Scott Stuber has been head of film at Netflix since 2017 – but is standing down from the role.
Scott Stuber is departing from his role as the head of Netflix’s film division after seven years in the job, it’s been announced.
Stuber is leaving the post to form his own production company, Bloomberg reports, having overseen plenty of change during his time at the streaming giant. He’s led the company’s film production arm through several phases, including a push for critical recognition that saw the financing and production of Academy Award- and BAFTA-winning The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and Oscar winners Marriage Story and Roma.
Stuber has also overseen the company’s transition from pumping out more than one film a week to a scaling back that favours quality over quantity in recent years. The executive has also guided Netflix’s transition into the tentpole filmmaking era, with $200-$300m budget films like Red Notice and The Gray Man being made to try and supercharge the company’s bid to carve out a space in the blockbuster sphere.
Whether that has worked is arguable, with the quality of some of those big-ticket films being a point of debate, not least with Zack Snyder’s recently released Rebel Moon. As other streamers such as Amazon and Apple have indicated that they will move towards a more traditional approach of adopting theatrical exclusivity windows, Netflix has stuck to its guns, refusing to move into theatrical releases, apart from the most brief of flirtations.
That decision is one that comes from the very top of the company and whoever replaces Stuber at Netflix will likely have to contend with the same scenario.
With Bela Bajaria’s recent promotion to CCO at the company, Stuber was no longer reporting directly to the company’s top brass which may well have influenced his thinking.
He’s certainly overseen a major evolution in the company’s film division, although a Best Picture Oscar continues to elude the streamer and there are those that question the value of such huge budget films as Red Notice. We’ll bring you news on Stuber’s replacement when we hear it but it likely won’t be until March or April.
Unrelated: we happen to be compiling our CV, and have a first interview lined up…
