Katzenberg’s Quibi Talent Everyone’s Sipping the Kool-Aid

After Spielberg visited the offices of video streaming startup Quibi this year, he emailed his friend


and founder Jeffrey Katzenberg with a concept. "To say i used to be stunned is a real understatement," Katzenberg recollects. "He had, himself, written four chapters of an excellent scarey, pretty creepy story."

But movie maker had a stipulation. He wished the project to be viewed solely once time of day. thus Katzenberg asked Quibi business executive one thousand thousand Whitman to convene the merchandise and engineering groups, that went on to develop a feature that may unlock new episodes of the movie maker show, dubbed once Dark, just once night has fallen. "Arguably the best storyteller of our time, once he hears regarding one thing new and completely different, he turns his imagination loose, and there you go," Katzenberg says. "I would ne'er have thought of that."

While once Dark is probably the foremost formidable show that Katzenberg has lined up for Quibi before its planned April six launch, it's currently one in all many from prime Hollywood talent. With $1 billion within the bank and a goal of emotional some seven,000 items of content throughout Quibi's 1st year, Katzenberg has been on a shopping for spree for the mobile-only platform. In Gregorian calendar month and July alone, Quibi has disclosed no fewer than twenty new comes from partners that embody Tyra Banks, Darren Criss, Rashida Jones and Veena Sud. They be part of antecedently declared efforts from Guillermo del Toro, Antoine Fuqua, Jason Blum, Jennifer Lopez and Pakistani monetary unit Kendrick. He says there area unit many dozen a lot of that Quibi has still to announce, as well as Action Scene, within which Kevin Hart can star as a fictionalized version of himself.

Hollywood is jumping into business with the startup despite pervasive questions about however shoppers can reply to associate app dedicated to shortform episodic programming that is meant to be viewed throughout day breaks. "Everyone's sipping the Quibi Kool-Aid," says one producer UN agency, within the same breath, adds, "on its face, it appears like a factor that is ne'er about to work."

Katzenberg, 68, has had an extended career in Hollywood, orchestrating a turnaround at movie maker and growing DreamWorks Animation into a $3.8 billion business that oversubscribed to NBCUniversal in 2016. however Quibi may be his riskiest move nonetheless. Amid the war for streaming dominance raging among Netflix, Disney, Amazon, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and Apple, within which cherished franchises just like the workplace and Friends area unit the battle spoils, Katzenberg is taking a by all odds completely different approach. He and Whitman area unit dissipated that kids (specifically, those twenty five to 35) area unit thirsting for premium, extremely made programming delivered to their phones in 10-minute bursts.