Extinction, directed by Ben Young, is released worldwide on Netflix tomorrow 27th July 2018. Starring Michael Pena and Lizzy Caplan, Tom Riley fans should look out for his role as Chris. Netflix doesnt seem to go big on promo for its films. We have had a trailer, but that is pretty much it. A couple of interviews with Michael Pena have been released, where he chats about the film here and here. An interview with director Ben Young offers some background to casting and making the film, as well as the switch from a cinematic release to Netflix.
Incidentally, 'Extinction' was one of the films was originally supposed to be released earlier this January by Universal Pictures but was abruptly pulled from the release schedule with no explanation. Later, it was reported that Netflix had acquired the film from Universal Pictures. I addressed this during the interview and asked Ben if the switch to a smaller screen would hamper the experience for audiences. He was actually glad that Netflix was releasing the film to such a wide audience.
"I'm really happy with what's happening. For a whole bunch of reasons — and none of them are bad — the January release date fell through so it was a logical move for us to move to Netflix. We sort of missed the window of putting it out so everyone agreed that we should go to Netflix because unfortunately at the moment, these big budget films are not drawing people to the cinemas to go watch them.
"So I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with Netflix because they're going to release the film in 190 countries at exactly the same time and audiences are gonna have the opportunity to watch it within the comfort of their own homes. If you really want to reach out to a bigger audience, Netflix is really the way to go because it's so convenient. They were a delight to work with and really allowed me to have my voice and retain my voice in particular places. So it ended up really great for us and more importantly for the movie. The future is VOD. It really is!"
