The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

This week I’m joined by Nick de Semlyen, the editor of  Empire  magazine and author of the new book  The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage .  We talk Sly, Arnold, Bruce, and the other big names of the 1980s, how the cinematic heroes of the decade dovetailed in a way with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and how a second-rate Chuck Norris feature may...

This week I’m joined by Ken Harbaugh, the producer of  Against All Enemies , to discuss his new documentary about the disproportionate number of military and police personnel attracted to extremist groups like the Oath Keepers. How did so many end up at the vanguard of the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6? And what role do lies about elections play in radicalizing this cohort? We also dis...

This week I’m joined by Brooks Barnes of the  New York Times  to discuss his story on Universal’s efforts to build what amounts to a new release window, the premium video on demand (PVOD) window. For the first time, Brooks has some real numbers, and they’re pretty interesting. For instance,  The Super Mario Bros. Movie , pictured above, has made more than $75 million since May 16 despite still bei...

On this week’s show, I’m joined by Arthur Smith, chairman of A. Smith and Co. Productions, the company behind long-running hits like  Hell’s Kitchen  and  American Ninja Warrior . In addition to explaining why he shies away from the label “reality TV,” he’s here to talk about his career and his fascinating new book  Reach: Hard Lessons and Learned Truths from a Lifetime in Television .  Arthur has...

This week I’m joined by Cara Cusumano, Festival Director and VP of Programming at the Tribeca Festival, for a wide-ranging chat about the nature of the modern film festival, how a festival’s sense of place can coexist with efforts to make the festival’s programming available to people around the world, and how Tribeca has expanded beyond film into a multimedia extravaganza. We also talked about a...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by the Entertainment Strategy Guy to talk about the state of streaming data. What do we know? What don’t we know? Do movies fare better on streaming after getting a theatrical run? How does the data help determine what we watch? What is the “binge curve”? All that and more on this week’s episode. If you found it illuminating, make sure to  sign up for his Substac...

I am pleased to be joined this week by screenwriter Colby Day to discuss all the unapid work that goes into getting paid work. I loved reading Colby’s diaries of annual pitch meetings and the such for  2021  and  2022 , and thought I might share them, and him, with you as a way to help you understand some of the frustrations that writers have with the current state of Hollywood. How many pitches d...

This week I’m rejoined by Scott Mendelson of The Wrap to talk about the state of the box office. Is the comic book boom over? What should we be looking for from  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3  if we want to assess the health of Disney’s cash cow? What did Scott make of  The Flash  at Cinemacon? When will the mid-level movie recover? Why is 2017 a better comparison point than 2019? All that and mo...

This week I’m joined by Judah Miller, showrunner of the new Peacock dramedy  Bupkis , to talk about bringing Pete Davidson’s life to the small screen.  Bupkis  is fascinatingly hard to describe in shorthand, given the way it mixes tones and genres, and also the manner in which it blends Pete Davidson’s ripped-from-the-headlines life with a fictionalized version of his family and day-to-day existen...

This week I’m joined by Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion, former global head of strategy for Amazon Studios, and the author of  The Metaverse   and “ The Streaming Book ,” which you can read at that link there. And you should read it if you want to understand how we got where we are in the streaming wars, why it’s early yet in the contest between the companies vying for your attention, and where we’r...

This week I’m rejoined by David Herrin of  The Quorum —a must-visit site for any amateur or professional box office nerd—to talk about  a new study  The Quorum put together in partnership with The Cinema Foundation about the value proposition of going to the movies. We talked all sorts of stuff on this episode: why audiences are three times more excited to return to theaters now than they were at...

I’m rejoined this week by Frank Pallotta, formerly of CNN, to preview the summer box office. Have we already seen the year’s biggest movie debut with  The Super Mario Bros. Movie ? Will audiences show up for big-budget blockbusters like the new  Mission: Impossible  and  Guardians of the Galaxy ? Will adults ready for raunchier fare come out for Jennifer Lawrence’s new romcom? Who’s going to win t...

This week I’m joined by Sean McNulty of The Ankler to talk about the week’s biggest entertainment news: the merger of the WWE and UFC into a $21 billion sports-entertainment company. But this move is just a piece of the puzzle if you want to understand the complex dance between sports leagues, streaming companies, and cable bundles. Are sports leagues the ultimate “arms dealers” in the streaming w...

This week I’m joined by Gene Park, video game reporter at the Washington Post, to talk about the oncoming video game boom and how our current moment feels reminiscent of 2008, when the comic book boom kicked off for real. Yes, there had been comic book successes before that, your  Batman s and your  Spider-Man s. But 2008 saw the release of  The Dark Knight  (which smashed opening weekend records)...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Cinema Foundation President Jackie Brenneman to discuss the group’s new report on the  state of the cinema industry . Among the many topics discussed this week are the ways in which theatrical exhibition help tamp down piracy by keeping pristine copies off the pirating sites, the success of National Cinema Day, how the ongoing domestic box office recovery is t...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by April Wright, director of  Back to the Drive-In . We discuss the ways in which drive-in theaters kinda-thrived during the pandemic, but also have been hit by some of the same problems plaguing every industry in the post-pandemic era: labor shortages, supply chain issues, and nonsensical mandates from local governments. Make sure to check out  Back to the Drive...

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Bilge Ebiri and Brandon Streussnig to talk about Vulture’s enormous feature on the best stunts of 2022. Part celebration of the year in action, part plea for the Oscars to finally recognize stunt performers and performances as a category worthy of notice, the inaugural Stunt Awards is a feast for any lover of action (and action-adjacent) cinema. Among the issu...

This week, I’m joined by Michael Schulman to discuss his new book,  Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears .  What were some of the ulterior motives for making the Oscars? How did the ceremony help break the blacklist? And was Rob Lowe’s duet with Snow White  really  the worst thing that’s ever happened on the show? Or, you know, in the history of existence? All that and more...

This week I’m rejoined by Richard Rushfield—fresh off a nice little profile in  Vanity Fair —to talk about the oncoming train of a WGA strike. Seventy days out, Richard put the odds of a work stoppage at 65 percent. What are the two sides looking for? How might the industry change? And is the fate of civilization itself at stake? All that and more on this week’s episode. If you enjoyed this episod...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is pleased to welcome David Thomson back to the show to discuss his new book,  Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances .  In this episode we discuss the difficulty of describing what, precisely, actors do onscreen; the trickiness of writing about appearances; why Method Acting was the biggest thing since the advent of sound; and why audiences feel uncomforta...

I was very excited to get Julian Schlossberg on the show this week to talk about his new book,  Try Not to Hold it Against Me: A Producer’s Life , in large part because he is intimately involved with a part of showbiz that I do not understand at all, at least financially: Broadway and live theater. But Julian’s career stretches beyond the stage: he booked theaters in New York City where he helped...

When I saw that Shawn Ryan—the creator of  The Shield ,* the hit CBS show  S.W.A.T. , and the forthcoming Netflix show  The Night Agent —had penned a  letter to the editor in The Ankler  disputing an agent’s characterizations of past Writers Guild of America negotiations with producers, I knew I had to get him on the show. Ryan, who in addition to running and writing some fantastic TV was also on...

This week I’m pretty excited to be joined by Dean Devlin, whose work in movies like  Universal Soldier ,  Stargate , and  Independence Day  I grew up loving. He works mostly in television now on series like  The Librarians  and  Leverage,  and has a new one out on SyFy debuting February 3:  The Ark . We talk about his new show, how the business has evolved these last 30 years, and more on this wee...

This week I’m rejoined by Rene Reyes, Vice President of Public Programming and Festivals at the Paley Center, to talk about PaleyFest 2023. It’s the year’s most entertaining celebration of television, from prestige cable hits to broadcast mainstays to the wild world of streaming.  Tickets are on sale now  for this year’s festival, and some of the highlights look great; I’d kill to be able to atten...

Kevin Goetz,  author of the must-read book  Audience-ology , joins me this week to talk about the science of getting audiences to theaters. Can marketing help teach audiences “how” to watch a movie? Why might studios get excited about something as simple as a reply ratio to a free screening before even a single frame of film has unspooled? And how can you measure … movie love? I mentioned this on...