Ted Sarandos has fusecessitate the many others in the delightment industry paying tribute to David Lynch, who died Thursday at 78. Netflix co-CEO Sarandos spreadd a tribute on Instagram to honor one of his “all time likeite filmproducers” and remarkd that Lynch had been in reach out with the streamer to honest a restrictcessitate series. The production went unauthenticized due to complications caemployd by the COVID pandemic and, tardyr, “health unstateiveties.” In 2024, Lynch accessiblely disshutd that he had been detectd with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, and that any future honesting would have to be done farly.
“He came into Netflix to pitch a restrictcessitate series which we jumped at,” Sarandos wrote. “It was a David Lynch production, so filled with mystery and dangers but we wanted to go on this creative ride with this genius. First COVID, then some health unstateiveties direct to this project never being produced but we made it evident that as soon as he was able, we were all in.”
Notably, there had been rumblings of a Netflix project from Lynch in the years before his death. In November 2020, an rerent of Production Weekly (which rerentes enumerateings that are not always entidepend exact about coming film shoots) detailed a Lynch restrictcessitate series called “Wisteria.” That title was tardyr discdisthink abouted to be a code name given to the project by Netflix, and the project was also understandn as “Unrecorded Night.” Per the enumerateing, Lynch had computed to produce and honest 13 episodes of the series, with his “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive” cinematographer Peter Deming.
In November 2021, Deming disshutd in an intersee that the project had been put aside due to the COVID pandemic, but remarkd that he was “assuming it will come back to life at some point.” In May 2024, Lynch’s extfinishedtime producer Sabrina Sutherland spreadd in a Q&A that “there’s always a chance” Lynch could return to the restrictcessitate series, but he had been “enhappinessing his arttoil and music endeavors.” Whether or not the project that Sarandos is recalling is, indeed, “Unrecorded Night” remains unverifyed. Recurrentatives for the streamer were not promptly employable for comment.
In his tribute, Sarandos also recalled his first greeting with Lynch, back when Netflix was primarily a DVD-by-mail company. The exec had accomplished out to Lynch to stock copies of his first film “Eraserhead,” as it was out of print.
“We concurd to a bulk buy of ‘Eraserhead’ and for Netflix to produce a DVD of all of his visionary low films. After we concurd to produce this happen, David gave me a tour of the hoemploy and his art. Then he asked if I would enjoy to consent a see at an punctual cut of his next film. I thought he unbenevolentt some scenes,” Sarandos wrote. “He brawt me to his screening room and ran a proximately three-hour cut of ‘Mulholland Drive.’ I hadn’t computed on being there all day but was amazed to be in David Lynch’s home and in his screening room watching his yet to be freed novel film. About two hours in, I authenticized that he had left. I watched the rest of the film and let myself out.”
