Matthew Fennell '18 Writes for New Netflix Series 'Brand New Cherry Flavor'

Alumnus and adjunct faculty member Matthew Fennell ’18 serves as one of the writers for Netflix’s highly anticipated new series, Brand New Cherry Flavor.

The limited series, which premiered this past weekend, follows a filmmaker as she heads to Hollywood in the early ’90s to make her movie, only to tumble down a hallucinatory rabbit hole of sex, magic, revenge—and kittens.

The show is an adaptation of author Todd Grimson’s 1996 cult horror novel of the same name. Actress Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) stars as protagonist Lisa Nova, the aspiring film director whose mind-altering journey of supernatural revenge gets seriously, and nightmarishly, out of control. Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, Capote, Get Out) and Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) also star.

In a review for IGN, TV critic Brittany Vincent calls Brand New Cherry Flavor “one of the freshest shows to hit Netflix in some time, bringing an unparalleled amount of style and surrealism to the small screen with a dash of David Lynch-like magic to boot.”

As noted in a recent article from Variety, Brand New Cherry Flavor was among the first slate of shows that returned to physical production amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the show’s impressive visual effects were accomplished remotely by a team of talented VFX artists led by VFX supervisor Danny Yoon. “I think special effects are really effective when you do start with a base in something physical and real,” Yoon told Variety.

Brand New Cherry Flavor is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the trailer for the show below:

Matt Fennell is a film and television writer from Syracuse, NY. His writing credits include Showtime’s Billions and Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor, in addition to a decade of independent film production experience in Atlanta, New York City, and Europe. Fennell also serves as Writer/Producer for an upcoming Untitled Apple+ series created by Monica Beletsky. He received his Bachelors in Creative Writing from Emory University ’11 and his MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University ’18.