Netflix split with Kevin Spacey could have cost it $39 million
Netflix’s decision to part ways with Kevin Spacey, as well as other projects it’s had to scrap in the wake of the Hollywood sex scandal, has cost the streaming service $39 million, according to Variety.
An earnings report from the company cites an ‘unexpected charge’ incurred over ‘unreleased content we’ve decided not to move forward with’.
David Wells, the CFO of Netflix, said yesterday that the charge was ‘related to the societal reset around sexual harassment’, and that while the company had been forced to write down profits in the past, ‘we just hadn’t had one of this magnitude’.
Among the projects that have had to be either scrapped or entirely re-written and re-shot include the sixth and final season of House of Cards.
The allegations of sexual harassment and assault landed just as Spacey was filming the sixth and final series of the political drama in Baltimore.
Several members of the show’s crew later came forward alleging their own experiences of harassment at the hands of the 58-year-old actor.
As a result, swathes of the show were scrapped and re-written, with the series now expected to revolve more around Robin Wright’s character Claire Underwood instead.
How Spacey’s character Frank Underwood will be written out is not yet known, but the series will run to a shorter eight episodes, rather than the usual 13.
A biopic of the writer Gore Vidal, which starred Spacey in the lead role and was produced by the actor, and was in post-production when the first allegations emerged, has also been scrapped.
It’s also thought that the scrapping of a Louis CK stand-up special has also hit the company, following allegations of sexual misconduct facing the comedian.
Production on its comedy series The Ranch was also suspended, after several allegations of rape against its star Danny Masterson.
The show is set to resume production without Masterson soon.
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