Yesterday’s ousting of executive Bela Bajaria from her role as Chief Content Officer at Netflix has sparked a flurry of speculation as to the reasons why.
A report at Variety cites sources speculating she could be a ‘scapegoat’ for larger business concerns, including slowing user engagement and layoffs.
At the same time, two separate reports have emerged in the past few days about Netflix’s two biggest film gambles in the next six months – David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew”.
First up, Page Six’s Tatiana Siegel reports that Fincher opted to exit his Netflix deal after hitting too many walls with film chairman Dan Lin, who took over in 2024. Under Lin, Netflix’s original film output has been cut by more than half.
A push by Fincher for major costly reshoots on ‘Cliff Booth’ resulted in approval for just a few days of additional photography – even then, the film’s budget is said to be above $200 million.
The InSneider has reported that friction has also emerged between Lin and Greta Gerwig over “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew,” with Lin offering plenty of notes on early cuts and a promise to ‘fix’ the movie in post-production after test screening issues.
The result is that a “buffer” now reportedly exists between Gerwig and Lin, with the former still working hard on the film. Lin was spared in Netflix’s job cuts this week, which saw the streamer lay off 1000 staffers on Wednesday.
However, Sharon Waxman at The Wrap this morning reports that with Peter Rice now replacing Bajaria and overseeing all content, Lin may no longer fit the model – especially if at least one of these costly films fails.
It’s being speculated that freshly ousted from Warner Bros. Pictures film bosses Michael de Luca and Pam Abdy could be up for his job, but if they were to come on board, then theatrical releases will likely have to be guaranteed.
Some actual hard details are expected to be revealed when Netflix does its next quarterly earnings call next week.
