Amblin’s Steven Spielberg, United Artists’ Scott Stuber and Amazon MGM Studios won the film rights following an 11-studio bidding war
Series creator Alex Kister will direct the adaptation from a screenplay he co-wrote with Tyler Clifton
The deal extends a wave of YouTube horror properties moving to theaters following the success of Backrooms and Obsession
Steven Spielberg is producing a feature film adaptation of The Mandela Catalogue, the viral YouTube horror series that has become one of the defining titles in the analog horror genre. Amblin’s Spielberg, United Artists’ Scott Stuber and Amazon MGM Studios acquired the film rights following a highly competitive 11-studio bidding war, with series creator Alex Kister set to direct the adaptation from a screenplay he adapted with Tyler Clifton.
Launched in 2021, The Mandela Catalogue is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin, which is invaded by shape-shifting, nearly immortal creatures called Alternates. The series has amassed well over 100 million views across its official episodes alone, making it one of the largest original analog horror franchises to come out of YouTube, and is widely regarded as one of the defining titles in the analog horror genre, alongside Local 58 and The Backrooms.
That lineage explains why the bidding war got so competitive. The deal follows the mega success of Backrooms and Obsession, with Curry Barker’s horror romance Obsession pulling in $374 million USD worldwide and Kane Parsons’ Backrooms becoming an unforeseen phenomenon that outstripped even anticipated tentpoles like Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu and DC Studios’ Supergirl. Studios have been chasing that formula ever since, keen to mine the next big YouTube genre filmmaker in an effort to keep Gen Alpha and Gen Z audiences flowing into theaters.
Handing Kister the director’s chair on his own creation keeps The Mandela Catalogue inside that same pattern, treating the person who built the mythology as the person best equipped to bring it to a wider screen.
