About Screenlife Storytelling
Screenlife, the innovative film-making style, was pioneered by Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov in response to the proliferation of modern screen technologies and mobile devices. In a Screenlife film, viewers see the action play out from the POV of the computers, tablets and smartphones used by the characters.
As a movie format it made a massive breakthrough in 2015, when Bekmambetov’s debut Screenlife production, a teen horror film Unfriended, was picked up by Universal, grossing $65 million worldwide with a budget of $1 million, spawning a sequel, three years later. Bekmambetov followed that up with the 2018 John Cho-led thriller, Searching, grossing more than $75 million worldwide.
In 2019, he produced a 10-episode original series Dead of Night for Snapchat, with the story revolving around a viral outbreak that turns people into zombies. It scored with over 14 million unique viewers in the first month of release and got extended for the second season.
In 2020, Universal and Bekmambetov inked a deal to partner on five Hollywood features to be made in the Screenlife format in various genres.
Earlier this year, Bekmambetov’s Screenlife production, R#J, a Gen Z adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, premiered at Sundance 2021 and won a special prize at SXSW. At SXSW he also presented his iBible, a Screenlife rendition of the Book of Genesis with God speaking with the voice of Morgan Freeman and using the smartphone to create the universe.
He’s in collaboration with Sony Pictures on the next installment of his biggest Screenlife hit Searching and with MarVista on a new YA drama #fbf starring Ashley Judd and Cree Cicchino.
Creating Profile: Meet the Filmmakers
Lights, No Camera, Action: The Screenlife Shooting Process
How the Upcoming Screenlife Thriller Was Produced
Profile is a gripping thriller inspired by the true story of an investigative journalist who risked her life to infiltrate a militant group and expose its online recruitment techniques. The film plays out entirely on its heroine’s computer screen as she becomes entangled in a treacherous game of cat and mouse with a terrorist recruiter.