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Penelope, the pandemic-written, independently financed and produced young-adult series from co-creators Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn, has landed a distributor. <\/p>\n
Netflix acquired U.S. rights to the series\u2019 eight-episode first season, the duo announced Sunday while appearing at SeriesFest. Duplass called the six-month process of finding a distributor for the show following its debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival \u201cinsane\u201d and told the Denver crowd that \u201ca lot of people were very, very interested\u201d in the series and thus \u201chad a lot of different kinds of offers.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done independent films before, where you have a few hundred thousand dollars, and we go out, make the film and sell it. There really isn\u2019t a model yet of independently made television where you make the whole season and try to sell it,\u201d he said of the process of independently funding and then distributing Penelope. \u201cFrom taking out the show and figuring out how we\u2019re going to sell it or making the deals with our actors, no one knows how to do it.\u2026 So there was actually this childlike fun. We were just making up new deal structures as we were going along.\u201d<\/p>\n
The acquisition of the series, which is co-written by Mark and director Eslyn and executive produced by Jay Duplass and Shuli Harel, follows the Duplass brothers\u2019 four-picture deal with Netflix, and what Mark described as a longtime relationship with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Duplass Brothers Productions plans to sell both domestic and international rights to the indie series through a \u201cpiece by piece\u201d model that will allow them to retain control over it, including greenlighting a season two. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve basically absolved [Netflix]\u2026of the responsibility to make us their flagship show,\u201d Duplass said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying\u2026 \u2018Just put us on the service. We\u2019re going to sign a very short deal with you guys, and we\u2019re going to see how it does.\u2019 That way at Netflix, you\u2019re not taking an oversized, outsized risk on the show. You\u2019re not going to be pissed off if it doesn\u2019t work and turn around and say, \u2018Independent television is never going to work. We\u2019re not doing it again.\u2019 We\u2019ve mitigated their risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark added that Duplass Brothers Productions will \u201cown the rest of the rights\u201d outside the U.S., including \u201cVOD rights for rentals,\u201d taking on a partner as they sell this to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, we see how we do on Netflix. In the event that it\u2019s a blowout success, you might see a bigger scope for season two. In the event that it\u2019s a moderate success, we might write it for a smaller scope, but at least we\u2019re in the driver\u2019s seat now as to whether we get to keep making this show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf in a few years, if the show is a rollicking success, they get the opportunity to relicense it\u2026. We\u2019re going to own the rest of the rights still,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat felt like the best deal for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the panel, Mark and Eslyn spoke at length about their approach to both distributing and financing the series, which they emphasized was new territory, even for the indie moviemaking veterans. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re doing an independent television show, no one knows how to approach it,\u201d Mark said about the process of finding a distributor. \u201cPeople would raise their hand and say, \u2018We saw Penelope at Sundance. We want to see the rest of the series.\u2019 We would send the links to the rest of the series, and they would say, \u2018We\u2019re interested in this.\u2019 When it came time to negotiate the deal and the terms, everybody was just like middle school schoolyard \u2014 like, \u2018You go first. I don\u2019t know what to do.\u2019 [Laughs.] It was so confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark began working on the series, directed by Eslyn, during the pandemic. Ahead of its premiere at this year\u2019s Sundance, Mark briefly recalled the show\u2019s journey to production on Instagram, writing that he \u201cknew when I brought the scripts to the buyers that there would be a bidding war. But there wasn\u2019t. No one would give us the money to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Sunday\u2019s panel, he expounded on those responses, and the larger landscape of YA television, which he described as not necessarily looking for something that\u2019s \u201cmore akin to what\u2019s happening in the Norwegian slow TV movement than it is to modern television.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pantheon of young-adult television does not tell me what they\u2019re buying right now,\u201d he said. \u201cStill, we are Duplass Brothers Productions, and we\u2019ve sold shit to HBO and Netflix, and we\u2019re like, \u2018Fuck it. Let\u2019s go sell this show,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe brought it and everybody was like, \u2018This is so beautiful and so unique, so deeply connected to something that I\u2019ve lost. We can\u2019t make this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Penelope, which stars Megan Stott (Little Fires Everywhere) and co-stars Austin Abrams (Euphoria), follows a 16-year-old girl who abruptly leaves her family and the comforts of life behind after developing an almost cosmic-like attraction to the wilderness. In the wild, she begins to forge a new kind of existence via trial-and-error in a survivalism meets coming-of-age tale. <\/p>\n
Mark added that they considered that they could \u201cforce this down the throat of a traditional buyer, but it\u2019s going to be going through a lot of development and a lot of changes\u201d \u2014 something they weren\u2019t interested in doing with a show they were both passionate and precious about. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moment where I think Mark and I said, \u2018Should we change this for what they\u2019re asking for?\u2019 And that was a pretty quick moment. And we very quickly said, \u2018No,\u2019 and then said, \u2018Should we go make a whole season of our own and pay for it \u2014 just go for it and not wait around for someone to say yes?\u2019\u201d recalled Eslyn. \u201cWe did, and I think that was for us a brave moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt really scared and I had to think about value for the first time in a long time and in a new way,\u201d Mark said while discussing the intimidating process of self-financing and producing a series. \u201cI had to really get solid with Mel and just say that the value of this show is that it gets out into the world and that it reaches people who feel a similar way, and that maybe, maybe starts to pave a trail for a way of making television that is going away right now with a reduction of the streamers in our business.\u201d<\/p>\n
At another point during the post-screening sit-down at the Sie Film Center in Denver, the duo spoke about replicating the Penelope production and distribution model, as well as wanting to build an indie TV series market and ecosystem in a similar way Sundance had for indie film.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no existing ecosystem for independent television. We\u2019ve done a couple of things kind of similar, like Animals or Room 104, but they were still basically set up and paid for by a studio head. So we were really flying by the seat of our pants,\u201d Mark told the audience. \u201cWe have full-on Reaganomics happening right now in television. There\u2019s big IP stuff, and there\u2019s tiny reality stuff. That interesting middle \u2014 where Fleabag, I May Destroy You and Baby Reindeer come from \u2014 is just gone. And I want to fight for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark and Eslyn were ultimately both adamant that the model they created with Penelope is replicable. The duo revealed during the panel that they have already used this indie model with three other six-episode shows their production studio has already completed. That includes a small documentary series in the vein of How to With John Wilson; a post-apocalyptic comedy \u2014 \u201cbizarre, theater-clown version of Broad City\u201d \u2014 about the last broadcast and the nature of fake news; and a \u201cdarkly funny examination of deep white male guilt,\u201d said Mark, that sees two men coming to a dark conclusion about their attempt at allyship to the Earth and other people.<\/p>\n
To make this a reality beyond Duplass Brothers Productions, the duo said going beyond the historical process of selling a pilot is necessary. So is changing the way the festival circuit can work for shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do here is not just make the pilot. While it\u2019s really exciting to make a pilot, you are still in a position of asking someone to come forward and give you the money to make the rest of your series before it can be brought to a larger audience,\u201d Mark said. \u201cSo we just ask that question: Is there a way that we can design the scope and size of these shows so that we can make them independently \u2014 six to eight episodes \u2014 so when we show up at the festival, a place like SeriesFest, this place can really be a launching pad.<\/p>\n
We can build a marketplace here in these festivals the way Sundance did in the early \u201890s,\u201d he continued. \u201cAn entire ecosystem sprung out of that \u2014 job creation, super-exciting creative outlier content becoming mainstream. I want to see that happen in TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Netflix Acquires U.S. Rights to Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn\u2019s Indie Series \u2018Penelope\u2019: Penelope, the pandemic-written, independently financed and produced young-adult series from co-creators Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn, has landed a distributor. Netflix acquired U.S. rights to the series\u2019 eight-episode first season, the duo announced Sunday while appearing at SeriesFest. Duplass called the six-month
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