Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's CG-animated family film The Mitchells vs. The Machines has been sold to Netflix. The film, formerly called Connected, was sold by Sony Pictures, which had originally planned to release the film in theaters. But with the global pandemic shuttering theaters worldwide and movie studios reshuffling release dates and rethinking release strategies, Sony decided to sell the worldwide rights to the streaming giant.
According to Variety, the deal, which excludes China, was reportedly worth more than $100 million. The production budget for The Mitchells vs. The Machines wasn't confirmed by either company, but as Variety notes, "price tags for animated films generally range anywhere from $50 million to $100 million."
We got our first look at The Mitchells vs. The Machines in early 2020, back when it was called Connected. The film follows the Mitchells, an everyday family that struggles to relate with each other while technology rises up around the world. WHen Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) gets accepted into her dream film school, her nature-loving dad (voiced by Danny McBride) decides the whole family should drive her to school together and bond as a family one last time. The road trip is upended by an apocalyptic tech uprising in which the world's electronic devices try and take over.
The film had suffered multiple delays due to the coronavirus pandemic before Sony Pictures ultimately removed it from the release schedule in September 2020. Netflix hasn't set a release date for The Mitchells vs. The Machines, but it sounds like there's a lot of excitement about the film from everyone involved.
“We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm Netflix has expressed for this movie with this acquisition and grateful to everyone at Sony for making a great picture with us and finding a big way to bring it to audiences,” said Lord and Miller. “We’re really proud of the film we all made together, plus we understand our subscription fees are waived in perpetuity as part of the deal? We’re not lawyers but it does sound right to us.”
Director Mike Rianda added:
“This is a very personal movie about my very weird family. I’m so grateful to all the incredible artists that poured their love and passion into this project to make it a reality, and to everyone at Sony who believed in us and were on board to make a different kind of animated movie. I’m so thrilled that everyone at Netflix has been totally in sync with us creatively and are just as excited about the movie as we are! Not only because it’s an original story with a creative visual style that we’re extremely proud of, but also so I can prove to my friends that this five-year journey wasn’t an elaborate delusion on my part.”
The Mitchells vs. The Machines is directed by Rianda and co-directed by Jeff Rowe with a screenplay written by both. Oscar winners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Kurt Albrecht produced the film