Riding off the back of A24’s Backrooms success, another big-name YouTube analog horror is set to make its theatrical debut. After what has been described as a “highly competitive 11-studio bidding war”, Amazon MGM will be adapting The Mandela Catalogue into a feature-length project with Steven Spielberg and Scott Stuber attached to produce. The film will be directed by the original series’ creator Alex Kister from a screenplay he and Tyler Clifton adapted.

The Mandela Catalogue first published its first video in June 2021 and since then has accumulated over 46.3 million views in the nineteen videos in its playlist. The series is centered around the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin, which is plagued by these supernatural and unstoppable entities called Alternates. These creatures can shapeshift into various human forms to manipulate enemies, i.e., all of humanity.

Spielberg and Holly Bario will produce for Amblin Entertainment. Stuber and Nick Nesbitt will produce under the United Artists banner. Paper Street Pictures’ Aaron B. Koontz will also produce alongside Kister and Clifton. One can only wonder whether or not Spielberg was inspired by Backrooms, which broke multiple box office records for A24, to adapt his own YouTube horror, but it is safe to say he made a great pick.

Start The Mandela Catalogue below: