Given the success of the viral sensation-turned-major motion picture Backrooms and YouTuber Curry Barker’s Obsession. It was only a matter of time before major studios started farming YouTube for content. Yesterday, Brian Duffield and Zach Cregger were confirmed to be writing a movie based on the online legend, Siren Head. That same day, United Artists‘ Scott Stuber, Amblin‘s Steven Spielberg, and Amazon MGM Studios won a bidding war for the rights to viral sensation The Mandela Catalogue.
The series is one of the staple online analog horror IPs to pop up in the past two decades. Often being discussed alongside shows like Local 58 and The Backrooms.
The film adaptation will be directed by The Mandela Catalogue’s creator, Alex Kister, from a screenplay he adapted with Tyler Clifton. Kister started the series in 2021, and it all takes place within the fictitious Mandela County, Wisconsin. But the area has a sinister quirk: it’s overrun by humanoid doppelgangers called “Alternates.” These creatures mimic the movements and appearance of humans, but they slowly drive their intended victims insane.
Spielberg and Holly Bario will be producing the film adaptation for Amblin Entertainment. Stuber and Nick Nesbitt are producing for United Artists, with Aaron B. Koontz for Paper Street Pictures. Kister and Clifton will also produce.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about the big-screen adaptation of The Mandela Catalogue as the project develops. We are both curious and terrified about which creator will get behind which well-established online IP next.
