Netflix Exec Admits Certain Directors Need Not Apply

Dan Lin, the chairman of Netflix’s film division, said in a newly published interview that he is not interested in working with movie directors targeting theatrical releases. 

“There is a group of filmmakers who still want theatrical. Those are filmmakers that we’ve accepted we just won’t work with,” Lin told The New York Times. 

He also emphasized that Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of “The Chronicles of Narnia” is an exception to this rule and not indicative of a new standard. His blunt comments come on the heels of Netflix’s major merger deal with Warner Bros. falling apart as Paramount Studios swooped in and made an offer it couldn’t refuse.

Some of the chief concerns critics had about the proposed Netflix/Warner Bros. merger centered around the future of theaters and theatrical releases if Netflix cornered such a large piece of the entertainment market.

The company heads promised that Netflix would have taken good care of the Warner Bros. IP (intellectual property) and “strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.,” as they said when the deal fell apart earlier this year.

“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the execs concluded.

Though neither company (Paramount or Netflix) were favored by those in the industry, Netflix was viewed with a particularly skeptical eye as some questioned the streaming giant’s commitment to the theatrical experience. Others view Paramount CEO David Ellison’s apparently close relationship with the Trump administration as a reason to worry.

When the deal was still on the table, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos dispelled rumors that he would shorten theatrical release times if the company acquired Warner Bros.

“When this deal closes, we will own a theatrical distribution engine that is phenomenal and produces billions of dollars of theatrical revenue that we don’t want to put at risk. We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows,” Sarandos told The New York Times in January.

“I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office,” he said at the time.

Now that Warner Bros. won’t be part of Netflix’s portfolio, it appears the streaming giant is abandoning theatrical efforts almost entirely.