The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Geoff Edgers of the Washington Post to discuss The Tale of Norm Macdonald and prod Geoff about his forthcoming* book on the great comedian who sadly died in 2021. Geoff wrote one of the defining profiles of Macdonald in 2016 for the Washington Post and appears, briefly, in the new Netflix documentary. (You’ll see him; he’s the one being served a sandwich by...

I’m rejoined this week by Matt Roller, the showrunner of Netflix’s Haunted Hotel , to discuss the second season of his hit animated show. We talked about the difficulties of getting a new season done in just one year, how the fandom has reacted to the show (and why he tries to avoid letting the fanfic influence his work), and whether or not season three is on the way. If you haven’t watched Haunte...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen, the Prestige Junkies over at The Ankler, to talk about the early days of the Oscar campaign. It’s finally heating up now that we’re hitting awards season and the prestige pictures are making their debuts; you can find our early preferred nominees at the Ankler Pundits landing page . But we cover a ton of ground in this episo...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Sean McNulty of The Ankler’s excellent morning newsletter, The Wakeup , to discuss some of the big stories in the news. We start with the Paramount-Skydance/Warner Bros. deal going through its final phases before approval, before heading into some discussion of the federal film tax credits (17:10), and then wrapping up with a discussion of the state of sport...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by V for Vendetta director James McTeigue, whose film is returning to theaters on the first and fifth of November (“Remember, remember!”) via Saga Arts and Fathom Entertainment. We had a really interesting discussion both about the making of the film (I had no idea Hugo Weaving replaced another actor you may well know several weeks into production) and its contin...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by the one and only Chris McKenna who, alongside writing partner Erik Sommers, cowrote the highest-grossing film of all time, domestically: Spider-Man: Brand New Day . He broke down the thought process that went into getting Peter Parker back together with his friends, the tricky negotiations between Marvel and Sony over who could use which characters and when,...

This week I’m joined by Godfrey Cheshire to discuss his new book, Cheshire on Film: Life & Writings . Cheshire is a long-time critic—in addition to writing for Variety and RogerEbert.com , among many other outlets, his stint at the New York Press with Matt Zoller Seitz and Armond White was a legendary run during the golden age of the alt-weeklies and was recently collected in The Press Gang —...

This week I’m joined by Puck’s Eriq Gardner to discuss his fascinating piece on Warner Bros. efforts to keep a lid on spoilers for their new show, Lanterns , including some potential abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s ability to remove infringing content from the Internet. We discussed what’s happening and how it could reflect a broader effort to stifle speech in contexts other than s...

This week’s episode is a real treat: I’m joined by Alex Ullom, the 28-year-old writer/director of It Ends , and he provided a real window into the process of getting a low-budget indie movie made. His story has everything: fundraising from professional magicians; a first cut that didn’t work at all; acceptance into SXSW followed by no offers to buy the movie; a grassroots groundswell that got it t...

This week, I’m joined by Robert Corn-Revere. Currently the chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Corn-Revere also served as the chief counsel to the Federal Communications Commission chair in 1993 and as a counsel on important First Amendment cases that have made their way all the way to the Supreme Court. (Seriously, check out his Wiki , it’s crazy.) We had a prett...

This week, I’m joined by Sugar showrunner Sam Catlin to discuss the second season of Apple TV’s under-appreciated gem. If you haven’t watched the show, you should; season one is available in full and the penultimate episode of season two airs today. It’s a neo-noir with a sci-fi twist, a show about how media can shape us as people, and one of the best-acted programs on television. (Seriously: Ther...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Nate Jones of Vulture to discuss his monumental effort to rank the 100 most powerful directors in Hollywood . We discussed how the audience has shifted from stars to IP to maybe, now, directors, and what that means for the industry. Plus: Who did his inside sources think he rated too highly … and too lowly? All that and more on this week’s (if I do say so myse...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Chris Fenton to discuss efforts to pass a federal tax credit that would help reshore American film production and his own made-in-America film, Bad Counselors , which hits theaters next week. Things got a little spicy as we debated some of the downsides of these programs—and how they might come to pass—but let’s make sure to maintain a respectful tone in the...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by renowned critic and film historian David Thomson to discuss his new book, A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies . It’s a bracing tome, given its thesis: That the film screen has fundamentally altered who we are and how we interact with the world, in ways mostly negative. I’ll have more on this book in my newsletter this week, but I reall...

This week I’m joined by CNN’s media analyst Brian Stelter to discuss the big news of the week, Comcast’s decision to spin NBC Universal off into a separate company. What will happen to the broadcast network? Who might some of the suitors be for the standalone company? All that and more on this week’s episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal to discuss his exclusive on the partnership between Google and A24 and what it portends for the rest of the studios who are either diving into the world of AI filmmaking or cautiously sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how things shake out. 

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by my first guest, the great Richard Rushfield, to talk all things TV. What’s the deal with Fox buying Roku? What does the post-peak-TV era look like? And, perhaps most importantly, who is on the Mount Rushmore of television? All that and more on this week’s episode. Leave your pick for the all-time-top-four TV figures in the comments!

I’m joined by Peter M. Hoffman this week to discuss his new memoir, Karmic Winds , about his time in Hollywood as the tax lawyer who could figure out how to get movies financed and get people paid. Fans of 1980s action movies will recognize many of the names here, as Hoffman was a key figure in the Golan and Globus empire before becoming CEO of Carolco Pictures during their epic run of films that...

I’m super-excited about this week’s episode, as I’m getting to talk about one of my favorite zombie movies ( Day of the Dead ) with one of the creators of that film (John Harrison, the first assistant director and composer of its iconic score) and one of the producers at one of my favorite boutique Blu-ray labels (Jeff Roland from Shout Factory/Scream Factory). We talk all about the making of the...

Just as a heads up: This episode was posted on the Takes feed over the weekend, but I wanted to make sure and share it with y’all because a.) it was a lot of fun and b.) I did a weirdly large amount of work for it, having to rewatch three films and read a bunch of stuff. But I wanted to make sure you guys heard it in case you haven’t subscribed to the Takes feed. (And if you haven’t, for shame! Yo...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Julia Alexander to discuss her latest piece for Puck on why romantasy—the subgenre of fine literature dedicated to dragons and sex—has had a hard time gaining a foothold on streaming services despite burning up the book charts. We also chatted about Amazon’s advertising ambitions and how it hopes to use its supposedly profitable video division to drive busin...

Hey everyone, so: This posted in the Takes feed over the weekend. (You can watch the video on Substack here or YouTube here .) I Just wanted to make sure this episode got into the Bulwark Goes to Hollywood feed in case you don’t subscribe to the Takes feed (though you should!) and also to give everyone a heads up that Mona Charen and I will be doing an episode of her podcast on A Man for All Seaso...

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Scott Mendelson of The Outside Scoop to preview the summer movie season and address some of the hottest questions in the biz. Why did Netflix push Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie to next year and give it a full(ish) theatrical window? What’s shaping up to be the biggest flop of the summer? Is box office health finally back on the upswing after some down years po...

Occasionally, someone will ask me if I think they should invest in a movie. My answer is, invariably, the same: you should only invest in movies you really believe in; you should understand that even if you invest, the movie will likely never get made because most movies never do; and you should only invest if you’re willing to lose everything you put in, because even those movies that do get made...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Lou Diamond Phillips, who you know from … well, tons of stuff. La Bamba , Young Guns , Longmire , and last year’s best new TV show, The Chair Company . He’s on the show this week to discuss his new film, Keep Quiet , which is playing this Saturday evening at the Dallas International Film Festival and should hit theaters this summer. We talked about all sorts o...