Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ picked up by Amazon for theater distribution and streaming
The war between Netflix and Amazon continues. The former snagged the rights to Beasts of No Nation this year, and Amazon has answered by procuring the rights to the next Winding Refn jam.
While Netflix got out of the gate as the premiere home of exclusive streaming content, Amazon has been nipping at their heels. While the former can boast having a wide range of content under their roof including documentaries, Marvel series’, arthouse awards contenders like “Beasts Of No Nation,” and comedies like the hugely buzzed “Master Of None” which dropped this weekend, the bookseller is throwing their own serious weight around. They’ve already shown they can back programming that can capture the zeitgeist with “Transparent,” they’ve got Woody Allen locked down to write and direct his first series, Spike Lee‘s “Chi-raq” is on the way, and now they’ve walked away from the American Film Market with a hugely anticipated cinephile title.
Variety reports that Amazon has snatched up Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “The Neon Demon.” For those of you concerned about seeing it on the big screen, don’t worry, because it will hit theaters next summer first, before rolling out to Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Starring Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Karl Glusman, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves, the Countess Bathory-inspired story follows about an aspiring model who becomes prey to other women who want what she has. “One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty,” Refn said about his picture.
No word yet if Amazon will take the movie on the festival circuit first, but I’d wager a Cannes bow is likely. Until then check out the new image from film up top.