Today is the first day the general public can stream the adult animated comedy Fixed. However, it wasn’t always a guarantee that the film about a dog having one last memorable night out with his friends before becoming neutered would see the light of day. We recently spoke with director, co-writer, and co-producer Genndy Tartakovsky about the tumultuous limbo before Netflix picked the film up.
“The process was horrible, right? And it’s something that’s never happened to me in all my career. Whenever we got something green lit, we had a air date or release date and that’s it. You work towards that date and everybody’s supporting it and then it comes out,” Tartakovsky said.
He continued, “And this [Fixed], we started on that path and then all of a sudden I get this call that the movie is going to be shelved. It had already happened in the industry a few times. I couldn’t believe that after 16 years, 15 years of trying to get this movie made, we finally made it to just be shelved for nobody to see it. All this great work, it was nauseating to me.”
There was a ray of hope coming from current President and Chief Creative Officer of New Line Cinema Richard Brener. At the time Brener ran New Line’s R-rated comedy department. Since the studio had a positive working relationship with Tartakovsky, they negotiated a deal that allowed Sony to purchase the movie back, but there were still roadblocks on the path to release. After screening a completed Fixed, the studio still said no rejecting it for a second time after passing on the script previously.
Last year was busy for Tartakovsky while he searched for a distributor, and it took a toll on his self confidence. “All of 2024 we spent trying to sell the movie and nobody would buy it,” he candidly shared. “We had maybe one or two kind of bites but not really. And at a certain point you start to look inward and you go, What did I do? Did I make a movie that’s unwatchable or something? Or is it so horrid that nobody wants to watch it?”
Finally at the start of 2025, the director received great news. Netflix came calling in January wanting to to release Fixed. It was a stark contrast to the year before when the streaming platform passed on the movie initially.
Tartakovsky shared his experience after receiving the call. “I was like ‘What?!,’ because they passed in January of 2024 so I don’t know if the right people saw it or whatever, and then the next thing you know the deal is done and here we are. It’s like, “Whooo” <huge sigh of relief>. And at the same time it’s so gratifying and they’ve got the most eyes. The most amount of subscribers so it has the biggest potential for success hopefully.”
Stream Fixed now on Netflix.
