When I saw that Shawn Ryan—the creator of The Shield ,* the hit CBS show S.W.A.T. , and the forthcoming Netflix show The Night Agent —had penned a letter to the editor in The Ankler disputing an agent’s characterizations of past Writers Guild of America negotiations with producers, I knew I had to get him on the show. Ryan, who in addition to running and writing some fantastic TV was also on the WGA negotiating committees in 2007, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2020, shared his thoughts on the state of t...
Feb 04, 2023•44 min
This week I’m pretty excited to be joined by Dean Devlin, whose work in movies like Universal Soldier , Stargate , and Independence Day I grew up loving. He works mostly in television now on series like The Librarians and Leverage, and has a new one out on SyFy debuting February 3: The Ark . We talk about his new show, how the business has evolved these last 30 years, and more on this week’s episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend! And make sure to check out The Ark , new episo...
Jan 28, 2023•28 min
This week I’m rejoined by Rene Reyes, Vice President of Public Programming and Festivals at the Paley Center, to talk about PaleyFest 2023. It’s the year’s most entertaining celebration of television, from prestige cable hits to broadcast mainstays to the wild world of streaming. Tickets are on sale now for this year’s festival, and some of the highlights look great; I’d kill to be able to attend the opening night celebration of The Mandalorian , and I imagine the Yellowstone tickets will go qui...
Jan 21, 2023•40 min
Kevin Goetz, author of the must-read book Audience-ology , joins me this week to talk about the science of getting audiences to theaters. Can marketing help teach audiences “how” to watch a movie? Why might studios get excited about something as simple as a reply ratio to a free screening before even a single frame of film has unspooled? And how can you measure … movie love? I mentioned this on the show, but I don’t really listen to a ton of podcasts because I don’t have time , what with all the...
Jan 14, 2023•51 min
This week, I’m rejoined by Tony Davis of Tessive to talk about the science behind some of the movie magic in James Cameron’s return to Pandora. What is high frame rate? How did we settled on 24 frames per second as the “standard” frame rate? Why do European audiences notice the effect less? And why have exhibitors made it so difficult to know which format Avatar: The Way of Water is showing in and which screens it is showing on? All this and more discussed on this week’s episode; if you enjoyed ...
Dec 22, 2022•50 min
This week, I'm rejoined by Ryan Faughnder of the Los Angeles Times to discuss his newsletter highlighting the ten biggest Hollywood business fiascoes of the year. From Neil Young's war on Spotify to The Slap to the shift of focus on streaming profitability, it's been a wild year for businesses trying to navigate difficult business and political waters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Dec 15, 2022•36 min
On this week’s episode I talk to Sean O’Connell, the author of With Great Power: How Spider-Man Conquered Hollywood during the Golden Age of Comic Book Blockbusters , about the webslinger’s long and winding path to the big screen, early box office dominance, middle-aged faltering, and renewed success under the aegis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We also discuss the rise of fan culture and the balancing act studios have to play between making movies that work for the masses and movies that wo...
Dec 08, 2022•35 min
This week I talked to Robbie Whelan of the Wall Street Journal about the not-so-secret cash cow of the Walt Disney empire: the parks. For years now, the joke about Disney has been that it’s a parks and TV company with a movie studio attached to it; as the theatrical business continues to struggle, cord-cutting continues apace, and the streaming side of the business racks up huge losses , the parks are more important than ever. But as Robbie reported , cracks are beginning to show in that fiscal ...
Dec 01, 2022•39 min
On this week episode I’m pleased to be joined by Simon Abrams, author of the gorgeous new book The Northman: A Call to the Gods . In it, we discuss how the book came about, some of the fascinating tidbits he picked up while interviewing cast and crew of the viking epic, and how Robert Eggers helped transport audiences back to both a different time and a different mindset. If you haven’t seen The Northman on the big screen, you really should: it’s monumental in every sense of the world. Folks who...
Nov 17, 2022•35 min
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Julia Alexander of Parrot Analytics and Puck to talk about what’s working, and what’s flopping, in the wild world of streaming. Seinfeld is a huge hit for Netflix, particularly with younger audiences. What’s the deal with that? Meanwhile, Peacock made a smart call by adding the Hallmark Channel as a vertical, and Disney+ added a huge number of subs … while also dipping in revenue. Then, we discuss the massive hit that was Hocus Pocus 2 and ask if Disney wa...
Nov 10, 2022•50 min
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Scott Mendelson. For nearly a decade at Forbes, Scott wrote one of the best, most in-depth looks at the box office on a day-in, day-out basis; he’s now headed to The Wrap where he’ll hang up his box office spurs and write about the industry more broadly. But I wanted to pick his brain about how things have changed since he started doing this way back in 2008 with his Mendelson’s Memos: from the rise of the MCU and the monster opening weekend to the death of ...
Nov 03, 2022•57 min
This week I talk to Scott Meslow about From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy , his critical appreciation of the genre. From When Harry Met Sally to Crazy Rich Asians , with stopovers in the land of raunch-coms like There’s Something About Mary and Brit-roms like Richard Curtis’s oeuvre, to the modern tendency to overthink the genre and why it works (or doesn’t!), Meslow’s book is a thorough examination of the last 30-plus years of onscreen romance. I...
Oct 27, 2022•47 min
On this week’s episode, CNN’s Frank Pallotta rejoined the show to talk about horror’s big summer, the winners and losers of summer, the ratings war between House of the Dragon and Rings of Power, and much more. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with a friend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 20, 2022•42 min
On this week’s episode, I talk to The Washington Post’s Geoff Edgers about his latest feature, “ The Search for the Perfect Sound .” The boom in vinyl has led to a lot of questions about whether or not the new pressings hitting store shelves at astronomical costs are, you know, any good. Purists are distraught at the very thought of digital techniques being used in the creation of analog sound. Why do some records sound better than others? And how much can it cost to achieve sonic perfection? If...
Oct 13, 2022•46 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jason Pargin for a wide-ranging and freewheeling discussion about, among other things, the propriety of jokes about nuclear war, how a cult classic movie kicked off his literary career, and the ways in which social media algorithms have possibly led you to believe that your favorite writers have disappeared and/or died. (As the former executive editor of Cracked dot com, Jason has some experience with this.) Oh, we also talk about his new novel— If This...
Oct 06, 2022•56 min
David Coggeshall, the writer and co-producer of Orphan: First Kill , joins Sonny this week to talk about the making of the legacy sequel, the difficulties and opportunities presented by shooting in the midst of the pandemic, and the theatrical vs. streaming debate. And if you haven’t watched Orphan: First Kill , you can check it out now on Paramount+ or rent it on VOD ; I put a spoiler warning up before we got to talking about the plot of the film in-depth, but you should watch it anyway. If you...
Sep 29, 2022•42 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny broaches the topic of China and gaming with Colin Moriarty, founder and CEO of Last Stand Media, the world's most popular fan-funded games podcast network, co-host of Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast, and 20-year veteran of the gaming industry. Colin has firsthand experience in this realm as a game developer and relays a pretty interesting story about the chilling effect China can have on the art of gaming. Beyond that, there’s much to consider about the danger...
Sep 22, 2022•39 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny asks Sean McNulty—author of The Ankler’s excellent morning roundup newsletter, The Wakeup—who, exactly, the Emmys are for in an age of audience fracturing. The answer, at least according to the Nielsen ratings , is “very few people.” Many, many more people are watching football , as sports remains the one savior of linear TV (that is: non-streaming, watched-live TV). We also talk about the news out of D23, the weird, aborted push by an activist investor to spin ESPN...
Sep 15, 2022•37 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Broadside Books’s Eric Nelson to take a look at a slightly different end of the entertainment industry: political non-fiction. Eric is the editor of Tim Miller’s bestselling book Why We Did It as well as Jared Kushner’s bestselling book Breaking History , so he understands how to appeal to both sides of the book-buying aisle. Almost as importantly, he has heard, and can debunk, just about any myth you can come up with to explain away why a book by someo...
Sep 08, 2022•56 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Mitchel Berger, SVP of global commerce at Crunchyroll, about the continually “surprising” success of Crunchyroll’s (and, previously, Funimation’s) anime theatrical releases. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero opened atop the box office a couple of weekends ago with $20 million; last year Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train grossed nearly $50 million during its run. How did Crunchyroll help create and nurture this fandom to the point where they can open a movie o...
Sep 01, 2022•31 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny steps back from Hollywood a bit to look at the broader state of free expression in America and around the world. PEN America’s Summer Lopez joins the show to discuss a range of topics: from the heinous assault on Salman Rushdie in New York to efforts to pressure libraries to remove books across the United States to foreign oppression of writers and thinkers to concerns over the ability of a handful of Internet-based companies to determine what can be expressed. If y...
Aug 25, 2022•35 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Brian Gewirtz to talk about his tenure as a writer for the WWE. His new book, There's Just One Problem...: True Tales from the Former, One-Time, 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE , is a must-read for anyone interested in the world of “sports entertainment." Brian was there for the rise of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the tail end of the Monday Night Wars, the so-called Attitude Era, and beyond. He suffered through celebrity guest hosts of Monday Night Raw, ...
Aug 18, 2022•55 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Julia Alexander of Parrot Analytics and Puck to discuss the wild couple of weeks in streaming. From HBO Max to Netflix to Disney+ and unbundling to rebundling, there’s a ton to discuss. Of particular interest to folks interested in how the business of streaming works is Julia’s expertise as a consultant who helps studios and producers understand why streamers like Netflix will renew a show; you won’t want to miss that discussion about 40 minutes in. Spo...
Aug 11, 2022•1 hr
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Aaron Reynolds, creator of Effin’ Birds . Having a daily comic read by half-a-million people is cool and all, but what’s really cool is criss-crossing North America to sell merch featuring that comic and other various designs. Aaron talks about the economics of convention life, how COVID has shaped the way conventions work, what it’s like to have a booth at San Diego Comic Con, the crazy economics of attracting huge stars to cons, and, most importantly,...
Aug 04, 2022•49 min
On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny is joined by longtime New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, who stops by to discuss his new book Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence . Both a biography of Weinstein and a tick-tock of the trial that ended with the Oscar-winning producer’s imprisonment, Auletta’s new book is a fascinating glimpse at the life and times of a man whose predatory instinct was allowed to go unchecked thanks to the caliber of the movies h...
Jul 28, 2022•38 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman to discuss their new history of the John Wick franchise, They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action . (Listen to the podcast to hear how to properly announce this title.) In addition to talking John Wick and the history of the action film art form referred to as “Gun Fu,” we talked about the tricky art of authoring a compelling oral ...
Jul 21, 2022•50 min
On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny is joined by Ron Shelton, the writer/director of Bull Durham , to talk about his new book on the making of the film, The Church of Baseball . In addition to discussing the fights over casting, the weirdly lackluster response from test audiences, and the movie’s impact on the minor league game writ large, we also chatted about some of Mr. Shelton’s other films like White Men Can’t Jump and Dark Blue . Make sure to pick up his book; wh...
Jul 14, 2022•48 min
This week, CNN’s Frank Pallotta rejoins the episode to do a box office victory lap. The movies are back, baby! Older audiences are showing up for Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis ; younger audiences are showing up for Minions: The Rise of Gru ; and no one’s showing up for Lightyear . Why are the first three hits and the last a miss? What’s the most successful way to sell moviegoing audiences on future movies? And what are theaters going to do over the next few months as COVID-related production slowd...
Jul 07, 2022•32 min
On this week’s episode, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield returns to talk tumult at Disney, what Hollywood might be looking for in a studio head, and how the town is feeling about Netflix. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 23, 2022•34 min
On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jason Baker of Callosum Studios, the house that helped design the sure-to-be-iconic mask from the upcoming horror film The Black Phone . They also discussed designing masks for the WWE, pandemic-related slowdowns, working with FX legend Tom Savini, and Jason’s documentary about said legend, Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini. You can stream that now on Tubi or YouTube or hold off until the special edition Blu-ray drops in October. Make sure to c...
Jun 16, 2022•32 min
