The Business

<p>The critically beloved sitcom “The Other Two” follows the trials of the older, struggling siblings of a 13-year-old overnight pop sensation. The series creators knew the first season got lost in the shuffle when it ran on Comedy Central. For season two, the show moved to HBO Max, and is a lot easier to find. Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider tell KCRW about the return of “The Other Two,” and how they decide which celebrities to skewer. </p>

<p>Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs are two of the three creators of the Emmy-nominated comedy series “Hacks.” The HBO Max show features Jean Smart as a veteran comedian fighting to hold onto her long-running Las Vegas gig. In real life, Smart also wanted the show to go on — even when her husband died unexpectedly with a week of shooting left. Downs tells KCRW, “We knew from working with [Smart] that she is all in, she is fully committed. And so in that way, we looked to her in this time as well.”</p>

<p>Jeff Bergman’s name may not ring a bell, but he has some very recognizable alter egos: Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat and Yogi Bear, to name a few. Bergman is the voice of many of the cartoon stars of “Space Jam: A New Legacy.” His repertoire includes nearly 200 voices, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden in Showtime’s “Our Cartoon President.” He tells KCRW about some of the challenges of this often overlooked profession. </p>

<p>Director and producer Shawn Levy’s new movie “Free Guy” — a big-budget original starring Ryan Reynolds as a video game character — had its release date pushed three times because of the pandemic. The film is finally opening exclusively in theaters. But heading into opening weekend, Levy wasn’t sure if people would go. </p> <p>“I have to confess, I don’t know,” Levy says. “I don’t know what the reaction will be to going to theaters, and going to theaters for a new movie.”</p> <p>The producer-director tells KCRW about the ups and downs of making “Free Guy.”</p>

<p>Producer Jason Blum thinks stars and filmmakers deserve a piece of the profit from their work. So naturally he opposes a push from studios to pay Netflix-style flat fees instead. But that didn’t stop him from taking a big flat fee to make three new “Exorcist” films. Blum weighs in on big battles underway in the industry, including Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney. He hopes it’s the first of many. </p>

<p>For nearly the past decade, media mogul Barry Diller has backed award-winning movies and Broadway shows from now embattled mega-producer Scott Rudin. Asked about allegations that Rudin engaged in a decades-long pattern of abusive behavior, Diller pushes back. In part two of KCRW’s conversation with the Diller, he emotionally defends Rudin and decries cancel culture.</p>

<p>Barry Diller, who made his name as a powerful studio boss, recently <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/08/1014095135/barry-diller-headed-2-hollywood-studios-he-now-says-the-movie-business-is-dead">told NPR</a> that “the movie business is over.” Expanding on those views, the legendary mogul and former chairman of Paramount and Fox tells KCRW why, with the pandemic and rise of streaming, Hollywood will never go back to what it once was. In the first of a two-part conversation, Diller — now the chairman of online empire IAC — weighs in on a transforming industry and its future.</p>

<p>The new HBO series “<a href="https://www.hbo.com/catch-and-kill-the-podcast-tapes">Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes</a>” includes a 2019 interview between Kim Masters and Ronan Farrow for his podcast “Catch and Kill,” which explores the fall of Harvey Weinstein. The Business airs a portion of that interview in which Masters elaborated on her interactions with Weinstein over the years.</p>

<p>Multi-hyphenate Daveed Diggs has a lot going on, including writing and producing his new series on Starz, “Blindspotting.” The broadway hit “Hamilton” launched his career, but at this point, he’s moved beyond the version of himself that won a Tony and a Grammy. “That Daveed Diggs that everybody fell in love with in that show does not exist anywhere but on that stage,” he says. Daveed Diggs tells KCRW about developing the version of himself after “Hamilton.”</p>

<p>Investigative reporter and documentary producer David Holthouse was sexually assaulted as a child. He says that trauma led him to devote his life to unmasking monsters, both real and imagined. His newest project took him to a dangerous part of Northern California — the supposed home of Bigfoot. Holthouse tells KCRW about investigating a more than 25-year-old triple homicide for the Hulu series “Sasquatch.”</p>

<p>Filmmaker Edgar Wright's new music documentary “The Sparks Brothers” celebrates two musicians whose work he loves. Ron and Russell Mael are brothers who make up the band Sparks, and they’re a pair of complete originals. Wright is an original, too. His hit movie “Baby Driver” and upcoming thriller “Last Night in Soho” are based on ideas he made up. And he can’t help but wonder why movie studios aren’t willing to take a few more chances on fresh ideas.</p>

<p>Writer Nida Manzoor wanted “We Are Lady Parts,” her series about an all-female Muslim punk band, to be funny. But as a Muslim woman writing about very underrepresented characters, she also felt some heavy responsibility. Manzoor shares her process for writing comedy while also breaking new ground with “We Are Lady Parts,” now on Peacock.</p>

<p>Kim Masters and Matt Belloni offer a fresh banter about the current awkwardness at WarnerMedia. The company is set to spin off from AT&T and merge with Discovery, but the deal will be delayed while undergoing federal review. And The Business replays a conversation with director Sam Feder and executive producer Laverne Cox about their documentary “Disclosure,” which explores the history of trans representation in Hollywood.</p>

<p>Earlier in his career, Hugh Grant played the charming lead in romantic comedies. But lately, Grant has relished performing the role of the bad guy, including in the HBO series “The Undoing.” </p> <p>He talks about embracing his dark side on screen and reflects on his decade of work as an activist following the UK phone hacking scandal that engulfed the Murdoch clan a decade ago and continues to reverberate today.</p>

<p>Veteran producer David Friendly’s many film credits include three “Big Momma’s House” movies. But as Hollywood became less friendly towards his type of mid-budget pictures, he pivoted to television. Now with his USA TV series “Queen of the South” wrapping up after five seasons, he is finding that adapting yet again in an industry obsessed with streaming is hard, even after years of success.</p>

<p>When Meredith Scardino pitched her musical comedy series “Girls5eva,” about an all-but-forgotten late 1990s girl group that reunites in their forties, she made a fake CD case, complete with track listing, cellophane wrapper and discount stickers.</p> <p>That fake album generated real interest, and now “Girls5eva” is a buzzy new show for Peacock.</p>

<p>It’s a mid-May mega banter! NBC bounces the 2022 Golden Globes, Disney subscriber numbers disappoint, the stars of “A Quiet Place 2” make some noise over the movie’s theatrical run, and Ellen DeGeneres calls it quits. Kim Masters tackles it all with banter buddy Matt Belloni and Buzzfeed reporter Krystie Lee Yandoli, who broke the story on Degeneres’ alleged toxic workplace.</p>

<p>Producer Scott Rudin’s bullying has been an open secret in Hollywood for decades, and now it’s going public. Former Scott Rudin staffers Evan Davis, Max Hoffman and Eileen Klomhaus remember being yelled at, belittled, and gaslighted. And they call out the stars who have been silent.</p>

<p>When the pandemic hit London, director Simon Godwin's National Theatre production of “Romeo & Juliet” shut down before it could open. So Godwin shot the play as a movie — never mind that he had never picked up a camera and couldn’t film outside the theater. Even without a trip to fair Verona, Godwin shot his movie, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, in a mere 17 days. </p>

<p>Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win Best Director and Best Picture, but the 2021 Oscars will be remembered for the awkward, COVID-era ceremony and blunt ending. Producers expected Chadwick Boseman to win Best Actor, but instead the Oscar went to Anthony Hopkins, who was asleep in Wales. </p>

<p>After filmmaker Raoul Peck made his award-winning James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” he had a lot of suitors in Hollywood. But it was HBO that didn’t blink when Peck explained what he wanted to do next: a project about colonization, extermination and genocide. That evolved into "Exterminate All the Brutes," a four-part series that zigzags through 700 years of colonial history.</p>

<p>Four days into shooting his tragic-comic film, “Another Round,” Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s 19-year-old daughter — who was supposed to appear in the movie — was killed by a reckless driver. His screenwriter temporarily took over, but Vinterberg soon came back to the project. He says making the movie kept him from insanity. “Another Round” is Oscar-nominated for Best International Film, and Vinterberg is up for Best Director. </p>

<p>Awards columnist Scott Feinberg explains why this is such a strange year for the Oscars, and how the event’s producers are attempting to keep the glitz and glamour for this year’s ceremony. The Business also replays a conversation with directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht about their now Oscar-nominated documentary “Crip Camp.”</p>

<p>Documentarian Cullen Hoback maxed out his credit cards in his quest to unmask the person behind the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. He talks about spending three years circling the globe on a shoestring budget and meeting people who dwell in some of the darkest corners of the internet, all in an attempt to pinpoint the identity of Q.</p>

<p>With the world starting to open up after a year-long pandemic shutdown, six workers in Hollywood share how they made it through, and explain how the entertainment industry may have changed for good.</p>

<p>Ted Sarandos is the co-CEO and chief content officer of the streaming giant that has everyone else playing catch-up. Sarandos says he sees Netflix as the outsider in Hollywood, but the streamer just landed 35 Oscar nominations. He shares the results of a recent Netflix diversity study and talks about streaming wars, the future of theaters, talent relations, viewership data, and more.</p>

<p>When the Writers Guild went to war against the agencies two years ago, few thought the union would prevail. But when WME, the final agency holdout, signed a deal with the Guild last month, it marked a decisive victory for the writers. WGA West Executive Director David Young and President David Goodman explain how they stayed the course through an emotional struggle and heated negotiations. And they look ahead to the Guild’s future battles. </p>

<p>Today, director Channing Godfrey Peoples and producer Neil Creque Williams finish each other’s sentences. More than a decade ago, they were just two graduate film students at USC. They’d each heard about the other’s work, but didn’t actually meet until a chance encounter in an elevator 11 years ago. They've been working together ever since. Now married, Peoples and Williams have made their first feature, the mother-daughter coming-of-age drama "Miss Juneteenth." </p>

<p>The new movie “Minari” is a personal story from filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung. It’s about a Korean American family struggling to run a small Arkansas farm in the 1980s. Chung says he thought “Minari” was going to be the last script he ever wrote before leaving the industry entirely. He’s joined by Christina Oh, the producer at Plan B Entertainment who read Chung's script and fell for it.</p>

<p>Eliza Hittman was at the Berlin Film Festival last February with her art-house abortion drama “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” She thought about staying for the awards ceremony, but instead flew back to New York. As soon as she landed, she got an email asking her to come back. Hittman had won the Silver Bear in Berlin, and now her film is in awards contention stateside. Kim Masters spoke to “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” director Eliza Hittman last year. </p>

<p>“The White Tiger,” Aravind Adiga's darkly comedic novel about a clever servant’s rise out of poverty in India, won the Booker Prize in 2008. Thirteen years later, “The White Tiger” is a big hit for Netflix. The film adaptation is written and directed by Adiga's friend from college, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani.</p>

<p>Austin Winsberg, creator of the NBC series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and producer-choreographer Mandy Moore check in from Canada, where they had just finished shooting the show’s 100th musical number. After working on season two under new COVID guidelines, Moore and Winsberg say they’ve become experts at reading each other’s eyes while working with masks on. </p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Garrett Bradley's documentary “Time,” about one woman’s fight to release her husband from prison, was an award winner at Sundance last year and is considered a top Oscar contender. Bradley says “Time” was originally going to be a short film until it demanded more … time. Rahdi Taylor is one of the people who convinced Bradley that “Time” should be a full-length feature. Taylor supported the film as head of the Artists in Residence fellowship program at Concordia Studio, where Bradley was one of Concordia's first fellows.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Romanian movie “Collective” is in Oscar contention for both Best International Film and Best Documentary. Directed by Alexander Nanau, “Collective” follows a group of sports reporters in Bucharest who uncovered a massive scandal in Romanian hospitals that led to dozens of needless deaths. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">George Clooney and his long-time producing partner Grant Heslov talk about their new movie “The Midnight Sky,” a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama, now on Netflix. Heslov and Clooney discuss recent sea changes in the industry, especially at Warner Brothers, the studio they called home for 20 years. Plus, the politically engaged pair addresses the recent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bryan Fogel won Netflix its first feature documentary Oscar with his Russian doping exposé “Icarus.” Critics at Sundance raved about his latest film, “The Dissident,” about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. So why didn’t Netflix call to lock up the rights? Fogel shares why his new documentary had streamers running scared. And Tom Ortenberg, the executive who had the guts to distribute the film, explains why his company Briarcliff Entertainment wanted to take it on. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Abigail Disney’s father Roy was Walt's nephew. For her, being a Disney came with so much baggage that she almost ditched the name altogether. In part two of our interview, Abigail Disney explains why she feels it’s her duty to speak out when the company that bears her family’s name seems to have gone astray. And banter buddies Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw look at the year to come in Hollywood. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pandemic pummeled production. WarnerMedia started a war with its windows-shattering sneak attack. And Quibi, we hardly knew you. Banter buddies Matt Belloni and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw join Kim Masters for a 2020 mega banter. Plus, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans ranks the streamers. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Abigail Disney's father was Walt’s nephew Roy. He led a shareholder revolt in 2004, when he got fed up with Michael Eisner's management of the Mouse House. Abigail Disney keeps close tabs on the company and has lots to say about current management. As 32,000 theme park workers lost their jobs while top executives had their full salaries restored, Disney says, “I don’t believe the company and the magic can survive this kind of corporate behavior.”</span></p>

<p>With Hollywood fuming following WarnerMedia’s announcement that all its 2021 movies will stream on HBO Max the same they open in theaters, prolific producer Jason Blum weighs in. Blum has long thought the theatrical window should be shorter, but not totally smashed. And Kim Masters and Matt Belloni banter about the continued industry blowback directed at WarnerMedia and Disney’s recent investor presentation.</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">WarnerMedia announced it will put Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 movie slate on HBO Max the same day those films open in theaters. The move will change theater-going as we know it. Then, Kamilah Forbes created a stage version of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s powerful book “Between the World and Me” in 2018. She explains why and how she adapted again, this time for the screen. Her film version of “Between the World and Me” is now on HBO Max.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Director Aneesh Chaganty wanted an actress who really uses a wheelchair to star as a teenaged girl with disabilities in his new thriller, “Run.” And she needed to be able to do action scenes. He found Columbia University student Kiera Allen. Now on Hulu, “Run” tells the story of a mother-daughter relationship gone extremely awry. It’s the first thriller to star an actor who uses a wheelchair since the 1940s.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos has weathered some big storms in the movie business, though nothing compares with COVID. But even as productions struggle and theaters are shuttered, Gianopulos has faith that one day, people will go back to the movies. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Greta Thunberg began a school strike movement in 2018 outside the Swedish parliament. It gained momentum in Sweden, then spread through the rest of Europe and the world. Filmmaker Nathan Grossman documents her rise to become one of the world’s most prominent climate change activists. His new Hulu documentary is “I Am Greta.”</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Danika Kohler Doman, a production supervisor who has been working as a “COVID manager,” talks about what it’s like to enforce Hollywood’s new coronavirus protocols.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Steve James, the filmmaker behind “Hoop Dreams,” is out with a new series called “City So Real,” which documents Chicago’s political landscape and the lives of its residents.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Following Quibi’s announcement of closing, The Business e revisits an interview with founder Jeffrey Katzenberg on his gamble to launch Quibi.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alex Gibney ’s documentaries often delve into high-level corruption. He’s out this fall with two projects that focus on the Trump administration.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The Good Lord Bird” started with a handshake deal between Ethan Hawke and author James McBride. The witty, irreverent telling of John Brown’s life story is now airing on Showtime.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Hollywood Commission, a new organization chaired by Anita Hill, is out with a survey on harassment in Hollywood and plans to launch a reporting platform next year.</span></p>