Netflix Buys Steven Soderbergh Drama ‘High Flying Bird’ With Zazie Beetz, André Holland

The project marks Soderbergh’s first collaboration with the streaming giant

High Flying Bird Steven Soderbergh Zazie Beetz Andre Holland
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Netflix announced on Tuesday that it has acquired global rights to Steven Soderbergh’s next film “High Flying Bird.”

The film, written by Academy Award-winning “Moonlight” co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney, is a sports-themed drama set during a pro basketball lockout.

Starring Zazie Beetz of “Atlanta” fame and “Moonlight’s” André Holland, “High Flying Bird” follows a sports agent during the lockout, who pitches a rookie basketball client on an intriguing and controversial business proposition.

The project marks Soderbergh’s first collaboration with the streaming giant. He’s been an advocate for making films outside of the studio system and released last year’s “Logan Lucky” independently.

“We had several strong options for distributing ‘High Flying Bird,’ but to borrow the patois of the movie itself, this deal felt like a slam dunk and the perfect way for me to begin my relationship with Netflix as a director,” Soderbergh said.

The film is being produced by the director’s collaborator on “Unsane,” Joseph Malloch. And theh executive producers on the project are Ken Meyer (“Unsane,” “Logan Lucky”) and André Holland via his production shingle Harper Road Films.

Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto, Kyle MacLachlan and Bill Duke also star in “High Flying Bird,” which Netflix will release globally in 2019.

Soderbergh shot the film in double quick time on an iPhone, like he did for the Claire Foy-led “Unsane,” which pulled in $14.3 million at the box office worldwide.

Deadline first reported the news.

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