Sam Esmail On His ‘Metropolis’ TV Seres Getting Scrapped During The Strike: “It Was Heartbreaking”

deadline.com:

Sam Esmail’s years-in-the making adaptation of Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis became one of the first major casualties of the 2023 Hollywood strikes.

Seven weeks into the WGA work stoppage, the UCP studio, where Esmail has been under an overall deal, pulled the plug on the big-budget series, which had been prepping in Australia with a partial cast set, including Briana Middleton and Lindy Booth.

Because of the strike, Esmail could not comment on the cancellation at the time. He shared his reaction tonight on the red carpet for his upcoming Netflix movie Leave the World Behind starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali. “Obviously, it was heartbreaking,” he told Deadline. “But during the strike, we all understood.

And I got to work with a lot of talented people out in Australia, where we were mounting the production. It was a really good experience, and I don’t regret it for a second.” As Deadline reported at the time, since production drafts of the scripts for the large-scope, special effects-heavy series had not been finished before the May 2 start of the writers strike, that delayed setting budgets and other key elements of pre-production.