LOS GATOS, Calif. — Netflix Inc.'s Internet video streaming service will be the only place to watch an upcoming TV series with a high-powered pedigree that includes Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey and the director of an Oscar-nominated film about Facebook.

The deal announced Friday illustrates Netflix's growing clout in Hollywood as its mines revenue from its 20 million subscribers to create new home entertainment options. In this instance, Netflix will be showing a series that won't have a scheduled broadcast time. Episodes could be released in bunches instead of just one per week.

"It's a show people will be able to discover over time," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, said in a Friday interview. "It doesn't have to happen over the first week, first month or even the first year of the show."

Netflix didn't disclose how much it is paying Media Rights Capital, the studio behind "House of Cards." The agreement covers 26 hour-long episodes, an usually large commitment for a series that hasn't even entered production. The series will debut on Netflix late next year.

The high-profile names connected to "House of Cards" made it a hot commodity. Besides featuring Spacey in his first regular role in a TV series, the pilot will be directed by David Fincher, a respected filmmaker nominated for a best-director Oscar for "The Social Network," a movie based on the legal battle pitting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg against his former friends and classmates at Harvard University.

"House of Cards" is based on a novel about British politics during the 20-year regime of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

This will mark the first time that Netflix owns the exclusive rights to an episodic series, an advantage that has worked well for pay-TV channels such as Time Warner Inc.'s HBO and CBS Inc.'s Showtime. HBO, with an estimated 28 million U.S. subscribers, has steadfastly refused to license critically acclaimed series such as "The Sopranos" and "The Wire" to Netflix's streaming service because of their intensifying rivalry.

In landing the rights to "House of Cards," Netflix demonstrated it has the financial muscle to outbid the more-established pay-TV channels.

"It was probably the most sought after premium series on the market now," Sarandos boasted.

Won't the sixth season be their last? Still, compared to the original British HOC, which was essentially a miniseries, the American version lasted a lot longer.

At least, in having this situation finally settled will now give the crew time to set themselves up to make themselves available for other opportunities.

I think this was always intended to be the final season. For obvious reasons, they had to suspend production to do some much-needed housecleaning.

Yes, they said it was always going to be the last season but the question remained -- would they allow a final, if different, last season, or just cut it off and never let it return? I'm glad they did.

Yes, I know they originally intended to end it at the end of the sixth season. For some reason, I had no doubt that they'd end things the way they announced because it is the most logical way to do it, given the political/social climate that we're in.

Having Spacey included would've been a non-starter but there's no way they were just going to end things abruptly with no conclusion. Likely Frank Underwood was always going to get his comeuppance, they've just pushed up the punishment faster.

I'm wondering if they will air what Spacey had filmed or just cut him out all together? Luckily if Spacey were to be pushed out now would be the best time given where the storylines are.

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/house-of-cards/news/a844845/house-of-cards-season-6-scrap-episodes-filmed-kevin-spacey/

Sad news. Reg E. Cathey has passed away.  He was so good on this show among many others, as well as onstage.

 

Reg E. Cathey, ‘House of Cards’ and ‘The Wire’ Actor, Dies at 59

17 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Sad news. Reg E. Cathey has passed away.  He was so good on this show among many others, as well as onstage.

 

Reg E. Cathey, ‘House of Cards’ and ‘The Wire’ Actor, Dies at 59

Oh my gosh, how sad. He was so so so good on the show. I hated what happened to his relationship with Frank. His character was such a prick on Oz. He was so good.

Edited February 10, 20187 yr by Antoyne

1 hour ago, Antoyne said:

Oh my gosh, how sad. He was so so so good on the show. I hated what happened to his relationship with Frank. His character was such a prick on Oz. He was so good.

 

And 59 seems young.  He was a great character actor, so versatile.

15 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

And 59 seems young.  He was a great character actor, so versatile.

59 is super young. He hadn’t even hit retirement years 🙁.

A message from the President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/yx0P3qyHfW

— House of Cards (@HouseofCards) July 4, 2018

That ending was inevitable, tbh.