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Well Academy Award winning producer Kathy Shulman has been producing and making movies for decades. Among her films, The Woman King, Five Feet Apart, Crash, The Edge of Seventeen, a fave of our producer elizabeths by the Way, Bad Moms, many many more. She's former head of production for STX Entertainment, former president of Artist Production Group, where she oversaw multiple films, including Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Also former president
of Mandalay Pictures. Were recently a showrunner, the showrunner and executive producer of the Showtime series The First Lady Season one. She is present in CEO of Well Entertainment. It's a film and TV production company. They focus on producing content that appeals to diverse audiences, with an emphasis on women and girls. She teaches her latest movie, Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway, made its debut at the south By Southwest Film Festival this year, opens widely through Amazon tomorrow
and the trailer on YouTube. Already eleven million fused tip.
Yeah, needless to say, she understands the movie industry and content creation on so many levels. Kathy Schulman joins us now on the phone in Los Angeles, and we're just guessing, Kathy, but are you already working on your next thing?
Of course I am. It takes a long time, such a long time to get it done that we always have to be like a couple of years ahead of ourselves. But it's so exciting to be on the eve of, you know, of the idea of you finally, you know, dropping out Amazon.
Well, how long did this take from just idea no pun intended there to actually premiering tomorrow?
You know, it took six years. I first read the book in twenty eighteen. And yeah, it's always such a long journey. And you know, I think it so important when you're picking your projects, you know, as a producer, to find those things that you're not going to get bored of, because it's quite an epic journey each time.
Well, tell us a little bit about how it all came together. I mean, I'm thinking Heyes Campbell, the actors that supposed to be like a Harry Styles. I love the Mad December relationship and the flip on that with the woman being older, Like, there's just a lot of moving pieces to this that make it fun and and Hathaway how that all came together.
Yeah, absolutely, Well, you know, Gabrielle Union, the actress, actually handed me the book, which had become you know a bit of an internet sensation, you know, during the pandemic. And you know, it's very romantic and very sexy, and I think that people were probably needing quite a lot of that during the pandemic or something. And I read and I was taken by it, particularly because I had been looking to do a romantic comedy that had a
new sort of angle and new kind of twist. In this particular story, the character name is Celene Marshaun was not deciding between two men, which is the norm she was deciding about. She was basically deciding between different versions of happiness. And I was sort of taken by the notion that, you know, either way would have been okay.
You know, on the one hand, she had been through a family, you know, she'd she'd had a husband, she had a child, She's successful in her career, and she's ready to go, you know, self actualize in a yurt, which sounded okay to me. And then the other version is she can fall in love with a twenty four year old rock store, which also sounded kind of really fun. And I just liked the idea that it would be her own agency and that she could decide what happiness
would look like for her. And I developed the script in house at my company well, and when we had a screenplay that was you know, ready to be seen, I sent it to Anne and got really lucky that the thing that never happens happened, which is, you know, my first idea, my hope was you know, that she would do it, and she said yes, and you know she would. I was really excited to do a movie.
I knew this that she had told me that she wanted to do a movie in her fortieth year that could celebrate loud and you know, loudly, that she was forty and that she was still able to light up a room, which I think we all like to feel, you know. So then then Annie got involved, and from Annie, we sold it to Amazon and they became you know,
our champions and our financiers. And once we were at Amazon, we you know, brought the project to Michael Showalter, who is a terrifically talented director, and I guess the rest is history.
So cool, And of course you're talking about Anne Hathaway. I mean, you know, you do do a lot of rom coms. Is it because you like them? You see a gap in the market?
What is it?
You know?
I like this thing. I think I've been calling a rom com drama to be honest, nice, I'd like this sort of mixture of romance, comedy and drama that sort of reminds me of the reality of life, you know, And and I just like to try to take it from an angle that isn't obvious, whether it's a younger woman or an outsider or you know, in this case, you know, women trying to figure out what happiness means.
And yeah, I really like it. It's been really hard to get these kinds of movies made in the marketplace. There's sort of been this lack of them, you know, for a number of years. And I'm I think they may be coming back with a vengeance. We're seeing that pattern in the marketplace. Now.
Hey, speaking of the marketplace, I mean a lot has changed when it comes to distribution. How how would you know twenty years ago you react to selling a movie to Amazon. Just even thinking about.
That, Oh my god, it would have been absolute sacrilege. Like it's like I couldn't even believe. Like, you know, twenty years ago, there was big, you know, demarcations between film and television. You know, there's a big demarcation between movies that went theatrical versus straight to video. You know, the idea that something would just stream and that people would watch it on their phones and on small screens complete would have been completely you know, antathetical to what
we do as filmmakers. So yeah, there's been a huge amount of change, you know, some sort of better and probably some.
Who have you accepted it that people might not watch this on the biggest screen in their house.
I wouldn't say I've accepted this. I wish I could
say I would. I think I would say that. I don't think you that we as filmmakers will ever really kind of get over the joy of, you know, having our content seen in quiet, in a group experience on a big screen in a dark room, and it still remains most of our preference and certainly as mine, I'm really enjoying this particular journey with Amazon because they're marketing the movie in a way broader way and outside their own, you know, beyond their own sort of channels, their own
digital channels. And this may be the wave of the future that allows us to feel the sort of sense that are happening is happening when versus just what I've experienced in the past with other you know, digital distribution situations where I'm like, oh, did the movie come out today? I wouldn't know, you know, that's really terrifying after all these years of work. But you know, we're still adjusting
to this. But I don't think it's going back. I mean, I think this is this is the way we're you're going to see most of our content now.
Yeah, it's different. Well, you know, we were thinking about, you know, in our setup to you, or thinking about our conversation today and our planning meeting this morning. It's you know, there are lots of avenues streaming right, which has been great for people who create movies and films and all kinds of content. There's lots of financial interest, there are strikes, there's generative AI like we're still trying to figure out kind of what's next. Is it still fun?
For you, like life on a set and putting something together. Is it still fun?
You know, it really is. The part you just mentioned
is always fun, which is actually made the content. The business is rather harrowing at the moment, so you know, there's these long periods where you're sort of trying to get the project you know, accepted, trying to get it sold, getting somebody to be its champion, you know, being noisier than the next you know, eight thousand people with the script under their arm, you know, fitting into narrowed slots, with conglomeratized companies that are pulling back, not forward on content.
That whole part is exhausting and particularly tricky, I think for producers because you know, it's a very entrepreneurial kind of a game and we used to experience long periods of lows for momentary periods of highs that were accompanied by back end participation and you know, sharing in success, and that doesn't exist anymore. So the business aspects of it are not particularly good. I think at the moment.
They're bound to get better when too much content will make you know, studios and streamers turned back to the thing itself. But the creative process is like always an utter joy and like kind of what I live for and I guess why I just keep doing this crazy thing like banging my head against the wall.
And we're speaking right now with the Academy Award winning producer Kathy Schulman. She's president's CEO of Well Entertainment. It's a film and TV production company with a focus to produce content that appeals to diverse audiences. Her latest movie, Idea of You, stars Anne Hathaway and it made its debut at south By Southwest and it opens wide through Amazon tomorrow.
You know, Kathy, one of the things, as you say, I feel like that the way with us we walk in the studio, and that's the fun part. It's the all the other stuff leading up to it that can be frustrating and tough. Having said that, you know, you produced recently The Woman King Viola Davis Sony TriStar grossed over one hundred million globally. I hope I have the right amount. The director on the movie talked about having a hard time get our movies funded. She's a proven director.
You are a proven entity in this industry. You've got a seat at the table. You're in the room where it happens. Why is it still so hard though it seems like for women to get funding for their projects in Hollywood?
You know, that's such a good question. And you know, having been involved in a lot of research around this, you know, through the more film traffic work that I do, you know, with women in film and with reframe and you know, with Stacy Smith and Annenberg and all this. You know, we just continue to see these trends where, you know, those people who control purse strings or control finances are less likely to put money in the hands
of women. You know, it seems that you know, research has has has revealed this the why it just doesn't make any sense. Things along the lines of, you know, women are too busy multitasking to take care of the money. Look, that's insane. I mean, think about it. If men were so good at you know, multitasking, then all their movies would be success. You know, do that makes no sense? Or you know women, you know women women, you know, uh,
aren't as good with money. Well, we've been managing money and you know, even in the household since the dawn of time. Or or you know, women don't know what men want. Well, that's ridiculous because the majority marketplace is women and women you know, by the majority of film, television and streaming, and frankly, women by them buy more than men of everything, including cars and technology and everything else.
In fact, we shop a lot in case anyone hasn't noticed. So, you know, I think that the reasons that that that that end up being researched are really kind of mythic and falls and that we're really dealing with bias. Well still has to be you know removed.
Yeah, it's interesting. Well, and you referenced you know, you've been in the industry. You've also looked at the industry in an advocacy role, as you mentioned your president of Women in Film for more than a decade. Just got about a minute left here. You know, what are the things that you feel like you've done or helped to get done to help reduce that disparity between men and women in this in this industry? What moves the needle?
You know, I think that you know, we've been really successful in starting to create a pipeline. You know, that's important that you know that for these you know, uh, decision making jobs or gatekeeper jobs, writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, executive, you know, pipeline is crucial, and I do think we've done that. There's been a huge education campaign and we have made progress and we have moved the numbers. Where we still have a lot of work to do, you know,
is probably from the top down. We've made some progress in bringing more women around decision making tables, which definitely affects GOT content is chosen, right, But yeah, I mean there's still a way to go.
All right, So appreciate it so much. Fun Kathy Schulman, President CEO, well entertained meant Academy Award winning producer Idea of View opening wide through Amazon on May second. Thanks so much,