As readers may remember, The Beekeeper has been one of my favorite movies of the year thus far . One thing in particular I loved about it was the costume design: It’s an underappreciated artform, conveying character through clothing, and the costuming in this film perfectly conveyed a range of characters, from “taciturn hero” to “crazed killer” to “crypto douchebag.” Which is why I’m very excited to have Kelli Jones, the film’s costume designer, on this week to talk about The Beekeeper and her w...
Apr 20, 2024•40 min
On this week’s show I talked to Rod Blackhurst, the director of the new film Blood for Dust , about … well, a whole bunch of stuff. From his early shorts on the comedy website Funny or Die starring Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, to a documentary about Amanda Knox, to the horror short “Night Swim” (which recently received the feature-length treatment), to his new picture with the great Scoot McNairy and an all-star supporting cast that includes Ethan Suplee, Stephen Dorff, Josh Lucas, ...
Apr 13, 2024•1 hr 5 min
I’m very excited to be rejoined by the Entertainment Strategy Guy (subscribe to his newsletter!) to discuss the year in streaming. What were the biggest hits in TV and film? What were the biggest misses ? Could linear-like ad-supported streaming services be the future for big services like Netflix and Disney+? Is there a double standard for the tech-based streamers and the studio-owned streamers? All that and more on this week’s episode. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend!...
Apr 06, 2024•1 hr 4 min
This week I was thrilled to chat with star David Krumholtz and writer-director Bob Byington about their new movie, Lousy Carter . It’s a wide-ranging conversation, touching on topics from shooting during the age of Covid to where Krumholtz was when he got the call to audition for Oppenheimer , and I hope you find it as fun to listen to as it was for me to conduct. If you enjoyed it, I hope you share it with a friend. A little extra this week: I hope you check out both Lousy Carter and Byington’s...
Mar 30, 2024•37 min
On this week’s episode I’m thrilled to be rejoined by Brandon Struessnig and Bilge Ebiri, who spearhead Vulture’s annual Stunt Awards. We talked about the year’s big winner, John Wick Chapter 4 , how folks kind of have to decide for themselves how much CGI is too much CGI when determining what counts as practical and what counts as digital, and compiling the 100 most influential fight scenes of all time. Some important links for you: The winners of the 2024 stunt awards; Brandon’s tribute to Hen...
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 1 min
This week I’m honored to be joined by Dallas Film Commissioner Tony Armer to discuss what, precisely, a film commissioner does. On this episode he discusses his own path to getting involved in the film industry, breaks down different kinds of incentives cities and states use to woo productions, and talks about how Dallas has made itself more attractive to major productions looking for a place to shoot. We also talk a bit about Tony’s podcast; do yourself a favor and check out the episode featuri...
Mar 16, 2024•49 min
This week I’m pleased to be joined by Abe Goldfarb, who is currently playing Otho for the touring company of Beetlejuice: The Musical and both starred in and co-directed First Time Caller (which I reviewed here ). You may remember a few months back that Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert got kicked out of a showing of Beetlejuice: The Musical ; well, Abe happened to be onstage when all that went down. After having a few laughs about that, we get into the world of indie filmmaking and his recently rele...
Mar 09, 2024•57 min
A couple years back I had Ian and Eshom Nelms on the show to talk about their new Christmas classic, Fatman . We had a great talk, so I was thrilled when their people reached out to see if I’d like to discuss their new flick, a sort of southern revenge thriller/neo-noir by the name of Red Right Hand . We discussed getting Orlando Bloom and Andie MacDowell to play somewhat against type, how drone usage helps expand the scale and scope without blowing up the budget on a picture like this, and the ...
Mar 02, 2024•32 min
On this week’s episode, we have the original Bulwark Goes to Hollywood guest, Richard Rushfield of The Ankler , returning to discuss his fabulous Hollywood Field Guide. How do you assuage actors , reassure writers , and make your way through the rest of Hollywood? Richard will guide you. Plus, we discuss the state of the box office, how Oscar season is shaping up, and more! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share it with a friend!...
Feb 24, 2024•41 min
This week Julian Schlossberg returns to tell more tales of life in the arts. From reading his life story as the narrator of the new audiobook version of his memoir, Try Not to Hold It Against Me , to his work with the great Elaine May, to keeping the classic 1970s picture Mikey and Nicky in circulation, we had tons to discuss. Make sure to check out his new podcast, “Julian Schlossberg’s Movie Talk,” the first episode of which is an interview with the great F. Murray Abraham . And if you enjoyed...
Feb 17, 2024•46 min
This week I’m joined by Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association, to discuss how the trade group wages the global war on intellectual property infringement. A couple of months back we had the MPA’s Terri Davies on the show to talk about the Trusted Partners Network and how the film industry could help cut down on piracy before a film is released. But what do you do when it’s out in the world and starts showing up on BitTorrents? ...
Feb 10, 2024•42 min
This week I’m thrilled to be joined by Peter Biskind to discuss his new book, Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV . From the rise of HBO to the streaming boom, how we watch TV—and what gets shown on TV—has radically changed over the last few decades. We discuss the role of technology, advertising, and changing audience tastes, and muse about the role TV’s antiheroes played in paving the way for Donald Trump. If you’re a fan of Biskind’s previous books, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ...
Feb 03, 2024•45 min
Very excited to have James Emanuel Shapiro, President of U.S. distribution at XYZ Films, back on the show with a recap of all the action at Cannes and a discussion about the state of the film festival scene writ large. Then we discuss some of his upcoming releases, including the new sci-fi flick Restore Point and XYZ’s exciting acquisition of Skyline: Warpath , starring action bigshots Scott Adkins and Iko Uwais.
Jan 27, 2024•42 min
This week, I’m re-joined by David Coggeshall to talk The Family Plan , AppleTV+’s high-concept action-comedy about a dad, Mark Wahlberg, who has to take his family on the run when his past life as a hitman rears its ugly head. Released over the Christmas holiday season—as David notes in today’s episode, the perfect time to capture families looking for something everyone age 10 to 100 can enjoy—the film “debuted as the most watched movie ever,” according to Deadline’s sources at Apple . But the f...
Jan 13, 2024•43 min
This week, I’m joined by Brandon Katz to talk about Parrot Analytics’s new report on the state of streaming and why the “winner take all” theory of the so-called streaming wars was always a little bit silly. We discuss what attracts viewers to the streaming services, what keeps them there once they sign up, and how Parrot Analytics measures “demand” for a show. If you love charts and data visualization, you’ll love Parrot’s new report; I highly recommend checking it out if that’s your cup of tea...
Jan 06, 2024•45 min
This week I’m joined by Sam Wasson to discuss his new book The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story , which chronicles the making of Apocalypse Now and the rise and fall of Coppola’s revolutionary studio, American Zoetrope. From technological innovations to the madness of Coppola’s effort to capture America’s first “Rock and Roll War,” the book is a fascinating glimpse into a radically different idea of filmmaking than was pursued by the Hollywood studios....
Dec 23, 2023•42 min
This week I’m thrilled to be joined by Whit Stillman, the director of, among other features, The Last Days of Disco , Barcelona , and Love and Friendship . He’s on the show today to discuss Metropolitan and the way it has been embraced as a classic Christmas movie , as well as the evolution of the indie film business over the last 40 years or so. If you’re in Rochester or the surrounding environs, make sure to pop over to the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum tonight for a special show...
Dec 16, 2023•43 min
On this week’s episode, Scott Mendelson returns to the show to discuss how 2023 shook out at the box office, why niche films and niche audiences became more important than ever to movie theaters, and whether or not studios are hiding that Wonka , The Color Purple , and next year’s Mean Girls remake are musicals because they’re worried about the impact on box office. Make sure to check out Scott’s new Substack, The Outside Scoop . I’ve long loved his breakdowns of the weekend box office and look ...
Dec 09, 2023•58 min
This week I’m joined by Zach Schonfeld to discuss his new book, How Coppola Became Cage . Zach’s look at the early years of Nicolas Cage’s career is deeply researched, featuring interviews with directors like David Lynch ( Wild at Heart ), Mike Figgis ( Leaving Las Vegas ), and Cage’s own brother, Christopher Coppola ( Deadfall ). We talked about Cage’s mythmaking, his anger at being accused of benefitting from nepotism, and his befuddlement at becoming a meme, among other topics. If you’re a fa...
Dec 02, 2023•39 min
This week, I’m rejoined by Scott Eyman, author of Charlie Chaplin Vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided . We discussed the great silent star’s exile from America, how the press and the government conspired against Charlie Chaplin, the personal and professional perils of being prematurely anti-fascist, and why Buster Keaton seems to be more fashionable than The Tramp these days. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Scott’s book, available at all fine booksellers now. An...
Nov 25, 2023•48 min
This week I’m joined by Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator and showrunner of Moonlighting , to talk about that series’s long-awaited arrival on streaming. We discussed the show’s creation, the discovery of Bruce Willis, how he and costar Cybil Shepherd kept up with the show’s trademark rapid-fire patter, the difficulty in clearing music rights (and how Moonlighting was one of the first shows to heavily incorporate pop music into the show), working with legends like Orson Welles and Stanley Donen, a...
Nov 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min
This week I’m joined by Terri Davies. Terri heads up the Motion Picture Association’s Trusted Partners Network, which helps studios and other partners develop best practices for avoiding leaks of films and TV shows pre-release, from pre- to post-production. We discussed her time at Sony Pictures from 2000 to 2015, a period of time during which the business of distribution was revolutionized (and digitized), how the MPA helps studios reduce the likelihood of a movie leaking before its release dat...
Nov 11, 2023•33 min
This week I’m joined by Walt Hickey, the author of You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything . Among the many topics discussed on this show: the surprisingly durable effect of Warner Bros.’s merchandising efforts aimed at adults; how identity and pop culture become hopelessly (and negatively) intertwined; and how violent movies can help stop violence from occurring. If you find this podcast interesting, I hope you check out Walt’s book; it has tons of charts (one of which is re...
Nov 04, 2023•47 min
This week I’m rejoined by Jason Pargin to discuss his new novel, Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia , and the ways in which the futuristic panopticon he envisions for Zoey and the other citizens of Tabula Ra$a is a little like now, but moreso . We talk for a bit about how book marketing has evolved over the last decade-plus, why TikTok became a must for novelists like himself, and why despite the word “dystopia” being in the title of the book, he doesn’t necessarily think of his vision of the n...
Oct 28, 2023•52 min
I’m joined by Matt Singer this week, author of Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever . The book, out this Tuesday, is a wide-ranging look at the myriad ways in which Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s seminal show—or, really, three shows, which ran across multiple networks over multiple decades—changed not only film criticism but film marketing as well. We talked about the introduction of the thumb system—which, shockingly, was not with the duo from the beginning—and why their...
Oct 21, 2023•40 min
This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker to discuss their new oral history, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! In this episode we discuss, among other topics, what set the ZAZ style apart from other titans of the 1970s/1980s comedy boom, how the serious actors on set nailed their deadpan comic patter, trying to nail comic timing in test screenings that weren’t generating many laughs, and how Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner h...
Oct 07, 2023•32 min
This week I’m joined by Elaine Low of The Ankler and its Strikegeist newsletter to talk about the end of the WGA strike and what the writers won, from performance-based residuals on streaming originals to minimum writers room sizes to AI protections. We also discussed how the picket line and social media helped maintain solidarity and, briefly, how things are looking in the SAG-AFTRA strike. Make sure to sign up for Strikegeist if you haven’t already: it’s free and a great digest of what’s happe...
Sep 30, 2023•32 min
Before we get started: apologies for the downgrade in my audio quality about 10 minutes into this episode. My computer, unappreciative of the coffee I spilled on it earlier in the week, decided to restart itself mid-recording in protest. It shall be punished greatly. —— This week I’m joined by Brian Abrams, author of “You Talkin’ to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes . We discussed how he pared his list down, the research that went into making this more than a mere list of his per...
Sep 23, 2023•41 min
This week I’m rejoined by Jonathan Taplin, author of The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto , to discuss the ways in which popular culture may be leading the public down a dark road. Mr. Taplin has previously been on the show to talk about his career in the entertainment business, from tour manager for Bob Dylan to producer of early Martin Scorsese classics Means Streets and The Last Waltz to his early efforts to introduce video str...
Sep 16, 2023•48 min
This week I talk to Ben Dreyfuss, formerly in charge of audience acquisition at Mother Jones and currently the author of the Calm Down Substack , about the promise and the peril of complete data transparency. Ben watched what happened firsthand as data about what readers wanted became more and more available to journalists: how it shaped what was written, and how, and for whom, and how this race for virality wound up decimating the advertising market that newsrooms relied on. I wanted to talk to...
Sep 09, 2023•49 min
