Duffer Brothers

## The Duffer Brothers

* Duffer Brothers
* Matt
* Ross

**Matt Duffer** and **Ross Duffer** (born February 15, 1984), known professionally as **The Duffer Brothers**, are American directors, editors, actors, producers and writers. They are twin brothers best known for their creation *Stranger Things*, a Netflix original series.

## History

### Early life

Matt and Ross Duffer grew up in Durham, North Carolina. They attended the Duke School for Children and then, later, Charles E. Jordan High School. They developed an obsession for film at an early age. In the third grade, the brothers received a Hi8 video camera from their parents. Each summer, they would use this camera to create their own feature length films. Their first film was a feature length adaptation of the trading card game *Magic: The Gathering*. In high school, they developed an interest in genre, and started creating horror films.

The Duffers moved to Orange, California, attending the Dodge College of Film and Arts located at Chapman University. While there, they wrote and directed a few short films, among them being a short called *We All Fall Down*. This film won Best Short at the 2005 Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas. In 2007, they were given the opportunity to meet with producer Mace Neufeld, who had produced the film *The Hunt for Red October*. Under his Guidance, they created their senior thesis project, a short film titled *Eater*. This film was one of five films selected that represented Chapman at the annual First Cut screening at the DGA.

### Early Career

After college, they wrote the script for the post-apocalyptic horror film *Hidden*. The script was eventually acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011, and the Duffers directed the film in 2012. The film was released in 2015.

After director M. Night Shyamalan read the screenplay for *Hidden*, the brothers were contacted by producer Donald De Line, asking them to be writers for Fox's science fiction television series *Wayward Pines*. They wrote four episodes for the show.

At one point, the Duffers requested to direct the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Stephen King's *It*, but were denied as they weren't established.

### *Stranger Things*

While the Duffers had always been interested in film, they became excited about the prospect of television becoming more cinematic. This gave them the idea of taking something like *True Detective* or *It* and making it an eight-ten hour miniseries.

The initial inspiration for the plot of *Stranger Things* came from *Prisoners*, a 2013 film starring Hugh Jackman where a man searches for his missing daughter. Wanting the show to have something more, the Duffers began discussing “more childlike sensibilities”, like having a monster devouring people. They also discussed bizarre experiments conducted by the government during the Cold War that they had read about, especially Project MKUltra. This led to the show taking place in the '80s, which also allowed them to pay homage to all the films they had loved growing up.

However, two weeks after they conceived the idea they threw it away, believing there was no way they'd be able to create it due to their inexperience with television. When they were hired as writers for *Wayward Pines*, they used the opportunity to learn how to create a television series.

They wrote the show's pilot script (then titled *Montauk*), and created a 20 page pitch book with the intention of resembling a Stephen King book. They also created a mock trailer composed of 20-30 films that had inspired the series. They were rejected by 15-20 networks, a major concern being that four of the major characters were kids, but the show itself wasn't necessarily for children. Execs wanted the show to either be made for children, or to have the story centered on Hopper investigating the paranormal occurrences in the town. The Duffers refused to comply with these demands, as they felt everything interesting about the story would be lost. In late 2014, Dan Cohen, the Vice President of 21 Laps Entertainment, brought the script to director-producer Shawn Levy. Levy immediately saw the script's potential and knew he had to do whatever it took to bring the Duffers' vision to life. They then pitched the series to Netflix, and within 24 hours they had bought the entire season. After it was decided on early April 2015 that the show will be targeting for a 2016 release, the Duffers began their writing and brought both Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen to start the casting and filming as executive producers of the series.

Following the successful release of the first season on July 15, 2016, Netflix officially confirmed the renewal for the second season at the end of August. But the Duffer brothers had revealed that the series was already renewed for a second season before the premiere of the first and they had actually been writing the whole time, with Netflix's decision to announce it a month later. While the core story of season two had been decided before the first season aired, the Duffers took the feedback from audience reactions to modify certain elements of the second season. They also opted to call it *Stranger Things 2* and wanted to treat it as more of a sequel instead of a continuation. Furthermore, the Duffers wrote the second season so that the combined two seasons felt like a complete work, while also setting some elements to go forward if more seasons were to be green-lit.

## Credits

### Writers

#### Season One

* Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers
* Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street
* Chapter Eight: The Upside Down

#### Season Two

* Chapter One: MADMAX
* Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak
* Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer
* Chapter Nine: The Gate

#### Season Three

* Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy?
* Chapter Two: The Mall Rats
* Chapter Seven: The Bite
* Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt

#### Season Four

* Chapter One: The Hellfire Club
* Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse
* Chapter Seven: The Massacre At Hawkins Lab
* Chapter Eight: Papa
* Chapter Nine: The Piggyback

### Directors

#### Season One

* Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers
* Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street
* Chapter Five: The Flea and the Acrobat
* Chapter Six: The Monster
* Chapter Seven: The Bathtub
* Chapter Eight: The Upside Down

#### Season Two

* Chapter One: MADMAX
* Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak
* Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer
* Chapter Nine: The Gate

#### Season Three

* Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy?
* Chapter Two: The Mall Rats
* Chapter Seven: The Bite
* Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt

#### Season Four

* Chapter One: The Hellfire Club
* Chapter Two: Vecna's Curse
* Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab
* Chapter Eight: Papa
* Chapter Nine: The Piggyback

## Gallery

Stranger Things Spotlight The Duffer Brothers Netflix
## Trivia

* They’ve have been making films since they were in third grade using a Hi8 video camera that was a gift from their parents.
* They desperately wanted to direct the remake of Stephen King’s *It* but were turned down.
* Their original idea for *Stranger Things* was *Montauk*.
* They are twin brothers and have had a close relationship since their childhood.

## References

1. ↑ "Twitter status made by the writers of the show."
2. ↑ ”Durham’s Duffer Brothers land on Netflix”*The News & Observer*. July 9, 2016.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 ”Matt and Ross Duffer Discuss ‘Stranger Things,’ a Nightmare on ’80s Street”*The New York Times*. August 11, 2016
4. ↑ ”Who Are the Duffer Brothers? Learn More About the Creators of ‘Stranger Things’”*Slash Film*. August 3, 2016
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 ”‘Stranger Things’: Creators Matt and Ross Duffer Reveal Plans for a Possible Season 2”*Collider. July 31, 2016.*
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 ”The Duffer Brothers Talk 'Stranger Things' Influences, 'It' Dreams and Netflix Phase 2”*The Hollywood Reporter*. August 1, 2016.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 ”'Stranger Things': How Two Brothers Created Summer's Biggest TV Hit”*Rolling Stone*. August 3, 2016.
8. ↑ ”Inside ‘Stranger Things’: The Duffer Bros. on How They Made the TV Hit of the Summer”*Daily Beast*. August 7, 2016.
9. ↑ ”‘Stranger Things’: Shawn Levy on Directing Winona Ryder, Netflix’s Viral Model”*Variety*. July 22, 2016.
10. ↑ "The Duffer Brothers Are Reading Your 'Stranger Things' Reddit Theories"*Hollywood Reporter* October 13, 2016.
11. ↑ "'Stranger Things' Creators Duffer Brothers on Going 'Big' in Season 2""*Variety* June 7, 2017.
12. ↑ ""Stranger Things: How many seasons will the Netflix series go?""*Entertainment Weekly* February 13,2017.