural happens to them. That’s what we usually do,” he said.
The final season was split, with the first four episodes premiering at Thanksgiving, with the next three of Christmas, the December 31st finale – Spread The Duffers said they could write in advance, unlike the season four split that the pandemic requires. “Episode 4 and Episode 8 are like a movie,” Matt Duffer said. He quickly added, “All running times I’ve posted online are inaccurate.”
When discussing their post-production process, Ross Duffer also revealed that none of the cast was included in the last thing they filmed for “Stranger Things.”
“We had a close-up of our lunch box, but we couldn’t find it for our lives,” he said.
“It’s a GI Joe lunchbox and there’s a blinking red light,” added Matt Duffer. “But there’s a debate as to whether it was actually (shot) or not. Everyone in the crew thought we filmed it and didn’t make any editorial claims.”
“So we had to go back and shoot this close-up,” Ross Duffer said. “It was the last shot I took on Stranger Things, a lunchbox on the floor. ”
