David Lynch hasn’t directed a feature since 2006’s Inland Empire, but he’s hardly been sitting back and taking it easy. The multi-talented filmmaker, actor, musician and artist has helmed 21 shorts, five commercials and five music videos in the interim, as well as lending his vocal talents to Gus the Bartender in The Cleveland Show and Family Guy.
He also spearheaded the Twin Peaks revival that brought the series back over a quarter of a century after the existential cult classic had originally been aired, making it appear as though he might be taking up permanent residence on the small screen having shown absolutely no interest in fighting against the compromises required to exist within the studio system. And frankly, that’s probably for the best.
The 74 year-old is now set to write and direct a new Netflix TV show going under the working title of Wisteria, which is tentatively scheduled to start production next May at Calvert Studios in London. Lynch is no stranger to the streaming service, either, having created the bizarre short film What Did Jack Do? that sees him playing a detective interrogating a Capuchin monkey that may have committed a murder, and it’s every bit as surreal as it sounds.
David Lynch is one of the most unique and singular voices in Hollywood, and he has been for over 40 years thanks to a string of acclaimed and often very strange and unsettling movies like Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. And if he can’t be tempted back behind the camera for a film, then having him take his distinctive talents to Netflix where he’ll be given complete creative freedom is a more than suitable compromise for his army of fans.