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This one is a bummer: Spike Jonze has been quietly working away at a grand, ambitious new sci-fi series at Netflix, which we’ve been told would’ve been the streamer’s most expensive TV project to date, but according to new reporting, it’s being put on the back burner.
To quickly rewind, it’s been over two years since Matthew Belloni reported in his Puck newsletter that Jonze was working with Netflix on a new series. Belloni wrote, “Spike Jonze, one of my favorite filmmakers, is quietly working on a lavish series at Netflix that hasn’t been announced yet, but which has a writer’s room and a broad, expensive canvas.”
Jonze, best known for directing movies like Being John Malkovich and Her, plus being involved in Jackass, was both writing and set to direct the new series, which we were told was set in the sci-fi genre.
We first reported in the summer of 2023 that Joaquin Phoenix was being eyed for a lead role in the new series. Earlier this Summer, we heard that Brad Pitt was also being eyed for a lead role, although Netflix declined to comment then. It’s not believed the pair were ever officially attached but rather in discussions or characters were being modeled on them.
Now, Deadline reports that the series is not moving forward but suggests it could come back later. They suggested that Halina Reijn was being eyed to direct the series and suggested that it’s Jonze himself stepping back from the project.
There were other conflicting tidbits about this series over the past few years. Some called it a limited series, while others suggested there was a planned two-season run. Again, Netflix never officially commented on or announced the project formally, which is usually when a project has yet to be formally greenlit and is still in the early stages.
This would have been Spike Jonze’s first major project with the streamer, although he notably directed Aziz Ansari’s 2019 stand-up special, Right Now. We also noted that Jonze was quietly working on an animated project last year, although we’ve not heard any additional details since then.
Jordan Ruimy of World of Reel has relentlessly covered the project since it was first announced and even suggested in June 2024 that production could start soon. He also suggested that the animated project could be based on Arcade Fire’s album The Suburbs. Deadline backs that up somewhat, saying the series was “eyeing a casting director and a potential 2025 start.”
Sadly, development is a fickle process but with any luck, this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this project.
