Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has confirmed that David Lynch was working on a new show before his passing last week.
Cinema fans around the world were left reeling last week by the death of David Lynch, one of Americaās most individual filmmakers and the director of some unforgettable films such as Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and The Elephant Man.
Lynch was diagnosed with emphysema last year and the condition limited him physically, leaving the filmmaker to state at the time that he may never direct again.
With his passing last week, that sadly proved to be the case, leaving 2006ās Inland Empire as Lynchās final major work. Although as he did throughout his career, the filmmaker would continue to experiment with short films right up until last year.
We may have also gotten one final project from Lynch: a limited series that he was planning to make with Netflix. In a tribute to the late director, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed as much, stating (via Dark Horizons):
“It was a David Lynch production, so filled with mystery and risks but we wanted to go on this creative ride with this genius. First COVID, then some health uncertainties led to this project never being produced but we made it clear that as soon as he was able, we were all in… I will always wonder about what he had in mind for us with what would have been his last project.”
Netflix has never been shy about collaborating with major directors, and the company backed Lynchās noir short film, What Did Jack Do? featuring Lynch opposite a monkey in a hard-boiled stand-off.
While none of the following was ever confirmed, rumours about a major collaboration between Lynch and Netflix have been floating around for years, with the project reportedly titled Wisteria. Stories suggested that it might have starred Naomi Watts and Laura Dern, with its 13 hour-long episodes costing something like $85 million. Lynch would have written as well as directed.
Still, although a part of us will always wonder just what that project might have looked like, as Martin Scorsese pointed out in the wake of Lynchās passing, āwe were lucky to have himā and weāre very lucky to have the body of work he has left behindā.
With that in mind, hereās our very own Ryan Lambie paying tribute to the man himself by examining one of the greatest scenes that Lynch ever committed to celluloid, in a career that boasted many of them.