Netflix have bought distribution rights to Zac Efron’s forthcoming Ted Bundy movie.
We have good news for Netflix subscribers who have found themselves enthralled by the recent true crime docu-series, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the forthcoming feature film, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, about Bundy’s infamous killing spree in the late seventies, will also be heading to the subscription platform.
The movie starring Zac Efron and featuring Metallica’s James Hetfield in his acting debut, recently premiered at The Sundance Festival and Netflix is said to have picked up the distribution rights for around $9 million dollars beating more traditional studios like STX and Lionsgate in the process and it’s also reported that they intend their give the movie an awards season-based theatrical run later this year, with Efron’s ‘charismatic and creepy’ portrayal of the predator gaining positive reviews after its Sundance premiere.
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian said of his performance, “As Bundy, he ruthlessly weaponises the boyish charm that’s propelled much of his career, slyly convincing us of the spell he cast, not only on Liz but the many other women who were fighting his corner, sure of his innocence. It’s the career-changing moment he was clearly seeking.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy wrote, “Efron flies higher than ever here, investing his character with an illusory confidence that’s entertaining even when the character and legal charges fully live up to the film’s title.”
Netflix obviously saw the interest in the documentary and realized they could parlay that into a crossover selling point for the film which has had some backlash already from certain quarters in the concern that it may be seen to glamourise the man who is widely credited as one of America’s first recognised serial killers, having murdered at least 30 women before his eventual capture and death penalty sentence in 1989.
Extremely Wicked… is told through the eyes of the killer’s girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins, who testified on his behalf at his trial and even said ‘yes’ when he proposed to her during that time.
A release date has yet to be announced.