Netflix Lands Lucy Walker’s New Documentary

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to the documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa out of the Toronto Film Festival, Deadline can exclusively reveal.

The deal is the second in quick succession for the streamer, which less than 12 hours ago snapped up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of The Hour, for $11 million. No details as to the financial terms were disclosed.

Pic’s subject, Lhakpa Sherpa, was the first Nepali woman to completely summit and survive Mount Everest. For anyone else, that might be the greatest challenge and achievement of their life. But for the unforgettable Lhakpa — now a single mother of three, based in Connecticut — it was just the start.

Hailing from SK Global Entertainment, OBB Pictures, and Avocados and Coconuts, the doc was directed by Lucy Walker, the 2x Oscar nominee previously at TIFF with another tale of a female Everest climber in 2006’s Cinema Eye Honors Award-nominated Blindsight. Producers on the project included Charlie Corwin for SK Global Entertainment, Michael D. Ratner and Miranda Sherman for OBB Pictures, and Dalia Burde and Christopher Newman for Avocados and Coconuts. The exec producers are Sidney Kimmel, Brian Kornreich and Jo Henriquez for SK Global, Scott Ratner for OBB, Amani King for Avocados and Coconuts, and Walker.

Mountain Queen presented a work in progress screening at TIFF this past Friday, September 8 and will be released globally on Netflix in 2024. The deal was brokered by CAA Media Finance.