Netflix may pick up Terra Nova

[Temis the Vorta]

Deadline story.

I hear that 20th TV and Netflix have been in talks about keeping the pre-historic drama alive. My sources stress that the conversations are preliminary and it is unclear if they will materialize into a negotiation, but for fans of the series left heartbroken by Fox’s decision on Monday not to pick it up for a second season, this is still encouraging news.

Right idea, anyway...obviously sci fi is a good match with Netflix, since they are both internet centric. But they'd need to make huge changes, for starters the family-friendly approach is no longer valid (to the extent it ever was).

Netflix is no more overseen by the FCC than cable is, and Netflix needs to play the cable game of appealing to niche audiences and ignoring all the tropes that have defined broadcast TV to date. In fact, they need to think of themselves as cable on steroids. Whatever HBO or Showtime has done in terms of targetting specific audiences, Netflix should set their sights on beating them at that.

The great advantage of internet streamed TV is the ability to reach specific niche audiences on a global basis, all at once. There's no reason to continue the outdated broadcast TV approach of trying to reach broad based audiences for the benefit of advertisers. Netflix's business model is based on subscriptions, not ads, and that changes the game.

For instance, Netflix could ditch the grownups and make this a kids' dino show. I wouldn't like that personally, but it would be just as valid of an approach as going for the sci-fi action niche, and really ramping up the sex and violence. They just need to jump one way or the other, not fall into the middle.

I've been wondering whether Netflix would launch a space opera series, and whether the SFX budget would be prohibatve. Well, if they can afford dinos, they can afford spaceships. However, it remains to be seen whether even dinos are in the budget.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Netflix and the producers will play to those they assume to be the core audience - the people who watched them for eleven weeks on FOX. There wouldn't be any big format changes.

[Dream]

No way in hell can Netlfix afford this show.

[Owain Taggart]

I think they should reboot it and make it darker, similar in tone to the original Jurassic Park. This is the type of show that I think could do really well as a dark show and not so much as a family drama like they originally had it.

[Kronos]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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Netflix and the producers will play to those they assume to be the core audience - the people who watched them for eleven weeks on FOX. There wouldn't be any big format changes.

What people?

[Donald Draper]

I heard on the radio that the show is extremely popular everywhere in the world expect in the United States. Which is motivating this effort to keep the show going. While available through Netflix here, it would likely continue to be broadcast overseas.

If that is true why would they be motivated to drastically alter the show? I don't don't care either way, never watched it beyond the first half of the Pilot.

[jefferiestubes8]

Airlock alpha has an interesting analysis on why netflix should pickup terra nova

http://m.airlockalpha.com/node/8998/...a-netflix.html

[RJDiogenes]

If it's that popular overseas, it explains a lot, because Terra Nova is an odd choice for this experiment. But if it works, it could definitely signal a sea change in the way TV and movies come to us (in a sense, there would no longer be a difference). If Netflix does pick up Terra Nova, I will very likely subscribe just out of general principles.

[Mr Light]

Second Season Premiere: All the dinosaurs have mysteriously vanished!

Also, Terra Nova now looks a lot like Vancouver.

[Forbin]

I had no idea Netflix produced their own shows!

[Sindatur]

Forbin wrote:

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I had no idea Netflix produced their own shows!

I'm not sure they have actually done so yet, but, it's known to be the step on their ladder, they want to implement

[SG-17]

I hope that Netflix picks it up. I enjoyed the series.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Donald Draper wrote:

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If that is true why would they be motivated to drastically alter the show?

Exactly. No one who understands marketing would expect that.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Dream wrote:

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No way in hell can Netlfix afford this show.

The first show they've greenlighted, David Fincher's House of Cards (set to star Kevin Spacey), has a budget of $100 million for 26 episodes, although it's being reported that Fincher now wants even more money. That's a budget per episode just slightly lower than that of Terra Nova. The assumption that Netflix is looking to make low budget shows and that that's all they can afford is erroneous.

[PsychoPere]

Forbin wrote:

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I had no idea Netflix produced their own shows!

Netflix currently has the U.S. and Canadian licensing rights to Lilyhammer, a joint Norwegian-American production starring Steven Van Zandt as a former mafioso living in Norway. All 8 episodes of the first season are online, and a second season has been ordered.

House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey and produced by David Fincher (who will also direct the first episode), was the first original series Netflix purchased. Netflix outbid both HBO and AMC for the series, and ordered 26 episodes to air over 2 seasons starting late this year.

Starting early next year, Netflix will be distributing new episodes of Arrested Development (probably around 10, as a lead-in to the movie, based on Mitchell Hurwitz's comments a month before the announcement).

Jenji Kohan, the creator of Showtime's Weeds, is developing a comedy called Orange is the New Black for Netflix. It will start with 13 episodes.

Eli Roth is developing a thriller/horror called Hemlock Grove for Netflix, also to start with 13 episodes. No "broadcast" timeframes have been annonuced for these last two yet.