Emmy-winning director Andrij Parekh, best known for HBO's Succession, has revealed that he will direct two episodes of Netflix's upcoming limited series The Retrievals, while also shooting its first episode as director of photography. Speaking at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival's Industry Days strand, Parekh appeared alongside writer-producer Sharon Horgan for a discussion on how streamers have reshaped the creative process, during which both offered cautious views on the proposed merger between Paramount and HBO's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Retrievals comes from Maid and Sirens showrunner Molly Smith Metzler and adapts the Peabody Award-winning New York Times/Serial Productions podcast by Susan Burton, telling the story of a woman who, along with nearly 100 other women, underwent IVF egg-retrieval procedures without anaesthesia after a nurse stole their fentanyl; it is set to shoot in September, with Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley's LuckyChap among the executive producers. On the $110bn Paramount-WBD merger, Horgan said she hoped "nothing changes with HBO" and Parekh urged the companies to "leave it alone", while Horgan also discussed moving her Merman firm's first-look deal from Apple to HBO, hinted at a possible further Bad Sisters season, and previewed her new series Youth. The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs from 3 to 11 July 2026.