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The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
171–180 of 366 posts
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the money is gone without anything to show for it, after (allegedly) spending lots of it on... not TV show stuff. You don't see a problem with that? Did we read the same article? I don't know about you, but if someone gave me $55m to make a TV show, I'd like to think I wouldn't blow $6m of that betting on the stock market. If even one of these allegations are true (and honestly I don't really see a reason to…
> I don't know about you, but if someone gave me $55m to make a TV show, I'd like to think I wouldn't blow $6m of that betting on the stock market. The article does claim he lost that, but then claims he made more back. It claims Netflix transferred him $11M, he tried played markets and lost then speculated crypto and more than doubled the money, then bought toys, and was still up: Netflix wired Mr. Rinsch’s producti…
And? That’s not why Netflix gave him the money. They could have done that themselves.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO Dune needs to be a tv show that likely runs several seasons so all the world and backstory can be explored properly so the audience can get a full experience. Think The Wire in terms of plot discovery and forwarding (leaves out bogus exposition, means you have to pay attention to get things etc that moves along at a good pace and has forward development each episode. It would be expensive, but it’s the only way I…
The problem is that nobody wants to acquire Dune to be a critical success. It needs to be a commercial success. This of course implies the addition of much lazier exposition than The Wire, which IIRC never had more than about 4 million viewers. I'm sure it's different in the streaming era, but more and more, audiences are making it clear that they are definitely not tuning in to shows that require thought.
Same as it ever was. The “proles” want to be entertained not made to think - this is an observation that dates back a long time.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#174> Netflix executives grew so concerned with Mr. Rinsch’s behavior that they consulted with the Los Angeles Police Department’s threat management unit, a person with knowledge of the matter said. A Police Department psychologist reviewed Mr. Rinsch’s texts and emails and concluded that he didn’t seem like a threat to himself or others. Were executives concerned about possible risks to people, or were they trying to us…
There is more:
> A correction was made on Nov. 22, 2023 : An earlier version of this article misstated the status of Carl Erik Rinsch’s series when Netflix bought the rights to it. There was a script, but it was not complete."
'is not complete' can mean many things.
Also Netflix initially planned more than one season, but then they backtracked when the script was extending beyond the first season - there seems to be a gap in the narrative of the article.
> Netflix gave Mr. Rinsch final cut, a privilege it had previously bestowed on only a few directors. And it assured Mr. Rinsch and Ms. Rosés that they would remain “locked for life” to all subsequent seasons and spinoffs
vs
> Mr. Rinsch had missed several production milestones and was toggling between two versions of the script, a shorter one that matched the original 13-episode plan and one twice as long that would have required greenlighting a second season.
Also 'missed several production milestones' is a bit vague. That year we had Corona, which would naturally lead to some sort of delays.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
SciFi did a miniseries, just before or just after they changed their name. It wasn't bad. I think it was about 10 hours. The problem is that a lot of the payoff is at the end of book 3, and then book four tips the whole thing upside down with some deep religious and philosophical elements that I'm not sure everyone is ready for. I'm always a little surprised how few people have read Dune relative to Lord of the Rings…
I don't understand all the love for Dune. I read it, it was ok, and that was it. 3 underwhelming film adaptations is more than enough. Special effects don't make a movie anymore. What matters is plot (and music). For example, "Colossus the Forbin Project" is very good. Some other very good scifi movies: . Invaders from Mars . Flash Gordon (1980) . Terminator . Star Wars IV . Alien
Strange choices.
ESB is in almost every way a much better film than Star Wars.
T2 much better than T1.
Aliens better than Alien.
I haven't seen the other two, bet I'll just assume they also have better sequels.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very different situation. For Coyote vs Acme, the movie was finished properly and the only issue was WB projected it would make more money as a tax write-off. There was no malfeasance from the director/producer/etc. For this one... well, read the article. The director/producer did some crazy stuff with the money.
It is not possible to make more money as a tax write-off. That's not how corporate income taxes work. The expense of making a movie can always be written off regardless of whether it is released or. If the studio decided not to release it then that was done for other reasons.
A failed film generates a write-off whether or not it's released. If released, then the losses (and associated write-offs) are taken over the course of several years, since many of the costs of the movie are treated as capitalized costs that get expensed over time.
If the movie is not released, then the expenses can get written off all at once. Due to the way financial accounting works (e.g. time value of money) an immediate deduction is more valuable than a deduction over time. In this case, the value would have been from offsetting profits from Barbie. It's a small savings, only about 6m in reduced taxes (on an approximate 30m writedown, taking into account that WB did not fully finance the film itself and so losses would be shared with the other investors), for an effective loss to WB of 24m.
Based on the 2x Budget principle (marketing and distribution combined are generally the same as the production budget), with a 70m production budget, Coyote vs Acme was expected to make significantly less than 140m gross if released. Given that they were willing to completely write off the film, this means they were expecting a total box office gross of significantly less than $115 million.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#177Great piece by John Carreyrou, who broke the Theranos story and wrote the unbelievably entertaining Bad Blood. I wouldn’t be surprised if this story is his next book.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the money is gone without anything to show for it, after (allegedly) spending lots of it on... not TV show stuff. You don't see a problem with that? Did we read the same article? I don't know about you, but if someone gave me $55m to make a TV show, I'd like to think I wouldn't blow $6m of that betting on the stock market. If even one of these allegations are true (and honestly I don't really see a reason to…
> I don't know about you, but if someone gave me $55m to make a TV show, I'd like to think I wouldn't blow $6m of that betting on the stock market. The article does claim he lost that, but then claims he made more back. It claims Netflix transferred him $11M, he tried played markets and lost then speculated crypto and more than doubled the money, then bought toys, and was still up: Netflix wired Mr. Rinsch’s producti…
Making more back doesn't really change the misappropriation. Martin Shkreli went to prison for doing effectively the same exact thing.
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand all the love for Dune. I read it, it was ok, and that was it. 3 underwhelming film adaptations is more than enough. Special effects don't make a movie anymore. What matters is plot (and music). For example, "Colossus the Forbin Project" is very good. Some other very good scifi movies: . Invaders from Mars . Flash Gordon (1980) . Terminator . Star Wars IV . Alien
Alien(s) - FTFY ;)
There’s so much good dialog in Aliens that I’m always amazed was written in the mid 80s and would play just as well if it were new today (mostly spoken by Hudson): “Game over, man!”, “yeah, but it’s a dry heat”, “ Somebody said "alien" she thought they said ‘illegal alien’ and signed up!”
Re: The $55M saga of a Netflix series nobody will ever see
#180Since we're discussing the economics of film/TV studios, and their weird decisions. I'd like to understand why the studios are still making Star Trek shows. Each one seems to be more poorly received than the last. That's costing studios far more than $55M. Picard alone cost ~$9M per episode according to Wikipedia.
Star Trek shows last for decades as revenue generators through syndication, streaming, merchandising, novels, movies, theme park events, and etcetera. A new series may draw people in, many of whom will stay to watch the older series. Now that the series are basically only available on streaming through CBS/Paramount I don't know what syndication gains are being made, but I'd guess a huge percentage of the CBS/Paramou…
There's a cable channel, Heroes and Icons, that Sunday - Friday shows back to back TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise, starting at 8:00 Eastern.