Summary

• Kathryn Bigelow is working on a White House war movie for Netflix, set to show how the White House reacts to ballistic missiles heading for America.
• Bigelow is the successful director behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.
• Bigelow is reportedly struggling to stay on budget with this next film.

A White House-based war movie from Kathryn Bigelow is said to be in the works at Netflix. Bigelow is an Oscar-winning director, best known for her work on films like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Notably, she became the first woman to win Best Director at the Academy Awards, which she won for The Hurt Locker.

Per Puck, a Bigelow-helmed war drama set near the White House is supposedly in the works at Netflix. The film has not been officially announced by Netflix yet, but is supposedly about how the White House reacts in real-time to the news that ballistic missiles are headed for America. The script is written by Noah Oppenheim. Throughout the production of this film, Bigelow and Netflix have reportedly gone head to head on the issue of budget, with Netflix telling the director that it was both too expensive and too long.

How Bigelow’s Film Might Be Compared To Major 2024 Release

Political Thrillers Are On The Rise

There is an increasing interest in exploring the White House and the political drama as both Civil War and this Netflix film will be released in relatively close proximity.

It is no surprise that Bigelow may struggle to keep within budget and within a certain time limit given her track record. While The Hurt Locker was only 2 hours and 11 minutes, her next political drama, Zero Dark Thirty, was a lengthy 2 hours and 37 minutes. After that film, she made Detroit, which came in at a still-long 2 hours and 23 minutes. After her success with The Hurt Locker, which was budgeted at $15 million, her next two films were much higher-budget at $40 million and $34 million budgets.

The news of Bigelow’s film comes at an interesting time given one recent release from this year: Civil War. The A24 dystopian war drama film also featured political themes and the nation’s capital as a major actor. Civil War set box office records and became an incredible financial success for A24, showing that political dramas of this nature can be met with success. Though Bigelow’s film does not sound like an identical plot by any means, its similarity will likely draw comparrisons to Civil War.

At the time of writing, Civil War has made $104.5 million at the worldwide box office.

That said, the focus of the drama in Civil War and Bigelow’s film sound different. Civil War focused on a team of military-embedded journalists, whereas Bigelow’s film is centered on the White House itself. With the creation of both films, it seems like there is an increasing interest in exploring the White House and the political drama as both Civil War and this Netflix film will be released in relatively close proximity. It will be interesting to see how more plot details evolve as the Bigelow film progresses.

Source: Puck