‘Stranger Things’ Creators Debut Upside Down Pictures With More Projects Ahead
Image via Imaginary Forces
The Upside Down is moving into the real world, in more ways than one. The Duffer Brothers, the creators of Netflix success story Stranger Things, have founded a new production company called Upside Down Pictures.
Matt and Ross Duffer are delving deeper into their partnership with Netflix to bring new film and television projects under this umbrella, named after the horror-filled alternate world in Stranger Things.
Hilary Leavitt, who helped develop Orphan Black and Ozark, has been appointed to head the company.
In the press release, the Duffer Brothers note that the production studio will “create the kind of stories that inspired the Duffers growing up—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.”
Their announcement is accompanied by the debut of the Upside Down Pictures logo, an eerie vision of 80s pop culture, created by design studio Imaginary Forces.
The branding fits right into Stranger Things with its analog style and sinister glow. Imaginary Forces says the logo draws from “old horror films and classic fantasy/Stephen King novels,” along with the aesthetic of the Netflix sci-fi series. Notably, the text “Upside Down” is inverted to denote the parallel world.
View this post on Instagram
The animated version is “fresh but familiar,” says the design studio, and it pictures the wordmark being rattled as if captured by a handheld camcorder.
“An imaginative reversed world begins to feel more realistic as we embark on a new horizon of The Duffer Brothers,” adds the studio.
The Stranger Things franchise, as you know it, will end at season five. Now—if you’re a fan who’s wondering, “Should I stay or should I go after this?” you should definitely stay. Upside Down Pictures isn’t quite done with Hawkins or the Upside Down as of yet; it’s planning a stage play “set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things” and a live-action Stranger Things spinoff series.
The Stranger Things-inspired play will be helmed by award-winning producers Sonia Friedman and Stephen Daldry, as well as Netflix, with 21 Laps as Associate Producer. Meanwhile, the series will be produced by both Upside Down Pictures and 21 Laps.
Beyond the small town set in the 1980s, the studio has also confirmed the “active development” of a new live-action adaptation of Japanese manga and anime series Death Note; an original series with the makers of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews; and a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman, produced by Curtis Gwinn with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television.
[via Deadline, Bloody Disgusting, Netflix, cover image via Imaginary Forces]
