iflix continues Indonesian focus with Screenplay Films tie-up
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Rebecca Hawkes
| 21 February 2019

Southeast Asian video-on-demand (VOD) service iflix is augmenting its Indonesian line-up this year with a range of free programming in collaboration with Screenplay Films.

As part of the tie-up, Screenplay Films titles will be added to the platform straight from cinema, including Something in Between, Dancing in the Rain, Orang Kaya Baru, and Calon Bini.

iflix and Screenplay Films are also working on an original young adult supernatural horror series from Indonesia. Conversation with Ghosts (working title) is a six-part horror drama that tells a story of a girl who just wants to fit in at her new campus, but discovers she has supernatural abilities and a connection to the Occult which threatens to alter her destiny forever.

iflix has also partnered with Screenplay Films to produce 16 of the 26 made-for-over-the-top (OTT) movies that form part of the **company’s deal with Wattpad.

The selections were curated using Wattpad’s Story DNA Machine Learning technology, giving iflix access to Wattpad’s insights into some of the most read and most promising and ‘trending’ titles, and the chance to work with some of the most popular authors on the platform.

The collaboration is an extension of the two companies’ existing partnership, which has already seen iflix stream the studio’s films Promise, Jailangkung 1 and 2, One Fine Day, Surat Cinta untuk Starla: The Movie, The Perfect Husband, ILY from 38,000ft, Headshot, Magic Hour and the London Love Story trilogy.

Additionally, iflix’s first original series in 2107 was a spin-off to Screenplay Films’ 2015 box office hit Magic Hour.

“The 2019 slate of original productions really builds on the success that our partnership with Screenplay helped establish via Magic Hour The Series 1 and 2. We’re now extending our creative partnership with a bold new horror series this year. We know it’s a genre that Indonesians love – but we also have a lot more shows in development including thriller, action, family, and of course, more epic teen romance,” said Mark Francis, iflix global director of original programming.

“The Indonesian content ecosystem is primed for growth thanks to the proliferation of OTT, and because younger audiences are hungry for a new kind of premium local content, it’s imperative we commit to serving them the most compelling local titles via the box office, but also elevate the quality of conventional ‘TV series’ via our originals.”