Mark Duplass used the indie film model to make the Netflix series “Penelope.” Can it work for others?

The new series “Penelope,” which premieres Tuesday on Netflix, opens with a 16-year-old girl dancing at an outdoor silent disco. Feeling out of place, she tries to overcome the awkwardness of dancing in a room with her summer camp classmates. But Penelope’s attention always drifts to the surrounding nature.

It’s a quieter start than the streaming platform’s classic run of the dark comedy thriller “Baby Reindeer,” but its impact is enduring. And creators Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn hope their empowering teen drama can show the industry that mid-budget TV still has a place in an ecosystem dominated by intellectual property, even if creators must first finance the projects themselves.

“This was the project that I felt was the most important and could be, maybe, my legacy,” Duplass told TheWrap. “So even though it was way more expensive than anything I’ve ever self-funded, and it was really terrifying to do this at a time when the industry is, quite frankly, in turmoil, I just knew we had to do it.”

Throughout the festival, Duplass emphasized how “Penelope” served as an experiment in proving the benefits of developing an independent production model for television — both for filmmakers hoping to produce original ideas outside the studio system, and for distributors looking to spend less on content.

TheWrap spoke with Duplass and Eslyn about the possibility of directing the eight-episode drama themselves and integrating it into Netflix’s library, and took a closer look at how realistic the model would be for filmmakers not named Duplass to emulate, who benefited from the opportunity to partially finance “Penelope” with money earned from “The Morning Show.”

“There’s no question that even Netflix can’t spend as much money on content as it used to,” Jon Giegengack, founder of Hub Entertainment Research, told TheWrap. “This type of deal makes sense for streamers because it ensures that consumers can find content that isn’t standard in their libraries … and it allows for a change in perspective on the platform, simply because it offers these types of independent projects through its service.”

Netflix declined to comment for this article.

Put on a show

Duplass made his name in independent film before developing low-budget series for HBO, including the critically acclaimed “Room 104,” “Togetherness” and “Somebody Somewhere.” He also landed mainstream acting roles, such as his Emmy-nominated turn on “The Morning Show.” He wrote the majority of “Penelope” during the COVID lockdowns, inspired by the world slowing down during the pandemic and a desire to get away from screens and seek out the great outdoors.

He also wanted to explore the pressures his teenage daughters, Ora and Molly, faced in the age of social media from a new perspective, following young Penelope as she left behind her old life to connect with nature.

The series premiere picks up the day after the dance party, as Penelope goes on a quiet solo hike. Her mother interrupts the blissful moment with a text reminding her that they need to get home so Penelope can make it back in time for an SAT prep session. But Penelope turns off her phone and keeps walking. She then buys camping gear before hopping on a moving train to a new life in a national park in the Pacific Northwest.

Hollywood wasn’t in a position to help Duplass bring his ambitious program to life. In the midst of an industry contraction, streamers now have less room to invest in what’s known as mid-budget TV. While producers declined to comment on “Penelope’s” budget, the genre is typically driven by original works from up-and-coming writers that become critically acclaimed cult classics, like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag,” the Duplass brothers’ previous HBO credits or Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You.” Some shows become bona fide hits for their distributors. The global phenomenon “Baby Reindeer,” which premiered to great fanfare in April, has become one of Netflix’s most-watched titles of 2024, winning the Emmy for best limited series in September.

After streamers and TV networks dropped “Penelope,” Duplass and Eslyn, president of Duplass Brothers Productions, decided to move forward. They treated the project like one of the many independent films their company has produced in the past, with Duplass using what he calls “Morning Show money” to finance the project and Eslyn directing the eight episodes in eight weeks. They then marketed the finished series.

“It was an eight-week shoot… on the biggest day, I shot scenes from six different episodes in one day, visually showing this girl’s journey,” Eslyn told TheWrap. “It felt like I was camping while shooting a movie.”

The plan worked. “Penelope” was released in the United States by Netflix in May, after its pilot episode premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and screenings at South by Southwest in Texas and SeriesFest in Colorado, among others.

Unlike a Netflix original title like “Baby Reindeer,” “Penelope” is a licensed title that will launch without any Netflix branding or promotion. It will be available only to U.S. subscribers.

The deal also provides for Duplass Brothers Productions to retain control of the property and retain its VOD rental rights while they sell the independent series domestically and internationally.

The creators can also decide for themselves whether or not to renew the series for a second season.

“We’ve basically freed (Netflix) from the responsibility of making us their flagship show,” Duplass said at SeriesFest in May after announcing the acquisition. He described his pitch to Netflix: “‘Just put us on the service. We’ll sign you a very short contract, and we’ll see how it goes.’ That way, at Netflix, you’re not taking an outsized risk on the show. You’re not going to be upset if it doesn’t work and turn around and say, ‘Independent television is never going to work. We’re not going to do it anymore.’”

Can other filmmakers follow suit?

Now that Netflix is ​​the industry’s streaming giant, it’s up to the streamer to create the impression that the platform “will never run out of things to watch, that there’s always something new that I haven’t seen yet,” Giegengack told TheWrap.

As for the younger filmmakers, both Giegengack and Duplass acknowledged that the traditional independent filmmaker probably couldn’t self-finance a project like “Penelope” on their own. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t find a way to tailor the creation of their own original project to their own means and push for an acquisition or development of the project themselves.

“There are other ways to make really interesting, independent television,” Duplass said, citing his “Creep Tapes” series, which is set to premiere Nov. 15 on AMC+ and Shudder. “I’m really hopeful that we’re going to see audiences complain about the lack of interesting television as Hollywood continues to shrink. And I’m hopeful that we and an army of other like-minded people can fill that void.”

“I’m prepared to lose at least a good portion of my shirt in the process,” he added.

For Giegengack, it all comes down to self-marketing — like musicians who put their first projects on SoundCloud, or those who find success without a label.

“It would have been a lot easier to make The Blair Witch Project today than it was in 1999,” he said, referring to the $750,000 horror film that grossed nearly $250 million at the box office. “You can use your social media audience, which is now a component of your power, in addition to money.”

The article Mark Duplass Used the Indie Film Model to Create Netflix Series ‘Penelope’. Can It Work for Others? appeared first on TheWrap.