Netflix Names Greg Peters As Co-CEO, Reed Hastings Becomes Executive Chairman, Bela Bajaria & Scott Stuber Handed New Titles

Liked Madelyn Cline‘s turn as Whiskey in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery“? Well, catch the actress in her other Netflix hit, “Outer Banks,” which has its third season premiere later this month. READ MORE: The 70 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of 2023 In the latest season of the teen treasure-hunting drama, Cline’s Sarah and the rest of the Pogues find themselves washed up on a desert island, gold not in hand.

EXCLUSIVE: The Gotham Film & Media Institute has unveiled the winners of its fourth annual Focus Features & JetBlue Student Short Film Showcase. The five filmmakers chosen are Saleem Gondal (Post Term, Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema), Yingtong Li (The Silent Whistle, Emerson College), Taylor Mannsman (Obscura, University of Texas at Austin), Shannon M. Sutherland (They Flew Like Blackbirds, Florida State University) and Cheryl Wong (Stigma, Style, NYU). 

Netflix stock closed the week at its highest level since last April, rising more than 8% Friday to end at $342.50 after the company reported strong subscriber growth and executed a smooth handoff atop its executive ranks.

Interesting news on the streaming front: Netflix reported its Q4 2022 earnings yesterday, and the platform outperformed its goal for new subscribers to close out the year. Variety reports that the numbers exceed Netflix’s target of 4.5 million additions with 7.66 new subscribers.

Netflix’s landmark entry into ad-supported streaming, which began last November, is off to a “solid” start and will soon bring in at least $3 billion in annual revenue, executives said.

Ted Sarandos addressed Netflix’s limited theatrical release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery during the streamer’s Q4 earnings call on Thursday, echoing executive chairman Reed Hastings‘ previous remarks that releasing the film in theaters was meant more as a promotional tactic for the streamer.

Newly minted Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos, who has held that title since 2020, say no major strategic shifts are in the immediate offing after Reed Hastings passed them the leadership baton.

Netflix beat forecasts for subscriber gains for the fourth quarter and also edged revenue estimates, but pressure on earnings per share reflected broader challenges in the streaming business.

EXCLUSIVE: Some were expecting Netflix to curb their acquisitions here in Park City, but, as we told you earlier this morning, never count them out of the Sundance marketplace. Before its premiere in the midnight section tonight, the Reed Hastings-Ted Sarandos-run streamer has scooped up a majority of global rights on the Australian horror movie, Run Rabbit Run, starring 2x Emmy nominated Succession actress Sarah Snook. XYZ Films, which co-funded the film, brokered the deal with Netflix on behalf of the filmmakers. 

There’s no surprises on Netflix‘s English-language TV and film charts in the U.S. for the week of January 9 to January 15.

Netflix has unveiled hopes for its next Squid Game with the streamer’s largest ever Korean TV and film slate.

Jack Cutmore-Scott (Kingsman, Deception) has been tapped to star opposite Kelsey Grammer in Frasier, Paramount+’s sequel series to the classic NBC sitcom. Cutmore-Scott will play Frasier Crane’s son Freddy. Also cast in the followup as a series regular is British actor Nicholas Lyndhurst who will play Alan Cornwall, a university professor who is an old college friend of Frasier’s.

Filmmaker Spike Lee has partnered with The Gersh Agency to create the Spike Fellows Program, a fellowship to support students at the Atlanta University Center Consortium which consists of three Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has given $20 million to Minerva University, a school focused on educating what it describes as “new generations of wise leaders and purpose-driven entrepreneurs” from dozens of countries.

Kerry Washington (The School for Good and Evil) will exec produce and star in Six Triple Eight — the WWII drama that Tyler Perry is writing, directing and producing for Netflix, which has now entered production.

Cannes Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first series for Netflix, The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House, is based on a best-selling manga about two young girls who move to Kyoto to start their training as ‘maiko’ or apprentice geisha.