Dan Levy is setting up his future and that future has him perfectly in line with Netflix. It has been announced that the Schitt’s Creek creator has inked a very lucrative multi-year overall film and TV deal with the streamer.
The film side of the deal will begin immediately while his TV deal will begin in July 2022 after his three-year deal with ABC Signature expires. According to “The Hollywood Reporter“, the three or four-year deal is valued at significantly more than Levy’s TV-only pact with the Disney-backed ABC Signature.
Levy’s first project for Netflix will be an untitled romantic comedy feature film that he will write, direct, produce, and star in. Levy, who is a multiple Emmy winner, found himself at the center of a multiple-outlet bidding war in late 2019, which was ahead of the sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek. Netflix heavily pursued Levy for a deal after their pact with Schitt’s Creek helped propel that show to a much broader audience and, ultimately, a record-breaking Emmys sweep for its final season. Levy was also courted by Warner Bros. TV and Disney’s 20th Television but he ultimately signed the three-year overall deal with ABC Signature in September 2019 which at the time was said to be valued at $2 million a year.
The plan was for Levy to renegotiate his deal with ABC Signature following Schitt’s Creek great Emmys haul. The renegotiation was put in place to better reflect his value as a multiple Emmy winner while also extending the length of the deal. According to “The Hollywood Reporter“, the studio declined to renegotiate or even talk extensions because Levy was only a year into the deal which, at the time, had only resulted in a presentation for an animated comedy at Hulu. Levy spent the first five months of his ABC Signature deal wrapping up Schitt’s Creek before trying to develop content for them.
With ABC unwilling to renegotiate his deal, Devy went looking for a backup pact and that’s when Netflix swooped in to grab Levy before anyone else did. Levy is said to still have multiple projects in various stages of development at ABC. As of this writing, it’s not clear how his pending exit from the studio for Netflix will impact those projects.
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