Brian Helgeland's medieval-set “A Knight’s Tale” was released in 2001 and was a semi-success but has developed a decent following these last 20 years.
In an interview with Inverse, Helgeland says he recently pitched a sequel to Netflix and that they rejected it because their “algorithm” told them that it wouldn’t be a success:
I pitched it to Sony because they own the rights, and it seemed like they were interested in making it with Netflix, releasing it as a Netflix movie. My understanding is that Netflix tested this sequel idea through their algorithms, which indicated that it would not be successful. A Knight’s Tale seems to get more popular with every passing year; it’s the strangest thing.
The late Heath Ledger starred in the film as William, an earnest young commoner who poses as a knight and establishes himself in jousting tournaments. Hegeland says the sequel would have tackled Williams’ daughter:
William [who died during war] has a teenage daughter who wants to joust, but she’s not allowed to because she’s a woman. She tracks down the gang and they agree to teach her how to joust, but she has to hide who she is. They cut her hair short and she speaks with a deep voice, et cetera.
I don’t think we needed this sequel, but Netflix passing it through their algorithm to see if it would work out is the most Netflix thing imaginable. Are we really going to let machines decide what films are worth greenlighting?