Olsens 'teetering' on 'Fuller House' role
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Arrested Development fans, take heart. Netflix is working toward getting another season of the cult comedy.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, speaking to TV critics and writers Tuesday on the opening day of the Television Critics Association summer press tour, said the streaming service is “plugging along” to get a new season made.
“It is our intention to have a new season of Arrested Development and all the negotiations are under way,” he said.
However, “It’s a very complex deal,” he said of the comedy, which ran for a season on Netflix after its original run on Fox. The show is owned by 20th Century Fox and cast and producers are busy with other projects, so scheduling is not simple, he said.
MORE: TV season preview
Sarandos spoke of Netflix’s progress in original programming, how it launched House of Cards, its first major series, in early 2013 and now, less than three years later, is nominated for 34 Emmys, including three best series nods. It will have 475 hours of original programming available in the U.S. this year.
He said Netflix, which doesn’t release audience numbers, builds and designs a show “based on the audience we believe it can attract. … None of the shows are designed for the 65-million subscriber base to watch.”
Sarandos discussed other Netflix topics.
• He said Fuller House, which is in production, retains the spirit of the original ABC series. "When the cast shows up on stage, the audience reacts immediately," he said. "It's very much in the spirit of the original."
The original show has a "cross-generational (appeal), parents watching with kids," that is attractive to the network.
During the session, he said Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who have said they wouldn't be on the show, "are teetering whether or not they will be around." After the panel, he said there are no plans now for them to be on the show, but there are plenty of stunt-casting opportunities available.
"There’s a bunch of stunt opportunity for them in the future, if they want to," he said. However, "they’re not in the current creative" plan for the show.
• When asked if Netflix had second thoughts about its multiple-film deal with Adam Sandler after the $24 million opening-weekend box office of Pixels, he said he was "thrilled" with the arrangement with Sandler, whom he called "a global movie star." He called Pixels' opening "more than respectable" and said the roughly even domestic and international box-office split works well for the streaming service, which has a large international subscriber base.
After the session, he addressed controversy regarding the depiction of Native Americans in Sandler's upcoming The Ridiculous Six. More than 100 people were on set and "one person had a problem with it and it blew up. It’s unfortunate the way it played out," he said, standing by the film.
• Netflix also announced a third season of animated BoJack Horseman and premiere dates for Longmire (Sept. 10), which it is picking up after three seasons on A&E, and Aziz Ansari's new series, Master of None (Nov. 6).
When asked after the session about a once-planned special featuring embattled comedian Bill Cosby that Netflix abandoned in November, Sarandos said such a program would be inappropriate.