Carlton Cuse On How Sports Rights Fights Are Hurting Scripted, Fair Residuals, AI & Netflix Series ‘The Secret Of Secrets’
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- Carlton Cuse warned that sports rights costs — including the NBA's $77 billion deal and impending NFL renegotiations — are squeezing scripted TV budgets, noting that more than 80% of the top-rated U.S. broadcasts last year were football games.
- AI could reduce scripted production costs and trigger 'a real resurgence in storytelling,' Cuse said, calling the technology 'inevitable' rather than threatening to craft.
- The Secret of Secrets, Netflix's adaptation of Dan Brown's sixth Robert Langdon novel, will begin shooting in Prague in September, with Morgan Spector as Langdon and Rebecca Hall as Katherine Solomon.
- Streaming residuals are 'nothing' compared to the old network rerun model, Cuse said, urging guilds to keep pressing tech companies for better formulas that let writers and directors pay bills between gigs.
- Cuse would neither confirm nor deny a Star Wars series with his son Nick Cuse (Watchmen), calling the franchise 'instrumental' to his early career in Hollywood.
- Streaming has revived catalog shows like Lost and Bates Motel with younger viewers, creating 'ongoing communion with an audience,' Cuse said, contrasting the new shelf life with the old broadcast model.
- Prague is being used as itself rather than as a stand-in for other cities on The Secret of Secrets — a rarity Cuse said has Czech crews thrilled to finally showcase the city on screen.
Why it matters: Cuse, co-creator of Lost and an Emmy winner, is putting a public face on the $77B NBA rights deal that's diverting entertainment spending away from scripted production. His admission that streaming residuals lag the old network model gives guilds a quotable ally heading into future contract fights over the ad-hoc talent pool model.
