Well, this could be potentially highly ironic. Director and current Cannes Jury President Pedro Almodovar, like the Cannes organizers, has been pooh-poohing Netflix. During the opening press conference of the fest, the Spanish filmmaker suggested that Netflix movies wouldn’t be considered for the Palme d’Or because their films don’t normally get released on the big screen.
“I think this is the only way to make them survive and because I personally do not conceive not only the Palme d’Or but any other prize being given to a film and then not being able to see this film on a large screen,” he said at the time. A big proponent of cinema, this isn’t the first time Almodovar has suggested streaming channels and TV are not his thing. And so, the report today could be highly contradictory.
READ MORE: It’s More Money, More Problems For Jason Bateman In First Trailer For Netflix’s ‘Ozark’
Spanish outlet Fotogramas is reporting that Almodovar will be directing a Netflix series. Fotogramas writes (in Google translate so it’s a bit of broken English), “Despite his initial reluctance [with Netflix and streaming channels], he will now carry out a series with a script with the mark of the house: a choral story like those that already have us accustomed in the big screen.”
It should be noted that the director did backtrack on his Netflix-won’t-win-awards statement after seeing Bong Joon-Ho’s “Okja.” “There’s nothing worse than being misunderstood or poorly translated,” he told Anne Thompson. “Not me nor any member in the jury will make any distinction between the two Netflix films and the rest of the films in competition. We’re here to judge artistically the 19 movies that the festival has selected. We have said so before, but I want it to be clear.”
The rub is Almodovar’s own film production company El Deseo has sent Fotogramas a denial of the news but they’re still insisting it’s an “exclusive.” Fake news? We shall see, but one has to admit the idea of Almodovar making a Netflix series would be a tantalizing one.
Update: here’s the denial statement from El Deseo which sounds pretty definitive.
El Deseo “strongly denies the information that appeared as exclusive in the magazine Fotogramas in which [it was] reported that Pedro Almodóvar has reached an agreement with Netflix to direct a series. No one in the magazine has contacted any of the members of the El Deseo team, who could have easily denied their exclusive and [they] have opted to publish it without checking the information first.”