Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos has hinted that the service's big-budget original drama House of Cards will run past its scheduled two seasons. Former House of Cards executive producer Rick Cleveland said last month that the Emmy-winning political drama would wrap up after its second season, though that no longer appears to be the case.

Netflix

"Our intent is that the show keep going for sure," said Sarandos at Film Independent's 9th annual confab on Saturday, according to Deadline, "It was a 26-episode commitment. It was not our intent that it just run for two seasons.Talks are in progress right now."

Multi-season contracts are the norm in America and most new shows are immediately tied to at least six seasons (providing they are not cancelled) though the lack of any announcement regarding House of Cards fuelled speculation that it was come to a conclusion after 26 episodes. 

Season two will premiere on Netflix in early 2014 and it appears production on season three could begin almost immediately.

Elsewhere in his talk, Sarandos hinted that Netflix could release "big movies ourselves" and slammed theater owners for holding back innovation in the business. 

"The model that we're doing for TV should work for movies. Why not premiere movies the same day on Netflix that they are opening in theaters?" he said noting the draw that House of Cards had all 13-episodes being available to watch immediately, "Think about this last summer, more movies with a production budget of over $75 million were released than ever before in the history of movies. The result of that was a 6% lift in attendance. So the studios have never done less with more," he said.

Kevin SpaceyKate Mara
Kevin Spacey [L] and Kate Mara [R] Star In 'House of Cards'

"The reason why we may enter the space and release some big movies ourselves this way is because I'm concerned that as theater owners try to strangle innovation and distribution not only are they going to kill theaters, they might kill movies," he added.

House of Cards stars Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, a democrat from South Carolina's 5th confressional district and the House Majority Whip who decides to extract his revenge after getting snubbed for Secretary of State. The series also stars Robin Wright as Underwood's wife and Kate Mara as a Washington Post journalist. 

Last week, billionaire investor Carl Icahn cashed in big on his Netflix shares, selling his 9 per cent for an $800 million profit.

Icahn - who is worth $29 billion - tweeted, "I want to thank Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos and the rest of the Netflix team for a job well done. And last but not least, I wish to thank Kevin Spacey."