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German visual effects studio Scanline has been acquired by the American streamer Netflix. The deal comes on the heels of Scanline’s work on the Marvel hit Black Panther. The transaction was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and is an undisclosed amount.
In the report, Netflix’s head of content acquisition Joris Evers reiterated the company’s position on its acquisitions: They are designed to fulfill a need on the part of the company and to make its programming as diverse as possible.
Both Scanline’s reel for Black Panther and that for horror show Hemlock Grove were compelling; from Black Panther’s landscapes to its differences in skin tones, the company’s work seems tailor-made for a streaming service.
As with most acquisitions, the two companies don’t go into specifics about what they’ll be working on together. In the past, though, there has been speculation that Scanline might work on stories set in near future, where social media isn’t as omnipresent as it is now and people are increasingly technology-happy.
For now, though, Scanline’s reel has largely focused on the fantasy-action genre, with some art direction in the design-focused suspense film Lowriders and in the horror film Pacific Rim Uprising. Check it out below:
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