Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Netflix

  • ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ Wins Best Animated Picture at Golden Globes

    ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ Wins Best Animated Picture at Golden Globes

    The Guillermo del Toro co-directed adaptation of Pinocchio has won Best Picture – Animated at the 80th Golden Globe Awards. Del Toro, of course, previously won a Best Director Golden Globe for his work on The Shape of Water in 2018. Other nominees in the Best Animated Picture category included:

    • Inu-Oh
    • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
    • Puss n’ Boots: The Last Wish
    • Turning Red

    This adaptation of Pinocchio comes after Disney had its own version of the classic children’s fantasy novel released this year by director Robert Zemeckis. The Disney+ exclusive film starring Tom Hanks was critically panned and labeled as a poor recreation of Disney’s 1940 animated film.

    Meanwhile, the Netflix-exclusive adaptation has been met with widespread acclaim. Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson‘s direction and usage of stop-motion were greatly lauded, as was the notion of tying the film historically to interwar, fascist Italy. It ultimately isn’t much of a surprise to see the film being awarded this Golden Globe.

    Pinocchio follows carpenter Gepetto creating a wooden puppet named Pinocchio that magically comes to life through the power of a Wood Sprite. From there, the story tells the tale of the young puppet in his journey to find morals and develop a familial relationship with his pseudo-father, while Gepetto also comes to terms with the puppet being his son.

    Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio stars Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett, among other notable Hollywood stalwarts. The film is currently available to view on Netflix.

  • Netflix No Longer Moving Forward With ‘Inside Job’ Season 2

    Netflix No Longer Moving Forward With ‘Inside Job’ Season 2

    We just recently discussed Netflix’s current habit of canceling shows left and right without any warning. Yet, after a motivating renewal for Wednesday, they once again pull the rug under our feet. After renewing Inside Job for a second season, it seems that they suddenly decide to not move forward with the series openly mocking the concept of conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, and more.

    The news hit the internet early in the day before creator Shion Takeuchi went on to confirm that we will no longer follow the story of Reagan and Brett into her accomplishing her goals. This is quite the bitter renewal, not only for the plot twist that was dropped but especially for all the animators involved with the project expecting to start working on the next season. Still, Takeuchi shared a heartfelt message thanking everyone for sticking around with the series so far.

    For those wondering how come we’re talking about a second season if they just released an additional batch of episodes? Well, Netflix tends to release a season in multiple parts, especially as the animation takes quite a lot of time before it is finished. As such, they tend to spread out the releases of a season. Sadly, the reason the series was canceled remains a mystery and it seems we’ll not have another round with our favorite incompetent shadow government. Now, all we have left is the real one watching our every move.

    Source: Twitter

  • Netflix Lands ‘They Both Die at the End’ Adaptation

    Netflix Lands ‘They Both Die at the End’ Adaptation

    Netflix has landed the series adaption of They Both Die at the End. The news was revealed on Monday by Deadline. Per the outlet, Netflix beat out five other streamers/networks for the project. The series is an adaption of the best-selling Young Adult novel They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

    The series adaptation hails from Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen, Yellowjackets executive producer Drew Comins and studio eOne. Also producing the project is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka musician Bad Bunny. While it’s unknown how many episodes the series will consist of, Deadline has reported the project has received a “significant, script-to-series commitment.”

    They Both Die at the End was previously in development at HBO with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and The Other Two co-creator Chris Kelly. At the time, the title was being developed as a half-hour comedy series.

    The book tells the story of Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, two teens who receive they’re going to die on September 5th. Despite it being their End Day, both boys seek to make a new friend ahead of their deaths and use an app called Last Friend to do so. The duo soon end up connecting and meet up “one last great adventure” with the promise of living a lifetime in a single day.

    The book was published in 2017 and quickly proved to be a breakout hit. The title’s popularity continued to grow over the course of the Pandemic, hitting No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list in 2021 thanks to BookTok and went on to spend 15 consecutive months as the No. 1 Young Adult title on the bestseller list, as well as the best-selling Young Adult title of 2021.

    Source: Deadline.

  • ‘Sea Beast’ Sequel in Development, Director Signs Deal with Netflix

    ‘Sea Beast’ Sequel in Development, Director Signs Deal with Netflix

    It looks like director Chris Williams has made quite the impression with Netflix, as he has now signed an overall deal with the streaming studio. It seems that he has two projects currently in development with one being a direct sequel to his film The Sea Beast. The animation legend has worked for 25 years at Disney Animation on various Oscar-winning and nominated films. It seems the deal came together shortly around when they were wrapping up work on his first project.

    We had just wrapped up on the Sea Beast and we were in the post-production phase when we started talking about me continuing at Netflix and working on something else. They were cool about letting me know they wanted me to stay. I felt so supported throughout the making of Sea Beast, even though it was a massively ambitious movie. That represents a financial investment and risk, and they were always cool letting me making the movie I wanted to make. I always value people’s opinions and I will always listen to what anyone has to say. But they never forced my hand and they never made me do anything other than let me do the movie I wanted to make. And I really appreciated that. And so I wanted to do it again.

    Chris Williams

    William‘s first big project outside of the usual walls of Disney was his Moby Dick-inspired story of The Sea Beast, which was inspired by movies from his youth. It’s no surprise that Netflix would want him back, as his film is the most-watched animated film in Netflix’s library even with some stellar competition already on the platform.

    With that success, Netflix has penned a deal with Williams to produce two originals for the studio. The sequel will follow the continuing adventures of Jacob Holland, but he’s also set his eyes on an original fantasy film that would be a combination of The Princess Bride meets The Lord of the Rings.

    I pitched an original fantasy story. And it would be similar to Sea Beast in that I would create a completely cohesive world. Tonally, it would be between Lord of the Rings and Princess Bride. It’s like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings where you have a history that leads up to the point where the story begins, and it’s a huge world with multiple events going on outside the story being told. But at the same time, I want to have fun with some of the conventions that Princess Bride did. It’s not parody and it’s not making fun of it, but it has a perspective that is light and refreshing.

    It definitely sounds like he has ambitious plans and Netflix is definitely on board to see where their investment in his vision goes. With the success of his previous project, it makes sense they wouldn’t want to lose the talent they have already working for them.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Netflix Has Renewed ‘Wednesday’ for Season 2

    Netflix Has Renewed ‘Wednesday’ for Season 2

    While rumors suggested Wednesday was heading to Prime Video for a second season, it was announced on Friday that Netflix has renewed the series for Season 2. The news was unveiled in a special renewal announcement video from Netflix.

    The video, which can be seen below, recaps the events of the first season. It opens to the gates of Nevermore Academy and follows Wednesday in a car as she recounts being hunted, haunted, and mimicked on the internet – with a clip showcasing the now iconic dance from Season 1. It moves to Jenna Ortega‘s Wednesday with a grin and a voiceover saying, “It’s been pure torture. Thank you.” There’s a promise of more misery being on the way followed by clips from Season 1.

    Wednesday, which hit Netflix in November, quickly went on to become one of the streamer’s biggest titles and a global phenomenon. Not only did it ignite a dance craze on the internet, but the series also ranks at No. 2 on the most popular (English) TV list with 1.237 billion hours viewed within its first 28 days. More impressively, Wednesday is now only the third series on Netflix to ever cross 1 billion hours viewed, following Dahmer and Stranger Things.

    Season 1 of the hit series is now streaming. A release date for Season 2 has not yet been revealed.

    Source: Deadline.

  • One Cancelation After Another: Netflix May Be Pushing Subscribers Away

    One Cancelation After Another: Netflix May Be Pushing Subscribers Away

    There’s something bizarre about the streaming age. We’ve hit a point where some aspects are being dialed back to make it more financially safe. Up until now, Netflix had free reign over the industry and could invest wherever they see fit. We commonly could always expect a second season for any project no matter how good or bad it was. They also became the home for many series that ended up getting canceled; some even hoped that their favorite show could get picked up to this day as Lucifer did some time ago.

    Yet, we’re not in that same era anymore. There’s so much competition out there with heavy hitters like Disney+, Hulu, Amazon, and HBO Max; the latter imploding in its own way. There are also various smaller offerings on the table trying to establish their own market with Peacock Paramount+, ESPN+, and many more. Even internationally some networks are establishing their very own streaming options to build their own markets. It’s slowly turning into a free-for-all that is making the investment quite a bit more difficult.

    So, the question becomes how Netflix can establish itself in that market. Would they innovate to offer something unique like their attempt to try interactive games in the platform? Would it be to invest in more unique IPs like a Power Rangers cinematic universe or other popular IP like Avatar: The Last Airbender or even One Piece? They are doing all that but it’s being overshadowed by one simple fact: most of their new shows don’t survive beyond a single season.

    We just got the news that 1899, a supernatural mystery series by the creators of Dark, has been canceled after one season. While some smaller releases simply don’t pull in an audience like Blockbuster and are more flexible with their format, it’s bizarre to see a high-investment like 1899 not even being given a longer run to truly bank on its entire mystery concept. The show was pitched with multiple seasons in mind and it pulled in an audience going by its performance on the streaming service. Yet, there’s no clear reason given on why the series was passed on.

    Netflix seemingly wants to recreate the virality they’ve seen with select projects. To some degree, their strategy seems to be to throw out as many shows to ensure that one or the other manages to pull in some massive viewership numbers. Wednesday was a huge success, even managing to compete with Stranger Things. Yet, it’s an external production and may even end up on a new platform if they don’t invest enough money; adding more pressure to the series to keep up its high viewership with future seasons.

    There is the other issue that Netflix doesn’t own all rights to their projects. There’s a reason that the various Marvel series left the streaming service with them having a prominent placement on Disney+. Wednesday even currently sits in an uncertain spot as MGM is now owned by Amazon and they could end up losing the rights to what would’ve been their next major hit franchise. Even The Sandman was on shaky ground due to it being a DC project and requiring Warner Bros. Discovery’s approval to move forward.

    So, Netflix is slowly losing the projects that would make it stand out while nuking anything that would have a chance to grow throughout multiple seasons. But that’s not all, as viewers are slowly losing interest in whatever they are offering if this trend continues. Why even invest any time into watching their newest series if the chances of a show surviving are so slim? There’s also the fear that shows one is invested in like the live-action One Piece or Avatar: The Last Airbender if their chances to survive are so minimal.

    Netflix opened up for transparency in how shows perform, but their actions don’t seem to fully reflect what they are looking for in how a series performs. Unlike Disney, they are far more dependent on the success of their series as they don’t fully invest in the merchandise until after it was proven successful; see how long it took before Squid Game or Stranger Things offerings found their way out into the market. Their wait-and-see approach goes against their high-investment gamble, as it creates a bizarre mixture of risk-averse actions with money being thrown out left and right.

    Some franchises are given quite a bit of time such as One Piece being in some form of production since 2017. A Power Rangers cinematic universe is being developed for quite some time now as well, which would indicate they are in for the long haul. Yet, their recent actions don’t seem to truly match some of their investment choices. It creates this feeling of a lack of commitment to these projects they invest in, which reflects upon the viewers as well.

    We also can’t forget Netflix’s desperate attempt to keep users from password sharing, which they hope would lead to an increase in subscribers. Yet, it doesn’t truly ensure any churn for the streamer, and may likely lead to some not wanting to return. It’s been ingrained into our culture by this point that it would push away subscribers without any true benefit for them to sign-up. At this rate, Netflix is becoming its own worst enemy and may push people away, as enough alternatives are on the market.

  • ‘Glass Onion’ Already Among Netflix’s Most-Watched Films

    ‘Glass Onion’ Already Among Netflix’s Most-Watched Films

    Perhaps the $450M investment was worth every penny after all, as Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has already broken some records over on Netflix. As of now, the film has already entered the top 10 most popular films of all time for the streamer, as it has pulled in 209.4M hours watched since its release on December 23rd. It has edged out The Kissing Booth from its position to become the 10th most-viewed film of all time for the service, and that within such a short amount of time.

    2021’s Red Notice still remains the number one most-watched film at 364M, but there’s a chance that if Glass Onion keeps up its current pace, it could become the first competition for the throne. It should also be noted that Knives Out also entered the Top 10 with around 17 million hours watched; showcasing the draw this film has for many to revisit the previous entry and a smart way to keep people rewatching what came before by making them Netflix exclusives.

    At this rate, Glass Onion has confirmed Netflix’s suspicion that there’s a lot of interest in the whodunnit franchise. Hopefully, a third entry could keep up this momentum and also inspire director Rian Johnson to continue beyond just a simple trilogy. He has hinted that this franchise was meant more like a unique story with only Benoit Blanc truly connecting them which gives him many chances to establish an ever-growing franchise that doesn’t abide by any specific rules.

    Source: DigitalSpy

  • New Report Debunks ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Potentially Leaving Netflix

    New Report Debunks ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Potentially Leaving Netflix

    Netflix has already been in the news for canceling another one of their major releases, but a report indicated it might even lose its biggest new release yet. The Addams Family reinterpretation took Wednesday Addams out of her usual family dynamic and put her in the middle of a murder mystery storyline at a boarding school. It was a massive hit with viewers and ended up even competing with Stranger Things for who holds the crown of most viewed series in its premiere week.

    Yet, there was some uncertainty with Wednesday due to MGM being involved with the production. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s recent purchase by Amazon had some wondering if they might want to bring this hit series to their own streaming service, Prime Video. A report by The Independent hinted at this being a grim possibility, but a new article by IndieWire seemingly debunks these claims.

    They highlight that the deal between Netflix and MGM was done long before the studio was purchased. While they acknowledge that it’s not unheard of that a series jump to a different streaming service, but that this may simply be reactionary to the lack of renewal for the hit series. The various cancelations simply add to that usual concern similar to how theories started to make the rounds when The Sandman’s renewal was dragged out by the streamer. For now, it seems like the series is safe on Netflix and we’ll just have to wait for

    Source: IndieWire

  • ‘Knives Out’ Director Loves the Idea of Including the Muppets in a ‘Glass Onion’ Sequel

    ‘Knives Out’ Director Loves the Idea of Including the Muppets in a ‘Glass Onion’ Sequel

    After Benoit Blanc’s latest mystery led to him confronting a group of rich and influential people on a Greek island, many online had some fun trying to imagine what a sequel to Glass Onion would look like. Besides the countless fan castings due to the massive casting of the first sequel, there was one fun idea that seemed almost too perfect. Given Benoit Blanc’s usual habits, Social Media was ablaze with the hilarious idea of him eventually joining a mystery caper that sees him with nonother than the Muppets.

    Yes, the internet started imagining what it would be like if Knives Out director Rian Johnson created a story that saw Blanc in the strangest mystery of his lifetime starring the loveable members of the Muppets. Luckily, it seems that Johnson is quite a fan of the idea after hearing about it in an interview that was shared by the official Glass Onion/Knives Out account on Twitter, where he revels in the idea.

    Of course, there’s the challenge that the Knives Out sequels are all owned by Netflix, and The Muppets are part of Disney’s library. Of course, we could see them making a deal potentially that may lead to these films landing on Disney+ in exchange for them using the Muppets. It would be quite a lot of fun to see Kermit and Miss Piggy rocking some of the amazing fashion we see in these projects, while one of the Muppets ended up stabbed on the ground.

    Source: Twitter

  • Netflix’s ‘1899’ Won’t Return for Season 2

    Netflix’s ‘1899’ Won’t Return for Season 2

    Netflix just won’t learn its lesson, will it? Once again, the streaming service has decided to cancel a show just before truly getting the ball rolling and testing the waters with how it could grow its audience across multiple seasons. 1899, the mystery series by the creators of Dark, will not be returning for a second season. Baran bo Odar took to his personal Instagram account to share the sad news, as Netflix has passed on continuing the series after its first season.

    It was an ambitious new project that explored the story of a steamship Cerberus on its journey across the Atlantic, which leads to them finding one that has vanished months earlier. The first season ended on a cliffhanger that was going to build upon the story elements introduced going into the second season, but it seems we won’t be getting that after all.

    Netflix has a bad habit of canceling shows that are only getting started, as they mainly focus on whatever project can break a record. It’s not realistic to put all their eggs in one basket, especially while they are pushing out high-budget shows with minimal promotion and hoping about their virality. Wednesday is not the norm but rather an exception.

    1899 not surviving even with the involvement of the talented creative team of Dark, it does open up the challenge of what other show might get canceled before it gets going. Streaming services can provide projects for longer periods of time but they mainly rely on whatever can pull in a massive viewership just in its opening weekend. We’ll have to see what it means for other projects in the future.

    Source: Instagram