Netflix’s success with “House of Cards” led to some secret bickering over who deserved credit, new leaks from the Sony hack reveal.
On Feb. 14, 2014 — a day after Fast Company headlined a story “How ‘House of Cards’ producer Dana Brunetti Knew the Netflix Model Would Win” — the show’s executive producer Josh Donen e-mailed Sony’s then-chairperson Amy Pascal, “[Brunetti] had NOTHING to do with Netflix and wasn’t ever in any meeting with them. EVER.”
Pascal — who was fired as Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair in the aftermath of the embarrassing hacking leaks — reassured Donen: “The only thing that anyone knew when you all sold [‘House of Cards’ to Netflix] was that it was gonna change the business cuz no one had ever paid that much money before . . . wow that is embarrassing.”
Netflix revolutionized the TV industry when it decided to acquire original content by buying “House of Cards,” starring Kevin Spacey as a ruthless congressman and Robin Wright as his equally ambitious wife.
The Fast Company story quotes Brunetti as crowing, “A lot of people said we were crazy going into Netflix and were like, ‘What is this? Why would you do that?’ But there’s a lot of big names now in the industry that come and sit on this couch and ask me, ‘How do I get into Netflix?’ ”
An inside source told me that Brunetti, who is also Spacey’s producing partner, has a long history of exaggerating his role in projects.
But it seems to work for him. Brunetti, who posted a photo of his Ferrari on Twitter, dated Kristin Chenoweth and is now seeing actress Katie Cassidy.