Ted Sarandos explains David Lynch’s unrealized Netflix series
Ted Sarandos has joined many others in the entertainment industry in paying tribute to David Lynch, who died on Thursday at the age of 78. Netflix co-CEO Sarandos shared a tribute on Instagram in honor of one of his “favorite filmmakers of all time” and noted that Lynch had been in touch with the streamer to direct a limited series. Production remained unrealized due to complications caused by the COVID pandemic and later “health uncertainties.” In 2024, Lynch publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, and that any future directing would have to be done remotely.
“He came to Netflix to pitch a limited series that we started working on,” Sarandos wrote. “It was a David Lynch production, so full of mystery and risk, but we wanted to go on this creative ride with this genius. First COVID and then some health uncertainties led to this project never being produced, but we made it clear that as soon as he was able to do so, we were all on it.
It was striking that in the years before his death there were rumors about a Netflix project by Lynch. In November 2020, an issue of Production Weekly (which publishes lists that are not always entirely accurate about upcoming film shoots) detailed a Lynch limited series called “Wisteria.” It later turned out that title was a codename given to the project by Netflix, and the project was also known as ‘Unrecorded Night’. According to the listing, Lynch planned to write and direct 13 episodes of the series, with his “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive” cinematographer Peter Deming.
In November 2021, Deming announced in an interview that the project had been put aside due to the COVID pandemic, but noted that he “assumed it would come back to life at some point.” In May 2024, Lynch’s longtime producer Sabrina Sutherland shared in a Q&A that “there’s always a chance” that Lynch could return to the limited series, but that he was “enjoying his artwork and music efforts.” Whether the project Sarandos remembers is indeed “Unrecorded Night” remains unconfirmed. Representatives for the streamer were not immediately available for comment.
In his tribute, Sarandos also recalled his first meeting with Lynch, when Netflix was primarily a DVD-by-mail company. The director had contacted Lynch to stock copies of his first film ‘Eraserhead’ as it was out of print.
“We have agreed to a bulk purchase of ‘Eraserhead’ and with Netflix to produce a DVD featuring all of its visionary short films. After we agreed to make this happen, David gave me a tour of the house and its art. He then asked if I wanted to watch an early cut of his next film. I thought he meant some scenes,” Sarandos wrote. ‘He took me to his screening room and played an almost three-hour recording of ‘Mulholland Drive.’ I didn’t plan on being there all day, but was amazed to find myself in David Lynch’s home and screening room watching his upcoming new film. About two hours later I realized he had left. I watched the rest of the movie and let myself out.
