Steven Spielberg Writing Horror Series That’s Only Viewable at Night

Steven Spielberg is embracing the digital realm with Spielberg’s After Dark, an upcoming short-form horror series — and viewers will only be able to watch at night on a new mobile video platform. The program will feature 10 to 12 episodes exclusively via Quibi (short for “Quick Bites”), created by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman, Variety reports.

The filmmaker has already crafted scripts for “fix or six episodes,” Katzenberg announced Sunday at the Banff World Media Festival in Canada. “Steven Spielberg came in, and said, ‘I have a super scary story I want to do,’” he added. “He’s writing it himself. He hasn’t [written anything in a while] so getting him to write something is fantastic.”

Spielberg requested that the show only be viewable late at night, prompting Quibi’s engineering crew to devise a unique delivery system: an internal clock on each subscriber’s phone that only allows access to episodes between sunset and sunrise.

Quibi has reportedly raised $1 billion from investors with more funding to come, building to an April 2020 launch. Spielberg’s After Dark is one of several shows planned for the initial lineup, which will also include eight “super premium” titles, along with 26 “lighthouse” (or prestige-style) TV shows. In total, Quibi will offer 125 weekly pieces of content.