In three weeks’ time, Netflix will release The Get Down — its most expensive television series to date, created alongside famed director Baz Luhrmann. The series, a 12-episode musical drama set in the South Bronx in 1977 and chronicling the rise of hip-hop amid the last days of disco, cost $120 million to make, according to a report in Variety, which noted that the series had an exceptionally rocky production process.
The Get Down took two-and-a-half years to make, Variety reports, and went through two different showrunners. Luhrmann reportedly tangled with producer Sony Pictures Television over the mounting budget — which was initially set at $7.5 million per episode. Additionally, Luhrmann told Variety he only expected to be peripherally involved with the series, but came to play more of a central role as difficulties mounted.
Luhrmann is no stranger to extravagant spending — his 2008 epic Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, cost $130 million and was a box-office letdown. But partnering with Luhrmann, who also directed Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and The Great Gatsby, represents a major creative coup for deep-pocketed Netflix, which spent a reported $6 billion on original programming in 2016.
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Budgets soared because there are dance production numbers in every episode, according to Variety. And the rapper Nas, who serves as executive producer alongside Luhrmann, composed original music for each episode. In addition to serving as executive producer, Luhrmann also directed the first 90-minute episode. When The Get Down bows on August 12, it will mark the first time that Netflix doesn’t release all of the episodes of a series at once. The second half of the season will premiere early next year.
In addition to high-priced series, Netflix is also reportedly close to nailing its biggest-ever foray into feature films with Bright — a sci-fi cop drama starring Will Smith. Bright, which boasts a reported budget of between $80 and $100 million, is about a human and an orc who must work together to find a powerful wand.
Check out the trailer for The Get Down right here:
