Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov Launches Platform for Screenlife Movies

Timur Bekmambetov, director of movies like the Angelina Jolie-starring Wanted and the upcoming Chris Pratt-starring Mercy, recently launched a new platform called Screenlifer. The platform hopes to incubate and support “screenlife” projects — movies and shows in which all the action takes place on a computer, tablet, or smartphone screen.

The Big (Little) Picture: Bekmambetov has become the patron saint of screenlife with his production company Bazelevs, producing projects like Unfriended, Searching, and Missing. Making screenlife projects is a novel, cheaper, but technologically complicated way of filmmaking, so providing the scaffolding to bring these stories to life could scale the genre.

Behind the Screen: Bekmambetov hopes that Screenlifer can replicate the success of The Black List — Hollywood’s go-to database for finding new writers.

• Screenlifer will “identify, support, and promote screenlife content from emerging filmmakers and give it exposure to both audiences and industry professionals,” per Deadline.
• That includes “consultancy, mentorship, and publicity in exchange for a minority stake in the projects” — although that doesn’t mean the projects will be produced under the Bazelevs banner.
• When it comes to actually making the movies, Screenlifer will help raise funds through various rounds as if it were a startup raising venture capital. The filmmakers will maintain creative control.

Closing Credits: Projects that meet the “platform’s standards” will receive a mark of distinction to help boost their awareness. The best concepts will also be featured on the platform’s site. Screenlifer, which is now up and running, has already given two projects its mark of distinction — Vikramaditya Motwane’s thriller CTRL (now streaming on Netflix) and Allisyn Snyder’s stalker picture Howdy, Neighbor! (currently in post-production). Hopefully, we’ll soon spend more time watching movies set on phones than doomscrolling on our own.