The Discovery (2017)

Netflix had really been interested in the idea and loved the script early on, and we had been in talks with them, and they really liked how the cast ended up shaping up so, while we were filming our first week, they called and said they want to acquire this as a worldwide film and have it be a Netflix Original.

It’s such an interesting time in independent film, and there are pros and cons to this new digital era and the way we do movies. I really am mixed about it because I am a traditional thinker in that I make a film with the idea that it’s going to be seen on a big screen, but with this film in particular, to me the partnership really made sense because I wanted this to be something that a lot of people could see. If you release traditionally in the theater with an independent distributor, it will go to 50 cities and very few people will see it, so the idea that 90 million users in 160 countries felt right for the film. We wanted it to be this global idea … because I think people will view it differently depending on your makeup and who you are as a person. It’s definitely a movie I hope people will watch more than once. It’s a movie that, if you see it a second time, it’s a very different viewing, and you pick up on a lot of different things and maybe your view changes. It’s meditative in that way, and it felt like with Netflix, you could watch the film, then you could watch it again two minutes later or you could wait a week and then you can tell your friends about it. The idea that people could view the film that way was exciting.