David Lynch | Netflix Project - Code Name 𝗪 𝗜 𝗦 𝗧 𝗘 𝗥 𝗜 𝗔 | 𝐔𝐍𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

Production Weekly, a reliable data-service that delivers news and updates on film and television productions, has published a list of projects in its issue #1222 on November 26th 2020, including an “untitled David Lynch project” going under the working title of “Wisteria” (a genus of flowering plants in the legume family). According to Production Weekly, the production of "Wisteria" is due to begin in May 2021 at Calvert Studios with David Lynch writing and directing and Sabrina Sutherland producing.

There have been a lot of rumors hinting that David Lynch was partnering with Netflix for a limited series, pretty much as soon as Twin Peaks | The Return ended in September 2017 on Showtime. Interestingly though, among these numerous rumors, someone going by the username of canthaveit in February 2020 on Reddit mentioned David Lynch’s "upcoming project", which was said to be filmed in late Spring, before the pandemic hit, under the working title of... “Wisteria” (Netflix was supposed to have green-lit 13 hour-long stand-alone episodes for a budget of $85 million).

A few weeks ago, during an online interview, David said that, if it weren’t for the pandemic, he’d “be probably making a film or continuing a story.” Let's still stay cautious then, especially now that all the film production came to an halt in the US, but let's hope there's some truth behind this.

Since November 26th, absolutely nothing official has filtered yet from David Lynch, Sabrina Sutherland nor Netflix, if we except Mark Frost's repeated denials of being whatsoever involved on his Twitter.

DECEMBER 2020 UPDATES

In its issue #1224 released on December 9th however, Production Weekly has updated its listing to read “UNRECORDED NIGHT (w/t WISTERIA)” instead of “UNTITLED DAVID LYNCH PROJECT (w/t WISTERIA)” for this David Lynch's Netflix project (check a screen-capture in the comments).

We also know that, in June 2020, David L. and Sabrina Sutherland registered copyrights for 13 “episodes” of some “Dramatic Works” titled 'UNRECORDED NIGHT', that could then be the actual title of "Wisteria".

Little by little, Production Weekly listings reveal that regular David Lynch's crew members are added to the project. Director of Photography Peter Deming, who's been David Lynch's DP on the "On The Air" and "Hotel Room" series and then on Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks | The Return, etc.) has been hired to work on Principal Photography on this "Unrecorded Night" project. Christine Larson-Nitzsche has been brought on as Line Producer / Production Manager (Production Weekly December 16th update) Scott Cameron has been hired as First Assistant Director and Johanna Ray as Casting Director (Production Weekly late December update).

We won't dare to overinterpret the "Twin Peaks Production Inc" mention so far : as a matter of fact, "On the Air" was also labelled as a "Twin Peaks Productions Inc" series.

Artwork by Michelle Klein-Haas

During the 2020 Christmas Holidays, on December 21st, David Lynch seems to have made a possible allusion to this Wisteria project during his daily Weather Report on his David Lynch Theater YT Channel, when he said : 

TODAY IS THE WINTER SOLSTICE, THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR. NOW THE DAYS ARE GONNA START GETTING LONGER AND SPRINGTIME IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, WHEN, AT LEAST IN L.A., THAT NIGHT BLOOMING JASMINE, WILL ONCE AGAIN FILL THE AIR WITH ITS SUBLIME FRAGRANCE.

Hat tip to Reddit user PoorWill for this screenshot of these Jasmine occurences 

MARCH 2021 UPDATE

ProductionList.com, a tracking service by the Film and Television Industry Alliance quite similar to Production Weekly, updated their news about "Unrecorded Night" on March 15th, stating that the "13-episode drama series from Director David Lynch" would begin on May 3rd. Still to be taken with a grain of salt, as no one from David L.'s side has yet confirmed anything about such a shooting.

On March 29th, Kyle MacLachlan shared the following picture on his Insta. A week before, on March 22nd, Andrea Hays, aka Double R Diner’s Heidi in Twin Peaks, shared this message on Twitter : “I learned something today... https://almanac.com/plant/wisteria”

NOVEMBER 2021 UPDATE

“I don't know, I mean, I wish I had some news, I don't have any news. I think that it, because of the, you know, the worldwide pandemic, the project was... I think it was just starting pre-production, I had not started to work on it yet and I'm assuming it will come back to life at some point, I don't know when that is, I have no insight I can share I'm afraid.”

David Lynch's regular Director of Photography Peter Deming interviewed on November 11th by Michele Innocenti from Cinema Arsenale, alongside Mary Sweeney, in conjunction with Mulholland Drive's 20th anniversary and its re-release in Italy. I encourage you to watch the whole 90' video here :

Peter Deming, who's been David L.'s DP on several projects, including Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks | The Return, is the very first member of the #LynchTeam to really confirm the existence of the Wisteria project as, since almost one year, nothing more or less official had ever filtered about it from David Lynch nor Netflix sides.

𝗪 𝗜 𝗦 𝗧 𝗘 𝗥 𝗜 𝗔