Does Netflix Know What It’s Doing With Roald Dahl?

Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021—but it’s been tapping into the author’s vast catalogue since 2018, when it inked an animation-specific deal to bring his work to the streamer. However, when you think “Roald Dahl,” Netflix isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind; lately, the immediate association is either “Timothée Chalamet” or “off-brand, AI-generated attraction that went viral for being so amazingly terrible.” That’s not to say the streamer has forgotten about its valuable and expensive IP (in 2021, the Hollywood Reporter noted that while terms of the full catalogue-rights deal were not made public, the 2018 animated deal was for a reported “nine figures”). Projects created under its umbrella have included 2022’s Matilda the Musical, starring Emma Thompson and Lashana Lynch; Wes Anderson’s 2023 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which won a short-film Oscar and was followed by three more Dahl shorts also directed by Anderson; and animated film The Twit ... Read full article.