Why the Matrix makers have turned to TV
the end of 2016 in a bid to meet its content budget, projected to be about NZ$5.6 billion this year. Netflix is spending more than NZ$1073m on global marketing – if Sense8 captures imaginations, it would work as a subscription driver, given the way its stories relate to contrasting countries.
The Nairobi character (played by the British actor Aml Ameen), for example, needs medicine for his Aids-stricken mother, while the Mumbai plot (starring Tina Desai, of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) concerns a career woman being pressured into an arranged marriage. Throw in Straczynski, who was behind the hit sci-fi series Babylon 5, and you can imagine Netflix’s famous algorithms (Netflix and its rival Amazon can ‘‘spy’’ on what subscribers watch to target programmes at specific audiences) practically melting as they join the dots to the millions of Babylon 5 lovers in its subscriber base.
The day after the harbour shoot, The Times enjoys a wallow in the steaming Blue Lagoon spa pools with several stars of the show, including English actress Tuppence Middleton, who plays that London-based Icelandic DJ, and the Spanish star Miguel Angel Silvestre, who plays a closeted Mexican heart-throb (thanks to Miguel for the loan of his spare trunks). A garrulous Naveen Andrews (a global star since Lost – thumbs up from the Netflix algorithm!) speaks for them all: ‘‘We’re doing s... I don’t know they could get away with in the cinema in America. Netflix is the new punk.’’
Still sporting the blonde tresses from Splash, back in 1984, Hannah is amusingly self-deprecating as she explains how she managed to get on the wrong bus for the Blue Lagoon, nearly ending up on a geyser tour with a coachload of strangers. Describing herself as ‘‘old and crusty now’’ (she’s only 54) and a mother figure on the show, she makes a bold comparison: ‘‘ Sense8 feels almost like when I made Blade Runner, in terms of the detail. Andy and Lana are so much warmer than Ridley [Scott] was in terms of creating an atmosphere, but there’s the same creative intensity. It feels like a companion piece to me.’’
According to Straczynski, the Wachowskis have found it a challenge adapting to the small screen, even if they view Sense8 more as a 12-hour movie than 12 one-hour episodes.
In between flying 16,000 kilometres between locations, they have to shoot six to 10 pages of script a day, compared with two pages with their movies. The plus is that they don’t get daily interference from Hollywood producers.
There is much talk on set of how they wouldn’t be doing this without the ‘‘creative freedom’’ afforded by Netflix.
‘‘Netflix do give notes,’’ says executive producer Grant Hill. ‘‘They study everything that’s been written, that’s being filmed. But it’s not from a notesenforcement point of view. It’s like: ‘We’re partners in this, this is what we’re feeling’.’’
Early reviews of Sense8 in the US have been mixed, but there’s no denying that it brings an imagination rarely seen on the small screen. Whether its globehopping ambition and nifty thrills can revitalise the Wachowskis and give Netflix another hit – not even those ingenious algorithms can predict that.