Penelope, the pandemic-written, independently financed and produced young-adult series from co-creators Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn, has landed a distributor.
Netflix acquired U.S. rights to the series’ eight-episode first season, the duo announced Sunday while appearing at SeriesFest. Duplass called the six-month process of finding a distributor for the show following its debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival “insane” and told the Denver crowd that “a lot of people were very, very interested” in the series and thus “had a lot of different kinds of offers.”
“We’ve done independent films before, where you have a few hundred thousand dollars, and we go out, make the film and sell it. There really isn’t a model yet of independently made television where you make the whole season and try to sell it,” he said of the process of independently funding and then distributing Penelope. “From taking out the show and figuring out how we’re going to sell it or making the deals with our actors, no one knows how to do it. … So there was actually this childlike fun. We were just making up new deal structures as we were going along.”
The acquisition of the series, which is co-written by Duplass and director Eslyn and executive produced by Jay Duplass and Shuli Harel, follows the Duplass brothers’ four-picture deal with Netflix, and what Mark described as a longtime relationship with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Duplass Brothers Productions plans to sell both domestic and international rights to the indie series through a “piece by piece” model that will allow them to retain control over it, including greenlighting a season two.
“We’ve basically absolved [Netflix] … of the responsibility to make us their flagship show,” Duplass said. “We’re saying … ‘Just put us on the service. We’re going to sign a very short deal with you guys, and we’re going to see how it does. That way at Netflix, you’re not taking an oversized, outsized risk on the show. You’re not going to be pissed off if it doesn’t work and turn around and say, “Independent television is never going to work. We’re not doing it again.”‘ We’ve mitigated their risk.”
Mark added that Duplass Brothers Productions will “own the rest of the rights” outside the U.S., including “VOD rights for rentals,” taking on a partner as they sell this to the rest of the world.
“Ideally, we see how we do on Netflix. In the event that it’s a blowout success, you might see a bigger scope for season two. In the event that it’s a moderate success, we might write it for a smaller scope, but at least we’re in the driver’s seat now as to whether we get to keep making this show,” he said.
“If in a few years, if the show is a rollicking success, they get the opportunity to re-license it. … We’re going to own the rest of the rights still,” he continued. “That felt like the best deal for us.”
During the panel, Mark and Eslyn spoke at length about their approach to both distributing and financing the series, which they emphasized was new territory, even for the indie moviemaking veterans.
“When you’re doing an independent television show, no one knows how to approach it,” Duplass said about the process of finding a distributor. “People would raise their hand and say, ‘We saw Penelope at Sundance. We want to see the rest of the series.’ We would send the links to the rest of the series, and they would say, ‘We’re interested in this.’ When it came time to negotiate the deal and the terms, everybody was just like middle school schoolyard — like, ‘You go first. I don’t know what to do.’ [Laughs.] It was so confusing.”
Mark began working on the series, directed by Eslyn, during the pandemic. Ahead of its premiere at this year’s Sundance, Mark briefly recalled the show’s journey to production on Instagram, writing that he “knew when I brought the scripts to the buyers that there would be a bidding war. But there wasn’t. No one would give us the money to make it.”
During Sunday’s panel, he expounded on those responses, and the larger landscape of YA television, which he described as not necessarily looking for something that’s “more akin to what’s happening in the Norwegian slow TV movement than it is to modern television.”
“The pantheon of young-adult television does not tell me what they’re buying right now,” he said. “Still, we are Duplass Brothers Productions, and we’ve sold shit to HBO and Netflix, and we’re like, ‘Fuck it. Let’s go sell this show,’” he recalled. “We brought it and everybody was like, ‘This is so beautiful and so unique, so deeply connected to something that I’ve lost. We can’t make this.’”
“We’re looking for the next Euphoria,” added Eslyn, who directs the series.
Duplass added that they considered that they could “force this down the throat of a traditional buyer, but it’s going to be going through a lot of development and a lot of changes” — something they weren’t interested in doing with a show they were both passionate and precious about.
“There was a moment where I think Mark and I said, ‘Should we change this for what they’re asking for?’ And that was a pretty quick moment. And we very quickly said, ‘No,’ and then said, ‘Should we go make a whole season of our own and pay for it — just go for it and not wait around for someone to say yes?’” recalled Eslyn. “We did, and I think that was for us a brave moment.”