Baz Luhrmann is the latest film director to turn his attention to TV with a show, The Get Down, to be aired on Netflix.
The streaming service announced that The Great Gatsby director’s 13-episode drama would air in 2016. It will focus on late-70s New York, and how the city, riven by social and financial problems, spawned disco, hip-hop and punk, “from CBGBs to Studio 54”.
Describing the show as Luhrmann’s first music-themed drama since 2001’s hit film Moulin Rouge, Netflix said that The Get Down would focus on “a ragtag crew of South Bronx teenagers ... armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some magic markers and spray cans”.
Luhrmann, who will direct the first two episodes as well as the finale, serving as executive producer for the series overall, said in a statement: “In this golden era of TV, the Netflix culture puts no constraint on creative possibilities. So it is a natural home for The Get Down, a project I have been contemplating and working on now for over 10 years.”
The Get Down is part of a TV deal that Luhrman struck with Sony in 2012. The show’s announcement comes a month after it was announced that Woody Allen would make a TV series for rival streaming service Amazon Prime.
Known for his flamboyant visual style, Luhrmann most recently directed a stage version of his 1992 film Strictly Ballroom, which opened in Sydney to tepid reviews. Catherine Martin, his long-term collaborator, will be costume and production designer as well as co-executive producer on The Get Down. Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, presidents of programming and production for Sony Pictures Television, described Luhrmann as “an artist in the truest sense, whose talent and vision resonate across mediums. There is no better filmmaker and storyteller to draw us into this world of the forgotten and oppressed residents of the Bronx who rose up and fought back to create and define culture and music for decades to come.”
