It’s been a talking point in movie circles for a couple of years now: Netflix apparently has a clause for its filmmakers to repeat movie and TV show plots in their dialogue. But according to Netflix Film Chief Dan Lin, there’s no such thing, and it’s laughable for anyone to suggest so.
Variety reports that Lin spoke about the rumor at a press conference for the streamer’s upcoming slate of releases. “There is no such principle,” he told the press, dismissing the claim entirely. Lin’s statements come on the heels of recent remarks by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, stars of “The Rip,” on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, suggesting that Netflix asked script writers to repeat “the plot three or four times in the dialogue” due to audiences being on their phones. A joke at the Oscars this past Sunday broached the issue again, with Conan O’Brien and Sterling K. Brown sharing a joke about how Netflix ight remake a classic film like “Casablanca” under those parameters.
But for Lin, and Netflix, the joke is more about how anyone believes this story in the first place. “We actually all laughed when we watched that bit at the Oscars, but there’s no such principle,” the Film Chief continued. “I mean, if you watch our movies or TV shows, we don’t repeat our plot. So I don’t know where that comment came from. Certainly, we are focused on making great movies.”
Scripted Series head Jinny Howe echoed Lin’s sentiment about a creative clause for plot “explainers,” quipping that Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria is “kind of [the] exposition and very against being overly explainer about things.” Howe also said the “explainer” rumor is also at the disservice of Netflix subscribers themselves. “We know how savvy the audiences are,” she continued. “We know how much fans are paying attention, and we are really treating them as they are sophisticated and as smart as they are.” Bajaria chimed in with her own take on the rumor: “I think it’s so offensive to creators and filmmakers, to think that first of all, we would give them a bad note like that, and they would just take it.”
Lin also had comments about another intriguing Netflix story: whether the streamer will change its theatrical release windows in the wake of losing out to Paramount-Skydance in the acquisition of Warner Bros. Said Lin, “give us time.” ‘We are a streaming first company. “The strategy works really well for us. You can see our members watch seven movies a month. But you can see how, through the Warners process, we built a closer relationship with the theater owners. We are looking for what special events that we can have in theatrical but just give us some time to figure out what we’re doing.”
Does that mean no 45-day theatrical windows for future Netflix movies, like co-CEO Ted Sarandos spoke about late last year? Bajaria confirmed that Sarandos’ statements referred explicitly to Warner Bros. movies, not Netflix ones, when it looked like the streamer would indeed acquire the studio in December. With that deal having fallen through, it’s a different story now. “I don’t want you to conflate the two. When Ted was talking about what Warner Bros., it’s in a different business than Netflix is in,” Bajaria said. “But we have obviously done certain things in theatrical.”
