Today, Netflix broke the shocking news that controversial showrunner Kurt Sutter has abruptly exited his new show, The Abandons .
Production on the show’s first season is reportedly in its final weeks.
Maybe Kurt took the title a little too literally?
Sartre is best known for Sons of Anarchy and for his dedication to a unique artistic vision.
That makes him awkward at Netflix, where executives are known for being micro-managers.
Today’s Deadline reports that Sutter clashed with his streaming bosses over the airtime of the “Abandoned” pilot.
Sutter’s clip from the episode is said to be one hour and forty minutes long.
When it proved impossible to shorten it to a more traditional sixty minutes, we decided to split the episode into two parts.
This presented a new challenge, with Sutter and his team tasked with writing new scenes that combined the first and second episodes.
According to Deadline, the scenes were filmed but never filmed.
Observers took this as a sign that Netflix executives weren’t happy with what they were reading.
Sartre seemed unhappy with their criticism, and the partnership ended abruptly.
Interestingly, production was reportedly going well until the final three weeks.
The big-budget western starring Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson was slightly over budget, but plans were made to mitigate the damage by cutting a day of filming from the end of the schedule.
Now, with much of the season over, the program is in disarray.
A new showrunner has not yet been appointed, but executive producer/director Otto Bathurst and co-executive producer Rob Askins will oversee remaining filming.
In 2019, he was fired from FX Maya Football Club after complaining about a poor working environment.
Unsurprisingly, Sutter has yet to comment on today’s move.
But something tells us the notoriously outspoken writer will have a lot to say once the dust settles.
A premiere date for “Abandoned” has not yet been announced.
TV fans, what do you think? Are you with Sartre or Netflix?
Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts.
