Netflix Wins 7-Figure Auction For Horror Short Story ‘My Wife And I Bought A Ranch’

Mike Fleming Jr
·2 min read

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EXCLUSIVE: In another deal that shows the streamer-fueled appetite for promising material and packages, Netflix has made a low-seven-figure commitment between rights to the Matt Query short story My Wife & I Bought a Ranch, and scripting fees for the author’s brother Harrison Query to write the screenplay. The story appears in six parts on Reddit.

Scott Glassgold and his Ground Control Entertainment are producing. They came as part of the package, and talks are underway for 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen and Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear to produce with him. 21 Laps has Stranger Things and 11 other projects at Netflix.

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The bidding was just getting hot on this one Thursday night, and Netflix simply took it off the table by lunch Friday. It involves a couple, Harry and Sasha, who find their dream house in a ranch in Idaho. He’s a soldier getting back to life, and they bid what they can, which is a lowball offer. They get the ranch but find they are not alone. Soon they meet their neighbors, who inform them that there is a malevolent spirit in the valley, one that manifests itself by coming to the house in the same manner at the start of each season. There are certain steps that must be followed to keep the spirit out of their house, and the tension and violence grows with each gory ritual as the duel between the spirits and the ex-Marine becomes personal. The short story is very compelling and creepy in a Stephen King/M. Night Shyamalan way.

This is the second project in the past year Glassgold and Harrison Query have sold to Netflix, following last year’s Three Musketeers.

The Query Bros and Ground Control are repped by Verve. Ground Control also is repped by Ashley Silver.

Netflix would not comment.

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