David Lynch was apparently ready to get back to work with his longtime collaborators Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Naomi Watts before his passing. Lynch’s daughter Jennifer Lynch told The Times that the trio of actors, all of whom have appeared in numerous Lynch projects, were tentatively going to star in shelved Netflix series “Unrecorded Night.” The script for the show, which Lynch completed prior to his death at age 78 in January 2025, might still be released as a book instead.
“I was sworn to secrecy but yes, I’m sure Kyle [MacLachlan] would have been part of it,” Jennifer Lynch said of the show. “And Laura [Dern], and Naomi [Watts]. He loved to play with his friends.”
Jennifer Lynch added that despite being a filmmaker herself, “Unrecorded Night” will not be made by any of the Lynch children…and most likely, not by any other director either. “None of us ever tried to make his series in his place,” she said. “We are considering offering that as a published piece, so that people can sit with his ideas. It would be very sad if people didn’t get to see it.”
Watts previously said that she and Laura Dern were ready to collaborate again with Lynch in late November 2024. While not confirmed, that project could have been “Unrecorded Night.” Lynch’s longtime cinematographer Peter Deming recently said to The Film Stage that Lynch had planned to write and direct 13 episodes of the series, which was first developed under the working title of “Wisteria.” The would-be Netflix series was going to be set in Los Angeles and have “mixed in filmmaking and Old Hollywood” as a mystery. Deming added that the show was written as a sprawling film, saying, “It took me three sittings to read it because it was so thick.”
And “Unrecorded Night” isn’t the only project that Lynch left on the table amid his passing: His “Twin Peaks” co-writer Mark Frost also told The Times that another series was in the works. It would have been their fourth collaboration. “We had a very early idea but nothing on paper,” Frost said. “Who knows? I didn’t feel it was appropriate to push when his health was uncertain. I can’t even fathom trying to do the show without him, but there may be other ways.”
