Will Smith and 'Suicide Squad' Director David Ayer Team Up for Netflix Film 'Bright'

By Victoria Guerra | Mar 21, 2016 04:24 PM EDT

Netflix has just made a move for its biggest film to date, buying a new script, Bright, which is set to become a franchise in the future, in a VFX-filled project similar to films like Men in Black. For this movie, there are already two crucial people from the growing DC Universe: Will Smith, who will be playing Deadshot in this year's Suicide Squad, and David Ayer, who directed the super-villain film.

According to Deadline, Netflix managed to purchase the rights to the script after two weeks of bidding with Warner Bros./MGM and PalmStar, both offering millions for the Max Landis script. Ultimately, Netflix bought it for over $3 million and the company is set to invest more than $90 million in making the movie.

Shooting expenses will be in the neighborhood of $45 million and about the same amount for "talent fees," and while the streaming site might give the film a limited release date, the move to make the film is focused primarily on Netflix subscribers all over the world.

As The Verge reports, in the past, Netflix's strategy of releasing a film online at about the same time as it's in theaters has prompted rejection from distributors, so the move seems a bit risky on that end so far. When it comes to numbers, though, it's impossible to know how well is Netflix doing with their original content shows: the company's notoriously secretive with their ratings.

This could be a major move for Netflix, as the company has been moving past original content series and has jumped on the film bandwagon. Besides a number of television films (like last week's Pee-wee's Big Holiday), the company has also been making deals left and right for larger films, including a Brad Pitt film (who stars and produces), War Machine, which will be out at some point this year.

In any case, Bright has been described as a "cop thriller with fantastic elements and tent pole potential," and besides Smith and Ayer, there's another player involved so far: Black Mass actor Joel Edgerton.

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