Duffer Brothers Launch New Production Venture

The Duffer Brothers, who are behind the global hit Stranger Things, have set up a new production company, Upside Down Pictures, with a slate of film and TV projects as part of their overall deal with Netflix.

According to the Duffer Brothers, Upside Down Pictures will “aim to 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 coexists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism.”

Hilary Leavitt (Orphan Black, Ozark) has been tapped to run the company.

The slate of projects includes an all-new live-action TV adaptation of the renowned Japanese manga and anime series Death Note.

There’s also an original series from creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance).

The producers will be working on a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman alongside Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Paramount Television to be created by Curtis Gwinn.

While the fourth season of their hit Netflix series Stranger Things, which they wrote, directed and executive produced, was recently released, the brothers will prep a new stage play set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things, produced by prolific and multi-award-winning producers Sonia Friedman, Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, The Reader) and Netflix. Daldry will also direct. 21 Laps serves as associate producer.

Also in the works is a new live-action Stranger Things spin-off series based on an original idea by the Duffer Brothers, with Upside Down and 21 Laps producing.