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Steven Spielberg is writing a horror series you can only stream after midnight

Published Jun 11th, 2019 10:56AM EDT
Quibi Steven Spielberg
Image: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock

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For someone who’s been criticizing streaming platforms, Steven Spielberg is surely adapting fast to the best entertainment format available right now. Not only is the Hollywood veteran working on a reboot of his Amazing Stories for Apple TV+, but he’s actually writing an entire horror series that can only be streamed on the service Quibi after dark.

First of all, what the heck is Quibi? It’s a brand new streaming service that proposes a “third generation of film narrative” that should complement movies and TV. Quibi is short for “quick bites,” which means you’re getting super short episodes between 7 and 10 minutes long that you can stream on your phone or other devices.

Variety reports that Spielberg is so excited about the new format that he’s actually agreed to write his Spielberg’s After Dark for the new platform. And he came up with an unusual but brilliant feature for the series: episodes of the show can only be streamed after midnight. Quibi’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman challenged their engineers to make it happen, and it looks like it will:

The result: A clock will appear on phones, ticking down until sun sets in wherever that user is, until it’s completely gone. Then the clock starts ticking again to when the sun comes back up — and the show will disappear until the next night.

That’s something that’s never been done before, and it could help Quibi go viral. The service, which raised so far $1 billion from investors, launches next April with prices starting at $4.99 for the version with ads or $7.99 for a commercial-free subscription, which offers a two-week free trial.

In addition to Spielberg, Quibi also recruited Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi, Catherine Hardwick, Anna Kendrick, Doug Liman, Laurence Fishburne, and Antoine Fuquafor to produce or star in original content. The service will offer eight “super premium” productions at launch and 26 more projects in the first year, each one launching every other Monday.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.