Ted Sarandos says COVID stopped a David Lynch Netflix series

The Netflix exec says "first Covid, then some health uncertainties" stopped production on the Lynch limited series rumored as Wisteria

Ted Sarandos says COVID stopped a David Lynch Netflix series

Over the last few days, the internet has filled up with tributes to the late David Lynch, celebrating the life and talents of one of the true, unique artists of 20th and 21st century America. That includes notes from the many people who worked with—or nearly worked with—Lynch on his many projects, the latter number including Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, who revealed that various rumors and industry murmurings that Lynch had been trying to develop a mysterious TV project with Netflix in the early 2020s were true.

Writing on Instagram, Sarandos discussed the limited series that was spoken of in the press under the tentative name Wisteria, saying, “It was a David Lynch production, so filled with mystery and risks but we wanted to go on this creative ride with this genius. First Covid, then some health uncertainties lead to this project never being produced but we made it clear that as soon as he was able, we were all in.” (Sarandos does not address a statement Lynch made in late 2024 that Netflix had recently passed on another project he’d written with Edward Scissorhands writer Caroline Thompson, an animated film called Snootworld.)

Sarandos’ post also highlights the genuine work Netflix (which carries the distinction of currently playing host to Lynch’s final published piece of filmmaking, the talking monkey short film What Did Jack Do?) did, back in its DVD days, to spread Lynch’s work. Sarandos says he personally reached out to Lynch back in the day to make a bulk buy of DVDs of the director’s feature film debut Eraserhead, which the service had had trouble stocking, conversations that led to Netflix producing a 2002 anthology of Lynch’s early short films. (It also led to Sarandos, an unabashed Lynch fan, getting to watch a three-hour early cut of Mulholland Drive in Lynch’s personal screening room, which sounds like a truly surreal experience, especially after Lynch apparently left halfway through, leaving Sarandos to let himself out of the director’s house.)

 
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