As reported on The Verge.
By Jacob Kastrenakes
The CEO of DreamWorks Animation wanted to see a few more episodes of Breaking Bad, and he was willing to put up a Walter White-style stack of money in order to make it happen. According to Variety, Jeffrey Katzenberg — who as CEO of DreamWorks Animation had no relationship to the series — offered to finance three additional episodes of the show for $25 million apiece. The price would likely have marked a massive profit for those involved, as the average episode during Breaking Bad‘s previous season cost about $3.5 million.
“I WAS NUTS FOR THE SHOW.”
In part, the idea came out of Katzenberg’s own passion for Breaking Bad. “I was nuts for the show. I had no idea where this season was going,” he reportedly said.Variety says that Katzenberg told audiences that his offer was made six weeks ago, before he knew where the series was headed.
But Katzenberg’s offer wasn’t entirely out of an appreciation for the show. According to Variety, Katzenberg said that he wanted to “create the greatest pay-per-view television event for scripted programming anybody’s ever done.” Though three distinct episodes would be created, Katzenberg would have had them air online in six-minute chunks over 30 days — far from the best way to sustain dramatic tension. The episode reportedly would have cost around 50 to 99 cents each, though it’s unclear if that would be per segment or for a full episode. Clearly Katzenberg’s offer didn’t pan out, but then again, he might not be opposed to an epilogue.