Baz Luhrmann’s New Show Might Be Netflix’s Most Expensive Production Ever

The Get Down's premiere in August will mark a significant milestone on a long, costly road for Netflix. The new series, helmed by Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, is the one of the priciest productions in the streaming service's history, according to Variety. Variety broke down The Get Down's receipts: In two-and-a-half years, the show suffered one calamity after another, all at a staggering cost. "Luhrmann went through two showrunners, numerous writers, and no small amount of strain with producer Sony Pictures Television. Production of the 12-episode season, the first half of which premieres August 12, went well over the original budget of about $7.5 million per episode and wound up costing at least $120 million overall," Variety reports. To put that figure in perspective: This season, Game of Thrones cost around $10 million per episode, according to Forbes. Most of that money was spent on orchestrating larger-than-life battle scenes. According to Variety's report, The Get Down hemorrhaged cash not on special effects, but because the highly specialized shoot took longer than most Netflix productions. The beleaguered show is Luhrmann's first TV series. The story follows a group of teens from the South Bronx in 1970s New York. "I really believed that I was sort of going to be an uncle to the project,” Luhrmann told Variety. “The mechanism that pre-existed to create TV shows didn’t really work for this show. At every step of the way there was no precedent for what we were doing." Netflix and Sony execs told Variety that the real challenge was orchestrating dance numbers and making the show authentic to New York City's vivacious music culture in the '70s. Because of the cost of the show and work still left undone, this is the first time Netflix is deviating from its binge-friendly release style. The August 12 debut will consist of the show's first half, with the second set to be released sometime next year.