Netflix Stakes Out More Kiwi Rights

A series you would have expected to screen on Sky’s The Zone channel instead will turn up next month on Netflix.

Van Helsing is a Syfy channel commission about a distant relative of her vampire hunting namesake who’s resurrected in a world controlled by bloodsuckers.

While Van Helsing earned middling reviews in the US, The Hollywood Reporter points out it was created by “provocateur playwright-filmmaker Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men).

“Who says life still can’t surprise you? Bigger shock: It’s pretty good … or is at least, to quote that old critic’s saw, ‘better than it has any right to be.'”

It and Wyonna Earp are two Syfy series that have been curiously absent from NZ channels or streaming services.

But with Netflix’s Van Helsing announcement and the pending launch of Amazon Prime, which streams Wyonna Earp in the US, it’s clear these services have been snapping up or retaining these rights, along with those to One Mississippi, Crisis in Six Scenes, The Man in the High Castle and Goliath, for their local operations.

Another series that should have been fast-tracked here, Atlanta, at last will premiere on SoHo on December 22.

And in another sign of how the likes of Netflix and Amazon are starting to exert their influence, the former is adding season seven of The Good Wife to its stable from December 19.

The legal drama also can be streamed on Lightbox but only seasons 1-5 — as can Australian miniseries The Secret River, which will join Netflix’s slate next month, too.

Netflix will also launch a raft of its own drama series commissions and exclusives in December, including sci-fi adventure Travelers, the Israeli undercover thriller Fauda, the Douglas Adams adaption Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, French mini-series No Second Chance and Ten Percent.

You can see the full December line-up here for Netflix NZ and compare to what will be new on Netflix US.