Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala at the Hilton Midtown in New York on December 6, 2022. – Source: @ANGELA WEISS
LOS ANGELES. – Nearly two years after their departure from the UK, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle began work on a project that could transform them turn former royals into Hollywood stars.
Always the subject of endless gossip and gossip, the two felt more than qualified to tackle the thorny issue of misinformation in a documentary, hoping to establish themselves as serious creative producers and put their reputations as mainstream exiles behind them permit. Windsor House trading the family’s dirty laundry for fanfare and publicity.
In January 2020, Meghan and Harry gave up their royal duties, titles and financial support from the Crown and relocated to the United States.
The work team of Archwell, the production company the couple founded in Los Angeles, had many questions for “H” and “M,” as staff members call the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Due to bad information, would the project be a movie or a series? Did you already have the presenter of the show in mind? Would it be a historical or a contemporary approach? Harry and Meghan would show up? Was Meghan ready to share her bitter experience with the British tabloid on camera? And if not, would anyone watch the show?
According to internal Archwell sources, the two had few answers, and the misinformation documentation soon met the same fate as several other Archewell projects: Oblivion.
Harry and Meghan’s Hollywood foray seems to have ended in a fiasco. Settling in Southern California three years ago with their titles Duke and Duchess, they plan to capitalize on the streaming rage, a money-boiling business intent on attracting new subscribers. But the next mega deals – $100 million with Netflix, $20 million with Spotify – ended in the red more cancellations and bochazos than finished products.
The couple showed they know how to capitalize on their personal history. Harry’s memoir From the Shadows became a bestseller and the Netflix-produced six-part documentary about his break with the royal family was widely viewed by audiences. Apart from this, The couple has not managed to get beyond their own life story.
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Harry’s book “Spare” – Credits: @Michael Sohn
Also among the graveyard of projects they hoped to produce is an animated series for children entitled Pearl, which was canceled by Netflix, and at least two TV ideas the streaming service has screwed up over the past yearaccording to sources familiar with the Sussexes’ projects, adding that this is the case Netflix is unlikely to renew the couple’s contract. which expires in 2025.
Out of the agreement with Spotify came “archetypes‘, a podcast about the stereotypes that weigh on women. There were talks of a second season, but the idea was shelved and Spotify and the couple have just announced their split.
Media who have worked with the couple say the Sussexes’ California adventure has been marred Inexperience as producers and their difficulties in finding materials and projects that fit their brandcoupled with issues beyond his control, such as recent investment cuts in the entertainment industry.
“New companies often make changes during their start-up phase and we are no exception,” says the Archewell spokesman. “We’re better equipped, more focused and more energetic than ever.” And he added that the company recently hired a new director of script content, actress and producer Tracy Ryerson.
The cover of the podcast hosted by the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle – Credits: @Spotify
A Netflix spokesman said the company values the partnership with Archewell, noting that “Harry & Meghan” was the most watched documentary when it premiered. “We will continue to work together on various projects.”
Archewell and Spotify announce their split Through a joint statement, saying they’ve split “by mutual consent” and are “proud of the podcast series we’ve made together.”
By the time they struck deals with Netflix and Spotify in 2020, streaming services were booming and executives didn’t hesitate to pay whatever it took to generate content and satisfy the public’s insatiable demand. The pandemic has forced ravenous subscribers to stay indoors, but it has also disrupted the production of projects in their early stages of development, including some of the Sussexes’ projects.
Today the rage of streaming has ended, This leads to a period of slower growth and also uncertainty. Both Netflix and Spotify have canceled projects and films to cut costs, and inside sources say both companies have been rather disappointed by the Sussexes’ lack of productivity.
“Okay, you’ve dropped your bombshell, how are things going now?” says Andrew Morton, historical chronicler of the British royal family.
That’s what Archewell employees and partners say in the production company there is a lack of leadership and that its founders seem surprised at the amount of work that goes into completing an entertainment product. Most potential initiatives follow the same pattern, in their opinion: Great idea, mediocre implementation.
in May 2022, Both Archewell’s communications chief and the non-profit foundation’s communications chief resigned of the couple, and several others followed in the months that followed, including the head of the company’s audio and audio division Mandana DayaniPresident of the entire company.
March, Ben Browning, the film producer tasked with overseeing Archewell’s content, left the company to return to his former job. They went back the Head of Marketing and the Head of Script Content.
Harry and Meghan landed in Hollywood as objects of transcontinental fascination. They were the first British royals to step down from official duties since King Edward VIII. And they had friends among the big American stars Serena Williams and Oprah Winfreywho had already attended her wedding in London in 2018.
After landing their lucrative deal with Netflix, the couple’s relationship with the company was strengthened by their friendship Ted SarandosCo-CEO of the company and neighbor of the Sussexes in Montecito, California.
Serena Williams and Meghan Markle have been friends for several years
Harry & Meghan, the partial documentary about the couple’s love story, was the first major project to be produced under this deal. The documentary reflected intimate moments – Harry recalled the tears of his mother, Princess Diana, and Meghan opened up about her miscarriage – and delved deeply into British colonialism and the racism the couple suffered from.
The documentary also gave rise to Criticism of the Sussexeslike the moment Meghan says she didn’t expect to have to curtsey to the Queen.
Archewell employees felt the future of their contract with Netflix depended on the success of the documentary, and the project created tensions within the company. Harry and Meghan were involved in editing the chapters, though sometimes they weren’t heard, project stakeholders say.
Everything after that was more difficult. His second project for Netflix, a documentary about world leaders and activists titled Live to Lead, failed to make the network’s top 10 list.
And other proposals appeared to be recreations of successful shows already running on Netflix., like a sitcom similar to Emily in Paris but in a masculine version and a family show with gay characters very similar to the very popular Heartstopper. According to sources familiar with the deal, Netflix turned down both.
The same sources say Netflix executives have complained about Archewell’s low productivity and believe Harry & Meghan’s success is the only card the company has to show.
In the Harry and Meghan documentary series, the Duchess of Sussex says she feared for her life – Credits: @Netflix
Archewell currently has a project on Netflix that is nearing completion: a documentary series about the Invictus Gamesa competition for war veterans Harry started after serving in the British Army in Afghanistan.
Harry and Meghan are also developing a TV show for Netflix called Bad Manners, based on Miss Havisham, a character in Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations. It would be a prequel to Dickens’ novel, in which the lonely maiden is portrayed as a strong woman living in a patriarchal society. However, it is not yet known if Netflix will give the green light to continue production.
For Harry and Meghan, The overall downturn in business and the streaming industry couldn’t have come at a worse timeespecially since the couple decided to stop talking about the royal family after the explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Netflix documentary and Harry’s memoir.
But the revelations they made in those products seem to have deepened the rift between the duke and his father King Charles III. The couple were asked to set up camp at Frogmore Cottage, their home in Britain, and although the King invited the Sussexes to his coronation, Harry attended alone, sitting in the third row behind his older brother and indeed alone. He stayed in the country briefly.
Given their current distance from the crown, the luster that Harry and Meghan once brought to showbiz projects is fading.
By Erich Schwarzel and Sarah Krouse
Translation by Jaime Arrambide