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Netflix cancels Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Get Down’
Netflix won't be renewing The Get Down after just one season. With filmmaker Baz Luhrmann at the helm, the show cost $120 million to produce, making it one of the most expensive TV productions in Hollywood history. There wasn't enough bang for all those bucks, however. It's also rare to hear of Netflix canning one of its original shows after a single season -- especially when The Get Down was announced and launched with the full support of the streaming service. Variety reports that some third-party viewing metrics show that the debut series drew roughly a fifth of the audience that watched Orange is the New Black in its first month. Only Netflix knows the true popularity of its series, however, and a cancellation isn't a good sign -- it's probably the worst one.
Netflix's pricey Baz Luhrmann hip-hop drama arrives today
Of all the Netflix productions, including the critically panned, $90 million Marco Polo, none have had as difficult a gestation (and high a price tag) as The Get Down. You can now download the hip-hop drama, set in the Bronx of the 1970s and created by notorious perfectionist Baz Luhrmann. It reportedly cost $120 million and strained relations between its director, producer Sony Pictures and Netflix, but the end result is "both messy and wonderful," according to Variety.
Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann extoll the virtues of Blu-ray, Stone suggests stocking up (video)
Panasonic took a break from its usual CES business this afternoon to host the inaugural directors' panel at the show (in conjunction with 20th Century Fox), where the unexpected trio of Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann showed up to talk about technology in Hollywood, and Blu-ray in particular. As you might expect, the general theme was that Blu-ray is great, but the directors certainly weren't shy to make their opinions known. While Mann said that Blu-ray would be the "premier format for six, seven or eight years," for instance, he also took a moment to reminisce about the photochemical process used on Last of the Mohicans, which he notes still can't be fully replicated on Blu-ray. Luhrmann also talked at length about the great colors Blu-ray allows, and stated simply that "it's better," before picking a fight with a noisy booth next door. Oliver Stone was unsurprisingly the most opinionated, however, and lamented the fact that Blu-ray will be "last hardware" in the face of digital distribution. He even suggested that people should "be different, go against the grain" and collect Blu-rays, which he says will be very valuable by 2050 or so in much the way comics and baseball cards are today. On a more general note, Stone also said that watching kids try to watch a movie on a computer screen and multitask so much these days is "very depressing to me" and that, in a way, "we are the last of the Mohicans." Richard Lawler contributed to this report. Update: Now with video! Check it out after the break to hear their words directly. %Gallery-113321%
