‘The Stranger’s’ Unlikely Second Act: How Veena Sud Turned Her Quibi Series Into a Feature Film for Hulu
01.04.2024 - 19:13
/ variety.com
Brent Lang Executive Editor In April 2020, “The Stranger,” the story of a driver who picks up the rideshare passenger from hell, debuted on Quibi with the world in lockdown. Like most of the bite-sized pieces of entertainment that premiered on the service it came and went without much fanfare, a fate that ultimately was shared by Quibi itself.
Launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg with the idea of making short pieces of content that could be consumed on smartphones by people in transit, Quibi had the misfortune of launching as COVID-19 was leading the world into an extended period of couch potato-dom. “Obviously, the timing was unfortunate,” says Veena Sud, the writer, director and show-runner of “The Stranger.” “But Jeffrey was very generous in supporting all of us filmmakers over the course of making our shows.
It just didn’t succeed.” But “The Stranger” has a fresh chance to connect with audiences who may have missed it the first time around. Sud has recut the series as a feature film for Hulu, where it will debut on April 15.
Its improbable second act has a lot to do with Quibi’s unique business model, which allowed the creators who worked for the digital startup to regain the underlying copyright for their shows after two years. “Jeffrey was able to get a lot of people interested in Quibi, not just because what it represented creatively, but because he told us we could own our work, which is never done,” says Sud.
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