Netflix’s aversion to big cinema releases is said to be causing friction with filmmakers – and so its Narnia film may now head to IMAX.
Here’s an interesting morsel of news that has emerged concerning the reported friction between Barbie director Greta Gerwig and streaming giant Netflix.
Gerwig has signed up to direct two Narnia films for Netflix, formalising the agreement before Barbie hit cinemas last year and became a cultural phenomenon. Barbie's success in turn rocketed Gerwig’s stock in Hollywood, giving the filmmaker more creative options than she’s ever enjoyed before.
However, because she’d already signed a deal with Netflix to make the two Narnia films before Barbie’s huge success, Gerwig doesn’t really have the opportunity to exercise her newfound cachet. When she has talked publicly about making the Narnia films, she’s expressed a fair amount of trepidation too, admitting that the process has been giving her ‘nightmares’.
According to a report from Puck earlier this month, Gerwig has become increasingly unhappy with Netflix’s refusal to countenance some kind of big screen release for the Narnia films, which some are speculating will shoot back to back. While filmmakers have grumbled before about Netflix’s model, few have the cachet to actually change the streamer’s refusal to grant its films some kind of theatrical release. Scorsese was granted the privilege with The Irishman, Rian Johnson to a lesser degree with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery but the list doesn’t extend too far beyond that.
There’s no denying that Gerwig has plenty of juice right now though, and according to Puck the filmmaker might just get her own way yet. Greg Belloni, of Puck, took to social media to state:
‘Interesting: Greta Gerwig is talking to IMAX about putting her NARNIA movie on 2000 screens, potentially before it hits Netflix. Huge if this happens.’
Bloomberg adds that IMAX has already agreed to add the films to its slate, meaning that it really does come down to Netflix to make the choice. As Belloni points out, it would be huge if this did happen although we have been here before, with Netflix boss Ted Sarandos calling the limited theatrical release of Glass Onion 'an experiment’ when that film appeared on some cinema screens, including here in the UK back in 2022.
That was pretty much the beginning and the end of the experiment though, and the company hasn’t really moved in that direction again. Still, we can see why an ad hoc partnership with IMAX might be acceptable to Netflix, should this eventually happen with Gerwig’s Narnia films. Netflix likes to position itself as the premium streaming experience, while IMAX is very much viewed as the the highest-quality way to experience a film theatrically.
We’ve been disappointed here before too, but should this happen, it would set a precedent for future filmmakers to at least make the case for their films with Netflix to get a theatrical release. We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.