Paramount is looking to close a new deal with "Stranger Things" creators Matt and Ross Duffer. Details are still being worked out, but it would include both streaming and features with a big theatrical component, something the pair have not been able to get at their current home of more than a decade, Netflix. In 2022, the Duffers launched their production company, Upside Down Pictures, for film and television projects as part of a new overall deal with Netflix. They described Upside Down’s mission at the time as aiming to create the kind of stories that inspired them growing up.
Matt Thunell, head of the new Paramount TV Studios, also worked with the Duffers at Netflix. The high-profile talent poaching would mark the first major move for Cindy Holland, Paramount’s Chair of Direct-to-Consumer, who, as Head of English-language original series at Netflix, championed "Stranger Things". Since the Skydance-Paramount Global merger closed last week, Paramount has made a $7.7 billion deal with the UFC and has landed the James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet package High Side, both in a competitive situation.
At a press event this week, the new Paramount leadership expressed their univocal support for theatrical movies. The news about the Duffers’ pending Paramount deal comes as "Stranger Things" is coming to an end with its upcoming fifth season on Netflix. The Duffers are eight-time Emmy nominees. Before "Stranger Things" they were co-EPs on the 2015-2016 Fox series Wayward Pines. They are repped by CAA, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.