The Duffer Brothers, the creators of Stranger Things, have established Upside Down Pictures to create many more new projects for Netflix, including a live-action Death Note series and an adaptation of the Stephen King and Peter Straub book The Talisman. Per Deadline, the Duffers will use Upside Down Pictures to tell “stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism,” drawing from the stories that the Duffers enjoyed in their youth.
The live-action Death Note series from the Stranger Things creators will be an original work, mercifully not connected to the 2017 Netflix movie. No story details were provided otherwise though. Meanwhile, The Talisman is being made with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television, created by Stranger Things co-executive producer and writer Curtis Gwinn.
Other Upside Down Pictures projects include the Stranger Things spin-off series reported upon yesterday, a separate stage play set in the Stranger Things universe, and an original series from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews. That is a lot of content that the Duffer Brothers are involved with. They are joined by Hilary Leavitt, who will run Upside Down Pictures. She previously helped to develop shows like Orphan Black and Ozark.
Netflix botched its first effort at a live-action adaptation of the massively popular Death Note manga, but with the creators of Stranger Things on board for a full series, maybe adaptation is worth a second bite at the apple.
