Netflix has picked up the rights to “Jack of Spades,” a drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans, and is preparing an aggressive awards campaign aimed at the next Oscar season, according to people familiar with the deal. The acquisition places a low-budget, long-shelved crime story at the center of a major streaming awards push.

The film follows a private investigator working the margins of a city still struggling to rebuild after the 2005 hurricane. He reluctantly takes on two murder cases - one in the present, the other three decades old - and finds himself navigating a New Orleans underworld populated by French Quarter jewelers, bayou barflies, uptown socialites, street prostitutes, voodoo fortune tellers, corrupt police lieutenants and homicidal Mardi Gras jesters. None of these figures can be trusted on their own, and as the detective, Jack Spade, works the cases, he cannot shake the growing evidence that his father may have been involved in both killings.

“Jack of Spades” is an English-language drama made within the Hollywood industry. Its release date is listed as January 1, 2010, though the film has remained largely unknown to mainstream audiences. Miceal Og O’Donnell directed. The cast includes Joseph Meissner as Jack Spade Jr., Jennifer Coolidge as Monica, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn as Candi Devereaux, Marc Macaulay as Old Dymond, Holly Rochelle as Lydia Dymond, Dan De Luca as Inspector Tyler Langston and David Joseph Martinez as Inspector Dwayne Norris. The running time is not currently available.

Netflix’s interest in the title is unusual on its face. TMDb currently rates the film 1 out of 10, a figure that reflects how little traction it has found with viewers rather than any measured critical consensus. A score that low would normally discourage a buyer from building a seasonal campaign around a title. Yet the streamer is said to see the material - a father-son mystery set against a wounded city - as the kind of serious drama that awards voters have historically rewarded when it is packaged and positioned carefully.

The timing of the pickup gives Netflix room to mount a full campaign ahead of the next Oscar season. The company has spent recent years building a reputation for buying finished films and then steering them through the awards calendar with screenings, talent appearances and targeted advertising. A New Orleans-set drama with a large ensemble and a grim family secret fits that playbook, even if the film arrives with almost no public profile.

Awards strategists caution that a campaign cannot conjure reviews or audience enthusiasm where neither exists. The 1/10 rating will follow the film into the race, and Oscar voters may be wary of a title that has circulated for more than a decade without attracting attention. Netflix’s push will therefore depend heavily on reframing the movie for awards audiences - emphasizing its sense of place, its portrait of a city abandoned by institutions, and the moral weight of a detective investigating his own family.

The supporting cast offers some recognizable names. Coolidge, known for broad comic roles, appears here in a drama, a contrast that could become a talking point in interviews and profiles. Blanc-Biehn and the rest of the ensemble give the film a deep bench that a campaign could highlight in supporting-performance categories, though no specific category plans have been announced.

For now, Netflix has not disclosed a release strategy, a budget or a date for the campaign to begin. The film’s 2010 release date and its unknown runtime suggest the company will need to introduce it to critics and guild members essentially from scratch. The central question is whether a story about a city’s long recovery - and one detective’s refusal to look away from his father’s possible guilt - can resonate with voters now.

The acquisition also underscores how aggressively Netflix is willing to search outside the conventional pipeline for awards material. Rather than limiting itself to festival premieres and high-profile studio leftovers, the streamer is betting that a forgotten drama with a strong premise and an accomplished director can be rebuilt into a contender. Whether that bet pays off will become clearer as the next awards season takes shape.

Source: Hollywood Reporter