6 ms·

The most cogent analysis I've seen is that the changes were made by the owners of the books in order to sell more books.

deleted 4y ago
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- wattsApp 4y ago
  [dead]
josephcsible 4y ago
If this were the case, I'd expect them to keep selling both the original and rewritten versions, since for both, there's at least a few people who'd be willing to buy one but not the other.
josephg 4y ago
From the article: > The Dahl estate owned the rights to the books until 2021, when Netflix bought them outright for a reported $686 million, building on an earlier rights deal. The American streaming service now has overall control over the book publishing, as well as various adaptation projects that are in the works. I suspect they're hoping netflix will make movies based on his books. Netflix seems pretty sensitive to twitter opinions. They're probably trying to throw a bone to the twitter mob to make it less likely any new movies get "cancelled".
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- renewiltord 4y ago
  I sympathize with the view of Netflix bowdlerizing to broaden the audience but they're also the platform with Dave Chappelle - which makes it hard to align them with "pretty sensitive to Twitter opinions" since a bunch of people have declared that fellow persona non grata.
  - josephg 4y ago
    True; but I don't think they paid to have Dave Chappelle produced. They stopped making House of Cards after the sexual harassment thing with Kevin Spacey. I'm sure they'd rather have less controversy around Dahl's work. And its pretty easy to imagine Dahl's estate making the 'conservative' choice and allowing these edits if there's even a risk of their netflix deal falling apart.
- boppo1 4y ago
  Did Netflix buy the rights to the books or to movies of the books? If the former, is it then ultimately Netflix responsible for the changes?
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Surely the success of Hogwarts Legacy shows you can just completely ignore twitter and nothing happens.
  - zmgsabst 4y ago
    Dior is up while WarnerMedia is down. Not only can you make money while ignoring Twitter — but you can make money by ignoring Twitter screeching. Eg, by hiring Johnny Depp rather than engaging in misandry by supporting false accusations against him. Hopefully, WarnerMedia eventually gets the memo — and stops discriminating against men while supporting abusers like Amber Heard (female) or Ezra Miller (non-binary). I think a lot of companies have forgotten they need to treat people based on the content of their character rather than race/sex/gender/etc.
  - josephg 4y ago
    Yeah; I don’t know why it’s taken people so long to realise this. I know it seems to people on Twitter that everyone is on twitter, but that’s really not true. About 10% of people in the USA use Twitter daily - which is a huge number of eyeballs. But that still leaves the remaining 90% of people choosing instead to enjoy our short time on this planet. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if the outrage over Hogwarts Legacy increased sales of the game. I don’t know if I would have heard about it at all if not for the outrage machine. Louis CK did a show here in Melbourne a few months ago and the show was sold out. For better or worse, being canceled doesn’t seem like a life sentence.
    - jquery 4y ago
      Because being cancelled isn't a real thing. It's usually just scoundrels angry they received the slightest bit of pushback. Dave Chapelle constantly whines that queer people are trying to cancel him while he cashes $20m Netflix checks on a regular basis.
      - josephcsible 4y ago
        Being cancelled is very much a real thing, since a lot of people have, e.g., spineless bosses who will immediately capitulate to the Twitter mob's demands.
- slibhb 4y ago
  > Netflix seems pretty sensitive to twitter opinions Do they? They sided with Chappelle. They gave Norm Macdonald a talk show. I think Netflix does a fairly good job trying to cater to everyone, woke and not.
lamontcg 4y ago
Yeah, they're doing this willingly, they're not being compelled, they're making an economic decision that the books will sell better with the edits.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

wattsApp 4y ago
[dead]

josephcsible 4y ago

If this were the case, I'd expect them to keep selling both the original and rewritten versions, since for both, there's at least a few people who'd be willing to buy one but not the other.

josephg 4y ago

From the article: > The Dahl estate owned the rights to the books until 2021, when Netflix bought them outright for a reported $686 million, building on an earlier rights deal. The American streaming service now has overall control over the book publishing, as well as various adaptation projects that are in the works. I suspect they're hoping netflix will make movies based on his books. Netflix seems pretty sensitive to twitter opinions. They're probably trying to throw a bone to the twitter mob to make it less likely any new movies get "cancelled".

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
renewiltord 4y ago
I sympathize with the view of Netflix bowdlerizing to broaden the audience but they're also the platform with Dave Chappelle - which makes it hard to align them with "pretty sensitive to Twitter opinions" since a bunch of people have declared that fellow persona non grata.
- josephg 4y ago
  True; but I don't think they paid to have Dave Chappelle produced. They stopped making House of Cards after the sexual harassment thing with Kevin Spacey. I'm sure they'd rather have less controversy around Dahl's work. And its pretty easy to imagine Dahl's estate making the 'conservative' choice and allowing these edits if there's even a risk of their netflix deal falling apart.
boppo1 4y ago
Did Netflix buy the rights to the books or to movies of the books? If the former, is it then ultimately Netflix responsible for the changes?
Gigachad 4y ago
Surely the success of Hogwarts Legacy shows you can just completely ignore twitter and nothing happens.
- zmgsabst 4y ago
  Dior is up while WarnerMedia is down. Not only can you make money while ignoring Twitter — but you can make money by ignoring Twitter screeching. Eg, by hiring Johnny Depp rather than engaging in misandry by supporting false accusations against him. Hopefully, WarnerMedia eventually gets the memo — and stops discriminating against men while supporting abusers like Amber Heard (female) or Ezra Miller (non-binary). I think a lot of companies have forgotten they need to treat people based on the content of their character rather than race/sex/gender/etc.
- josephg 4y ago
  Yeah; I don’t know why it’s taken people so long to realise this. I know it seems to people on Twitter that everyone is on twitter, but that’s really not true. About 10% of people in the USA use Twitter daily - which is a huge number of eyeballs. But that still leaves the remaining 90% of people choosing instead to enjoy our short time on this planet. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if the outrage over Hogwarts Legacy increased sales of the game. I don’t know if I would have heard about it at all if not for the outrage machine. Louis CK did a show here in Melbourne a few months ago and the show was sold out. For better or worse, being canceled doesn’t seem like a life sentence.
  - jquery 4y ago
    Because being cancelled isn't a real thing. It's usually just scoundrels angry they received the slightest bit of pushback. Dave Chapelle constantly whines that queer people are trying to cancel him while he cashes $20m Netflix checks on a regular basis.
    - josephcsible 4y ago
      Being cancelled is very much a real thing, since a lot of people have, e.g., spineless bosses who will immediately capitulate to the Twitter mob's demands.
slibhb 4y ago
> Netflix seems pretty sensitive to twitter opinions Do they? They sided with Chappelle. They gave Norm Macdonald a talk show. I think Netflix does a fairly good job trying to cater to everyone, woke and not.

lamontcg 4y ago

Yeah, they're doing this willingly, they're not being compelled, they're making an economic decision that the books will sell better with the edits.