As Netflix continues its bid to dip its toes into all film and television waters, one of their upcoming projects is Beasts of No Nation, the latest film from Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre, “True Detective”) with Idris Elba in the lead role alongside newcomer Abraham Attah as Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country.
Beasts of No Nation will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, will then likely play Telluride and will finish up the circuit in Toronto after that, all before releasing in limited theaters and streaming on Netflix on Oct. 16. It’s new territory for not only prestige cinema, but cinema altogether as television and the movies are coming together in ways previously thought unfathomable.
Certainly some films will still stand to make the most money with major theatrical releases and it will be interesting to see how these kinds of moves work for Netflix considering the major motivator here is to gain subscriptions. I’m not sure if a film such as Beasts of No Nation necessarily brings that crowd to the table, but if it manages to secure a few Oscar nominations it just might.
Check out the trailer below.
