Season 4? Or is it over after this? Wisteria/Unrecorded Night? Something else? (Speculation thread.)

[eyeboogers]

With regards to TP, does CBS have a stake in it and Showtime too, and if so how much? If Season 4 did go to Netflix, could each season theoretically go to any studio/streaming service?

If the new project is "Twin Peaks" in any way, but ends up being called f.ex. "Unrecorded Night" that might be a way to get out of certain right's issues.

[Jonah]

If the new project is "Twin Peaks" in any way, but ends up being called f.ex. "Unrecorded Night" that might be a way to get out of certain right's issues.

Could be. I wonder how those rights are split. In the US, CBS All Access has Season 1 and 2 to stream online and Showtime has Season 3 (though I think Showtime also aired the original series), but in Europe and other countries I think all seasons are grouped together.

Also, if Mark Frost is no longer listed under TP Productions, did Lynch buy him out/does he still have ownership on the earlier seasons?

[eyeboogers]

Could be. I wonder how those rights are split. I notice in the US, CBS All Access has Season 1 and 2 to stream online and Showtime has Season 3 (though I think Showtime also aired the original series), but in Europe and other countries I think all seasons are grouped together.

This is actually something that points to the new project being "Twin Peaks". Across most of (all of?) europe the rights to broadcast TPTR expired or was retracted this spring - almost simultaniously with the fan festivals being outlawed and the Graceland one announced. And now we know that the transfer of ownership of Twin Peaks Productions also happened around this time. In many european countries all three seasons were licensed to the same streaming services f.ex. HBO Nordic.

[Jonah]

This is actually something that points to the new project being "Twin Peaks".

How if it's going to be Netflix? Wouldn't all seasons move there in every region?

[JackwithOneEye]

none of it points to new twin peaks. the twin peaks productions thing in pw weekly maybe, it raises an eyebrow, but I'm not even sure
the process by which you get listed in there is that rigorous, whether Production Weekly's editors call up Calvert Studios and demand
' we need Production company's proof of deposit on the studio space and shooting dates and tell us every associated production company or no listing, buddy'

the Michael Horse picture on instagram and Kyle Machlachlan mentioning coffee all the time is Q anon esque, grasping at straws.

[JackwithOneEye]

Which works does Lynch own and which ones does he not? Does he get any say with regards to Blue Velvet?

With regards to TP, does CBS have a stake in it and Showtime too, and if so how much? If Season 4 did go to Netflix, could each season theoretically go to any studio/streaming service?

The only feature length film I believe he owns free and clear completely is Eraserhead, and various short films like The Grandmother, Alphabet, etc.

All the others were funded by various consortiums and corporate entities who retain a lot of vested interest.

He owns some underlying intellectual property, the screenplay/ characters and such of Blue Velvet, lyrics to to mysteries of love he wrote, which may or may not helped with getting things he wanted like taking chapter stops off of various dvd re-issues.

Out of respect to him being a legendary director, he's often given a say by licensors like Criterion on the presentation format, colors, extras etc. but others like Kino Lorber, not so much. With Lost Highway, they just took the HD 1080p D-5 telecine master from 2005 and pumped out a blu ray . He would have preferred they gone back to the internegative and done a new 2K or 4K scan, but they felt it was too much expense, and audiences wouldn't see the difference.

With regards to TP - I could be wrong but I believe the worldvision back catalog was bought up by CBS - so whatever stake worldvision had, CBS now has. CBS and Showtime are the same company. Showtime didnt have to license anything and that's why everything fell into place fairly easily without licensing footage and IP up the ass with season 3. Probably a complicated issue, as to what intellectual property comes with being the creator of the characters and copyrights of the scripts upon which the show is based and to what extent you could get around using music and things that CBS definitely owns. Netflix would have to pay license fees to CBS for use of footage for flashbacks definitely, theme music etc since the own the actual shows.

[Mr. Reindeer]

Which works does Lynch own and which ones does he not? Does he get any say with regards to Blue Velvet?

With regards to TP, does CBS have a stake in it and Showtime too, and if so how much? If Season 4 did go to Netflix, could each season theoretically go to any studio/streaming service?

The only feature length film I believe he owns free and clear completely is Eraserhead, and various short films like The Grandmother, Alphabet, etc.

I agree. Just wanted to note that the text you quoted here was not from me!

[MoondogJR]

With regards to TP - I could be wrong but I believe the worldvision back catalog was bought up by CBS - so whatever stake worldvision had, CBS now has. CBS and Showtime are the same company. Showtime didnt have to license anything and that's why everything fell into place fairly easily without licensing footage and IP up the ass with season 3. Probably a complicated issue, as to what intellectual property comes with being the creator of the characters and copyrights of the scripts upon which the show is based and to what extent you could get around using music and things that CBS definitely owns. Netflix would have to pay license fees to CBS for use of footage for flashbacks definitely, theme music etc since the own the actual shows.

I agree with this, and that's why i'm in the non-believer camp in regards this being a Twin Peaks thing.

[eyeboogers]

I agree with this, and that's why i'm in the non-believer camp in regards this being a Twin Peaks thing.

The thing is, surely a TP story can be told without the use of flashback footage. Especially since they already did the time travel thing in season 3. What is important is who owns "Twin Peaks" and its characters and concepts. And that has always been Lynch/Frost (later Twin Peaks Productions). This is why we haven't had to deal with a reboot not greenlit by the original creative team. It would certainly seem easier to do make more Twin Peaks in a CBS environment, but if they are not interest, or not willing to provide an adequate budget, then of course you'd look elsewhere. One of the main reasons TPTR became a reality is that the original series had proven to be a strong performer for Netflix, year after year, and crossing over to new generations. This might be why Netflix could be interested in working with the IP.

I am not at all convinced that the new series is Twin Peaks - especially Frost's absence hints at no, but there certainly is a lot of smoke, and to my eyes the Production Weekly listing is the weakest of the evidence. The main thing is, why did they gather all rights back, in different ways, at the same time.

[Jonah]

Interesting insights. Couldn't Unrecorded Night be a Netflix and CBS co-production?

https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/cbs-vi ... ing-shows/

[Jonah]

@fatecolossal
Two updates on David Lynch’s upcoming project, UNRECORDED NIGHT:

1) Scott Cameron has been brought on as first assistant director. He’s had the same role on TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, THE STRAIGHT STORY, LOST HIGHWAY, HOTEL ROOM, ON THE AIR, & original TWIN PEAKS.

The next part makes me go, hmmmm.... (though, as they said, it could just be a meaningless omission)

2) This is a weird one: Production Weekly (source of the above update) no longer lists UNRECORDED NIGHT as a Netflix project. That may be a meaningless omission - or it may mean the show won’t be on Netflix after all. We’ll see if we can find out any more information on this...

If UNRECORDED NIGHT were to turn out to air on, say, Showtime after all, it would answer the q of people wondering how a show that may(?) be part of TWIN PEAKS could air on a different network, given the links between CBS/SHO and TP... Tho this may be much ado about nothing

[JackwithOneEye]

The thing is, surely a TP story can be told without the use of flashback footage. Especially since they already did the time travel thing in season 3. What is important is who owns "Twin Peaks" and its characters and concepts. And that has always been Lynch/Frost (later Twin Peaks Productions). This is why we haven't had to deal with a reboot not greenlit by the original creative team. It would certainly seem easier to do make more Twin Peaks in a CBS environment, but if they are not interest, or not willing to provide an adequate budget, then of course you'd look elsewhere. One of the main reasons TPTR became a reality is that the original series had proven to be a strong performer for Netflix, year after year, and crossing over to new generations. This might be why Netflix could be interested in working with the IP.
.

there are instances in history, where Kevin McClory, for example, who had co-written an unfilmed Thunderball script with Ian Flemying, had some intellectual property rights with the the story and the characters, was able to take it to Warner Brothers and get them to make a competing Bond film with Never say Never again, and avoid using the Monty Norman theme and traditional James Bond IP that belonged to the Broccoli's and EON productions...

so I guess technically because Lynch and Frost wrote the TP Return script, they own richard, linda, carrie page as characters, and could maybe pull a Never Say Never Again move and do a sequel avoiding use of the word and title Twin Peaks... but would be awfully awkward stuff tho.

I dunno to what extent worldvision was involved in TP FWWM, but CBS seems to have wound up with that as well. it does have a bit of laura palmer unwrapping footage which def belonged to worldvision, and the TP theme is used, title, etc.

[Mr. Reindeer]

I think TP Productions owns all the TP IP. CBS/Showtime only have the distribution rights to the old material. I.e., they control any home video rights, what streaming platform it’s on, etc., as well as licensing of the footage. But all TP media has always been solely copyrighted to either L/F or TP Productions. Lynch can do whatever he wants with any of the characters, music, etc. I believe Jonah was just talking about the potential “sampling” of old footage. CBS’s relationship with TP is more analogous to MGM’s relationship to the James Bond films—MGM has the distribution rights, but EON Productions owns all the IP and the content of the films themselves.

[JackwithOneEye]

I think TP Productions owns all the TP IP. CBS/Showtime only have the distribution rights to the old material. I.e., they control any home video rights, what streaming platform it’s on, etc., as well as licensing of the footage. But all TP media has always been solely copyrighted to either L/F or TP Productions. Lynch can do whatever he wants with any of the characters, music, etc. I believe Jonah was just talking about the potential “sampling” of old footage. CBS’s relationship with TP is more analogous to MGM’s relationship to the James Bond films—MGM has the distribution rights, but EON Productions owns all the IP and the content of the films themselves.

If Unrecorded Night were direct sequel to Richard/Linda/Carrie, pretty sure DL would want to use old footage. ep 17 + 18 were chock full of old stuff.

[Mr. Reindeer]

I’m sure he could negotiate something with CBS, just as they negotiated with MK2 to use FWWM footage in TR (and to include TR in the Entire Mystery and Z to A box sets). Unless CBS was so bitter he went elsewhere that they refused, but I doubt it would get that personal.