The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

Special two-part episode of the podcast this week! The big news in Hollywood this week has been the burgeoning effort by Hollywood creatives to fight the purchase of Warner Bros. by Paramount Skydance. Thousands of names—including some of the biggest in the business—have signed an open letter in the hopes of demonstrating that not everyone in the industry is on board with the potential deal. So I wanted to talk to some of the folks behind it.First up is an interview with Ted Hope, indie producer extraordinaire and author of the Hope for Film Substack. We talked about how indie production has changed over the last few decades and what could be lost if Warner Bros. and Paramount are allowed to merge. Then I got Jon Reiss and Jax Deluca of the Future Film Coalition on the horn. We discussed what concrete steps could be taken to help fight this merger and what media consolidation means to the indie filmmakers out there. If you found this podcast interesting or informative, I hope you share it with your friends!

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Steve Starkey to discuss his new book, On the Set of Forrest Gump. Steve won an Oscar for best picture as producer on that film, but he has a career that, as I told him, has meant a lot to me, with credits on, among other pictures, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the two Back to the Future sequels, Contact, Cast Away, and, of course, Forrest Gump.We discussed all sorts of stuff here, from the movie magician who made Lt. Dan’s legs disappear, to his work as second unit director, to the early days of using digital trickery to fake the words and faces of famous people, to the worst note he’s ever gotten after an audience test, to the difficulties facing California’s film industry in the face of global tax rebates and production credits.On the Set of Forrest Gump is laid out like a coffee table book and is beautifully illustrated with 250 or so full-color stills from set. So it’s nice to look at. But the story he tells is a fascinating glimpse into the push and pull of art and business, the struggle between the producer on the ground trying to make sure his director has the resources he needs and the studio bankrolling the whole thing and worried about losing tens of millions of dollars on a movie that isn’t a guaranteed hit. Anyway, I hope you check it out. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

I’m very pleased to be rejoined by Kevin Goetz, who is the guru of movie testing to discuss his latest book, How to Score in Hollywood. When you spend nine figures on a film and another eight figures marketing it, you want to know what works for audiences and what doesn’t, and Kevin’s the guy who can help you do that. He believes that nearly every movie—if it’s made for the right price and marketed to the right people—should be able to make money, and he’s happy to explain how his company, Screen Engine/ASI, can help make that hope a reality. Our discussion runs the gamut—from concept testing to post-screening focus groups to some Oscar chatter—and I hope you enjoy.

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be rejoined by Rod Blackhurst (we had him on a couple of years back to discuss his indie crime drama Blood for Dust) and joined for the first time by Ethan Suplee, veteran character actor we all know and love from films like Mallrats, Remember the Titans, and The Wolf of Wall Street and TV shows like My Name Is Earl. We’re discussing their new film, Dolly, a true indie endeavor made in the spirit of American classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Evil Dead or the New French Extremity’s High Tension. Rod and his partners raised some money, brought some folks to the woods of Tennessee, and put together something he hopes will be memorable for the audiences who see it. It’s hitting theaters this weekend, playing around 800 or so screens across the country, and if you’re a horror head—or just someone looking for something different—I hope you’ll check it out. (It is a horror movie, though, so I cannot provide any refunds if the onscreen terror sparks a walkout.)As I said, getting Ethan on the show is a real treat because I’ve been a fan for years and it’s been interesting to watch him dip his toes into some darker waters in recent years in films like Dolly, Babylon, Blood for Dust, and God Is a Bullet. It was fun to pick his brain about consciously making that shift and why his film work often gives him a little more space to stretch than his TV work.

I’m joined by Paul Fischer on this week’s episode to discuss his new book, The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema. It’s a fascinating look at a pivotal moment in film history, when the breakdown of the studio system gave rise to the auteurist 1970s, the first half of which was dominated by Francis Ford Coppola, only to cede the landscape to the blockbuster entertainments that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg mastered in the back half of the decade and beyond.

Remember that weird moment in the 2024 campaign cycle where Donald Trump started referring to how much he loved and identified with “the late, great Hannibal Lecter”? That was odd, right? I discussed that and more with Brian Raftery, whose new book Hannibal Lecter: A Life is both the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the love consuming your heart and a fascinating portrait of a bizarre creation from a reclusive writer. Indeed, the most interesting part of the book is the early deep dive into the life and writing of Thomas Harris, who has given just a handful of interviews over his nearly 50-year career.

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be joined by Ric Roman Waugh, the director of the new film Shelter, starring Jason Statham. We talked a lot about making that movie and how he best utilized Statham’s skills as opposed to Dwayne Johnson’s in the movie Snitch or Gerard Butler’s in the Greenland films, Kandahar, and Angel Has Fallen. Shelter, which is in theaters now, is a little more meditative than some of Statham’s recent work, though no less effective for it. We discussed why Statham was attracted to the part and how his fatherhood helped inform his role as the protector of an orphaned young girl.Then we discussed making the transition from stuntman to director: Waugh worked with Tony Scott on a number of pictures, and had some interesting insights into the methods of the great action director. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to practically restrain myself from just doing 30 minutes on Waugh’s Shot Caller, a gritty prison drama.oo

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Chuck Klosterman to discuss all things football and his new book, aptly titled Football. (Please buy a copy for yourself and your friends; you’ll thank me, and then your friends will thank you.) We hit on an array of topics, including but not limited to the potential demise of the sport, the ways in which television and football are a perfect match, why streaming services are spending billions to acquire the rights to NFL and NCAA games, how gambling and fantasy football have fundamentally changed our relationship to the sport, and trying to think through how we think about football and why it matters.

On Monday, Sam Stein DMed me and asked if we could put together a little livestream event celebrating the work of Rob Reiner; he described it as sitting shiva, and I was happy to take the lead on putting this group of mourners together. I was joined by my colleague Bill Kristol, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield (whose great column on Reiner you can read here), and Semafor’s Dave Weigel (whose book on prog rock is a must-read for fans of the genre).

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Scott Mendelson of The Outside Scoop, whom I’ve tasked with answering a very simple question: Is there a good business case to be made for rebooting the Rush Hour franchise or is it merely a (very odd) sop to Donald Trump and his wife’s chronicler, Brett Ratner? (:47). Then we discussed Zootopia’s crazy popularity in China. (14:16) We taped this episode before news broke that Netflix had completed its purchase of the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros., but we were prescient enough to discuss what might happen if Netflix picked up a controlling stake in WB. Spoiler: Nothing good for competition in Hollywood! (33:15)

For a goofy franchise that started with gangsters stealing DVD players and wound up with a Pontiac Fiero going into space, The Fast and the Furious movies are a pretty fantastic lens through which to view the last quarter-century of Hollywood economics. From the DVD boom and bust to the internationalization and diversification of ticket-buyers to questions of propriety surrounding the digital resurrection of deceased actors to the desire for all-encompassing franchise-based “cinematic universes,” the series has ridden every economic wave buffeting the movie business since the original’s release in 2001. Author Barry Hertz does a wonderful job of weaving that story amidst the tangle of egos and artistic energy that makes up the Fast series in his new book, Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the World. Full disclosure: I’m not a particularly big fan of the series, so I was a little skeptical when I agreed to check out Barry’s book. But even if you don’t really care about the Fast and Furious movies, there’s more than enough behind-the-scenes drama and economic intrigue to keep you riveted. And it’s a must-buy stocking stuffer for anyone in your life who lives their life a quarter mile at a time.

I’m joined by Dave Itzkoff on this week’s episode to discuss Paddy Chayefsky’s classic film, Network. Dave literally wrote the book on Network in his history of the film, Mad As Hell, and had lots to say about the making of the movie, the minds behind it, and its ongoing relevance to our daily lives. I know what you’re thinking, I can practically hear your thoughts: A movie about corporations taking over news divisions and fearing problems from the FCC holding up mergers because they don’t like coverage? What does that have to do with anything happening today? But I think we can squeeze out a similarity or two to our current moment.