The Business

<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>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Writer/director Billy Ray talks about the making of his Showtime limited series “The Comey Rule,” which stars Jeff Daniels as former FBI director James Comey and Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">COVID-19 has buffeted the entertainment industry. The Business looks at major challenges, such as how to release big-budget pictures and how to manage the awards season. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Isabel Sandoval’s new indie drama “Lingua Franca” arrived on Netflix this month. She produced, wrote, and stars in the film as an undocumented trans Filipina living in New York City.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Netflix series “Cheer” earned six nominations at this year’s Emmys, including Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program. The Business revisits its interview with director Greg Whiteley.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss made their biggest documentary yet with “Boys State,” a process that required many leaps of faith, from securing funding to showing up at Sundance without a distributor.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes our guests have so much good stuff to say that we can’t fit it all into one show. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">So this week, we’re bringing you some leftovers from this summer’s interviews: Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of Netflix’s summer smash “The Old Guard;” Prentice Penny, showrunner of HBO’s “Insecure;” and Peter Medak, who talks about his documentary, “The Ghost of Peter Sellers.”</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Don Hahn’s documentary “Howard” looks at the life of Howard Ashman, the lyricist behind the soundtracks for “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” Ashman died of AIDS in 1991, leaving a mark on his collaborators, including his songwriting partner Alan Menken.</span></p>

<p><span>HBO’s “Insecure” just received its first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. Prentice Penny, the show’s executive producer, talks about how he got his start in Hollywood, and his personal connection to the show’s creator and star Issa Rae.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The nominations for the 2020 Emmy Awards have been released, and HBO’s “Watchmen” leads with 26 nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series. KCRW revisists host Kim Masters’ interview with showrunner Damon Lindelof.</span></p>

<p><span>“The Old Guard is director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s first action movie, and it’s made the </span><a href="https://twitter.com/netflixfilm/status/1284278883148161024" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/netflixfilm/status/1284278883148161024&source=gmail&ust=1595707370826000&usg=AFQjCNH2GPKfflHdzzkZ4T-kEdcuDDjscw" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span>list</span></a><span> of 10 most-watched original movies on the platform. Prince-Bythewood talks about how she broke into the action world, and how she trained her actors to make her fight scenes believable.</span></p>

<p><span>CNN’s Jake Tapper and director Rod Lurie discuss the making of “The Outpost,” a new film based on Tapper's book about American soldiers who faced a deadly Taliban attack in Afghanistan. The film ran into obstacles every step of the way — including the unexpected death of Lurie's son Hunter.</span></p>

<p><span>In the new documentary “The Ghost of Peter Sellers,” director Peter Medak revisits the nightmarish production of his 1974 film, “Ghost in the Noonday Sun.” The biggest challenge was the behavior of Medak’s star, Peter Sellers. “The Ghost of Peter Sellers” reveals how Sellers stymied and manipulated Medak and his crew, even faking a heart attack to get time off. </span></p>

<p><span>David France’s new HBO documentary, “Welcome to Chechnya” looks at the ongoing campaign to eradicate gay people in the Chechen Republic. France talks about the dangers he faced in making the film, traveling to Russia on a tourist visa, shooting on iPhones and GoPros, and using digital face-swapping technology to hide his subjects’ identities.</span></p>

<p><span>The new Netflix documentary “Disclosure” examines Hollywood’s portrayal of trans people over the years. Director Sam Feder uses decades of archival footage and personal anecdotes from trans people who were deeply affected by these depictions to tell the story of the industry’s evolving relationship with trans representation. Feder and executive producer Laverne Cox, who is also featured in the film, share why these on-screen portrayals are so powerful, especially for trans people coming of age. </span></p>

<p><span>Judd Apatow's latest film “The King of Staten Island,” stars comedian Pete Davidson in a story inspired by Davidson's real life. Apatow is a comedy icon but he’s admittedly not funny on Twitter. As his more than 2 million followers know, he rains scorn not only on Trump, but on Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, whose news network relentlessly bolsters the administration. Apatow wonders why others in the entertainment industry don’t do the same. </span></p>

<p><span>As protests continue across the country, we look at the way policing is depicted on television. It's a topic dream hampton has spent years thinking about and worked on a recent report on the issue. It found that often, even good cops are shown trampling the rules, and that’s presented as heroism. And Dan Taberski made a podcast devoted to the reality show "Cops." What he found was disturbing. Now, "Cops" and its spiritual successor "Live PD" have been canceled. </span></p>

<p><span>James Graham wrote the play “Quiz” — about an alleged cheating scandal on the British version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” — before he adapted it for TV. Graham talks about starting to doubt the conventional wisdom about Charles and Diana Ingram, a couple accused of cheating on the popular game show in 2001 and in effect stealing 1 million pounds in front of a studio audience. Plus, how is Hollywood responding to a week of protests and police brutality?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Veteran documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering lived the dream of having Oprah Winfrey sign on as executive producer of their film “On the Record,” which focuses on several women who say they were raped by music mogul Russell Simmons. But the dream turned dark just days before “On the Record” was set to premiere at Sundance. Oprah withdrew her support and Apple dropped its deal to release the movie. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries "The Last Dance" has wrapped. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The series has drawn record-breaking ratings and given ESPN something to celebrate in a world without live sports. Radio host and sports fanatic </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hayes Permar speaks with </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">director Jason Hehir. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The new Netflix film “The Half of It” is writer-director Alice Wu’s second movie. She wrote a $1000 check to the National Rifle Association, an organization she does not support, and told her friends if the script wasn’t done in five weeks, that check was going in the mail. Wu talks about her extreme method for overcoming writer’s block and picking Netflix as the home for her new movie. </span></p>

<p><span>Rob West usually spends his days building sets and making props. But once the pandemic hit, he started using his skills to devise and manufacture reusable face shields for medical personnel. West, the founder of LA Face Shields, shares his thoughts on the future of Hollywood production, and talks about running his face shield operation out of a well-stocked American Legion bar. </span></p>

<p>The new series “Mrs. America” is about the 1970s battle over the Equal Rights Amendment. It’s available via FX on Hulu. Dahvi Waller created this series after she wrote for “Mad Men” and “Halt and Catch Fire.” She talks about tackling the complicated character of Phyllis Schlafly, the woman who led the movement that ultimately blocked ratification of the ERA. She also shares the complications of finishing post-production while under stay-at-home orders.</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Parasite” made history as the first foreign language movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The movie is now streaming on Hulu, so we’re revisiting our conversation with Director Bong Joon Ho, who also won Oscars for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. Plus, an all new banter: Some Southern states want to reopen businesses, but movie theater owners say not so fast. </span></p>

<p><span>Jeffrey Katzenberg ran Walt Disney Studios when it made hits like “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King.” He also co-founded DreamWorks. Now he’s launched Quibi, which lets you stream short shows on your phone. He remembers his early days in the industry, and tells us why he believes Quibi will work.</span></p>

<p><span>The coronavirus pandemic has shuttered studio productions of every major late- night talk show. Samantha Bee and Jason Jones — her husband, producer and fellow former “Daily Show” correspondent — tell us about taking Bee's show, “Full Frontal,” into the woods outside their house in upstate New York. Jones is the crew, and Bee still opens every episode with her trademark speedy monologue. They now have no audience — except for woodland creatures. </span></p>

<p><span>Filmmaker Eliza Hittman knew she’d have trouble getting financing for her art house abortion drama, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” She didn’t think it helped that she kept finding herself pitching to rooms full of men. Even companies that were supposed to focus on "issue movies" weren't interested in an abortion storyline. But Hittman eventually found her money, and her award-winning film is now available to stream on demand.</span></p>

<p><span>With Hollywood mostly shut down, we check in with people dealing with this difficult time across the industry. We hear from an actor, cinematographer, writers’ room production assistant, costumer, and filmmaking team. They tell us how their lives have suddenly changed, how they’re coping while out of work, and how they think this pandemic could change Hollywood forever. </span></p>

<p><span>In 1971, when sound designer Jim LeBrecht was 15, he had a summer of love at a camp for disabled kids. It was a place that fostered a spirit of history-changing activism. He and his friend, filmmaker Nicole Newnham, agreed that this was a movie. They didn’t anticipate that Barack and Michelle Obama would think so too. Newnham and LeBrecht tell us about their Netflix documentary “Crip Camp,” and partnering with the Obamas’ production company. </span></p>

<p><span>In July 2016, more than a year before the #MeToo movement began, Gretchen Carlson made a bold decision to sue Fox News chief Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. Now she and Julie Rogisnky, a former Fox News contributor who also sued Ailes, have made it their mission to end nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that can muzzle those who sue over misconduct. Their initiative is called Lift Our Voices. </span></p>

<p><span>Autumn de Wilde has more than 20 years of experience photographing rock bands and directing commercials, but she’d never made a feature film. Then out of the blue, a British production company asked her to pitch ideas for a new version of the Jane Austen classic, “Emma.” De Wilde tells us how she made her light and bright version of “Emma,” the famous comedy of manners. </span></p>

<p><span>“Sonic the Hedgehog” is director Jeff Fowler’s first feature film, and it looked like it was going to be his first bomb when the trailer dropped last spring. Fans of the video game emphatically rejected the too-realistic look of the lead character. “Sonic” director Jeff Fowler tells us how he brought the speedy blue hedgehog from the brink of disaster to big box office success.</span></p>

<p><span>Twelve jurors found Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty on two counts: criminal sexual assault in the first degree and rape in the third degree.</span></p>

<p><span>We look at high-profile movies that had their theatrical releases delayed for months. Tim Miller talks about dealing with the online blowback related to “Terminator: Dark Fate,” which he directed, and “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which he executive produced. And we revisit a chat with Damon Lindelof, co-writer of the movie “The Hunt.” Universal pushed the theatrical release of “The Hunt” from September 2019 to March 2020. </span></p>

<p><span>American independent filmmakers might envy Céline Sciamma, director of the French film, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Sciamma had no problem getting funding for her lesbian romance set in the 18th century, and for that she credits France’s support for directors. But she says the system is far from perfect. She tells us about the three-year-long process of planning her newest movie and the heightened political environment surrounding French filmmaking at the moment. </span></p>

<p><span>Kim and Matt met up the morning after the Oscars to talk "Parasite" making history, Netflix nearly striking out, and hold on, what was Eminem doing there?</span></p>