David Lynch’s bizarre Netflix film is a reminder of what could have been

The world got some tragic news recently. David Lynch, the brilliant director behind Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, has died at the age of 78.. Part of what makes it so sad is that Lynch hasn’t taken on any major projects in recent years, with 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return serving as the most significant entry in his subsequent filmography. In 2020, we got a look at what could have been the director’s final years in the form of the short film What Did Jack Do?

Released by Netflix in January 2020, “What Did Jack Do?’ is a 17-minute short film in which a detective interrogates a monkey. Lynch plays a detective, the ape is an actual ape, and the whole thing is as delightfully bizarre as it sounds. It all takes place in a closed train station, filmed in black and white. It feels very true to the artist that Lynch was. What’s more, it was a bit of a test of the waters for a larger partnership between Lynch and Netflix, one that wouldn’t materialize.

Around this time, the entire industry became obsessed with pouring massive resources into streaming as the future of Hollywood. Disney+ had just launched and Netflix was looking to maintain its edge over the pack. So, their checkbook was wide open. At one point, they almost financed a long-gestating animation project by Lynch and screenwriter Caroline Thompson (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”) called “Snootworld.”

“I love this story. It’s something that kids and adults alike can appreciate,” Lynch said of “Snootworld” in a 2024 interview. “I’ve never done live animation, but with today’s computers, it’s possible to do some amazing things.” Unfortunately, the director also confirmed in the same interview that Netflix ultimately decided not to finance the film.

“I don’t know when I started thinking about a Snoots movie, but I was doing these drawings for Snoots and then the story started to take shape. I got together with Caroline and we worked on a script. And recently I thought someone might be interested in backing this, so I submitted it to Netflix in the months “The last few days, but they rejected it.”

Lynch has been discussing “Snootworld” dating back to at least 2009. It was a passion project, and around this time, Netflix was heavily funding passion projects. From Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” to Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” this has been a big part of the streamer’s business model. However, for whatever reason, they chose not to fund Lynch’s “old fairy tale.” This is a real shame, but it doesn’t end there.

Rumors started to spread In late 2020, Lynch partnered with Netflix on a TV show tentatively titled “Wisteria.” Another rumored title, “Unrecorded Night”, also began to circulate. Some believe that the series will be related to “Twin Peaks.” For the most part, there was a lot of excitement around the idea, no matter what it was. Sadly, this wasn’t meant to be either.

Lynch’s longtime producer, Sabrina Sutherland, confirmed in a 2024 Q&A Tulpa Forum “Unrecorded Night” was actually a Netflix production at one point, but the pandemic basically killed it. Here’s what Sutherland had to say about it:

“Unrecorded Night was a non-Twin Peaks series that was supposed to be filmed on Netflix but was canceled when the pandemic hit. There’s always a chance we could watch it again, but David was enjoying his artwork and musical endeavors so we didn’t go back to it.”

And so, that was the case. Lynch was never the biggest business bet in the world, and at a time when the industry was facing uncertainty, Netflix declined to make a major investment in Lynch. This is a tragedy, not just because we’ve robbed another project of a true genius, but because… Netflix is ​​perfectly happy to basically burn $200 million on stuff like ‘The Gray Man’ Consistently beautiful. For less than half that price, either of these projects could have seen the light of day. Unfortunately, that’s not how things shook out.

“What did Jack do?” It’s now streaming on Netflix.