Extremely Wicked: Netflix nabs US rights to Zac Efron Ted Bundy drama
David Farnor | On 05, Feb 2019
Let it never be said that Netflix doesn’t know what it customers want – and, in the case of 2019, it turns out that is “Ted Bundy”. Hot off the heels of its own Conversations with a Killer docuseries about the serial killer, the streaming giant has swooped in to nab the US rights for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile at Sundance.
Starring Zac Efron, the film begins in 1969, when the handsome young Ted proves the perfect catch for single mother Liz Kloepfer (Lily Collins). Her apparently happy life is shattered, though, when Ted is arrested and charged with a series of murders. Directed by Joe Berlinger, who helmed the Netflix docuseries, the film debuts at a point where the conversation surrounding Ted Bundy, and our culture’s apparently obsession with him, has fired up all over again.
It’s only natural, then, that the streaming giant has become the film’s American home. The deal, which was struck this week, sees the streaming Sundance shopping spree continuing even after the festival has finished. Amazon, on Sunday, bought one more film, documentary One Child Nation, to take its total spend up to $51 million. While Netflix has been much quieter, only picking up docs American Factory and Knock Down the House, plus Indian series Delhi Crime Story, Extremely Wicked shows that the streaming giant hasn’t lost its appetite for indie drama either: the deal cost a reported $9 million, a sum that saw off competition from STX and Lionsgate. Netflix is expected to give the film an awards-season run in US cinemas later this year.
In the UK and Ireland, however, Netflix has proven slow off the starting blocks: Sky Cinema already has the rights to the film, and will release it simultaneously on the big screen and on the premium TV channel – plus subscription streaming service NOW.