With David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive), a unique voice in the film and series world left us last week. An incomparable artist who was not always the most financially successful, but who inspired millions with his uncompromising vision. His last project could have been a Netflix series. Some even thought it was Season 4 of Twin Peaks. It no longer came about.
In addition to numerous warm farewell texts from long-time companions like Kyle MacLachlan and Naomi Watts, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos also spoke up on Instagram (via Variety). This didn’t go down well with many Lynch fans.
Why Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos made himself unpopular with David Lynch fans
The Netflix boss wrote: “David and I spoke a few times, but years later he came to Netflix and pitched a miniseries, which I jumped on. It was a David Lynch production, so full of mystery and risksbut we wanted to go on the creative ride with this genius. First Covid and then some health uncertainties meant the project was never produced, but we made it clear that we were ‘all in’as soon as he is able.”
If you look at the social media comment columns under the news about this Netflix obituary, you’ll find a version of the accusation everywhere: “Liar!”. There are two main reasons for this. For one thing, David Lynch’s longtime producer Sabrina Sunderland revealed last year that the miniseries Wisteria aka Unrecorded Night would not have been a Twin Peaks project and used the incriminating term “discontinued”which is all too painfully associated with Netflix.
On the other hand, Netflix repeatedly rejected another David Lynch project called Snootworld, which also came out last year. It was about an animation project that the filmmaker had concocted with screenwriter Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands). Two lukewarm smoking guns that didn’t necessarily convince David Lynch’s fans of their genuine interest in his projects.
The only two Lynch works currently on Netflix are his 1984 Dune film adaptation and his delightful short film What Did Jack Do?, in which the director interrogates a criminal monkey.