The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jason Baker of Callosum Studios, the house that helped design the sure-to-be-iconic mask from the upcoming horror film  The Black Phone . They also discussed designing masks for the WWE, pandemic-related slowdowns, working with FX legend Tom Savini, and Jason’s documentary about said legend,  Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini.  You can stream tha...

On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny talks to the CEO of Creative Future, Ruth Vitale, about the costs of piracy. A longtime producer in Hwood, Ruth has seen firsthand the costs of theft on productions big and large, but in an age where stealing a movie or a book or a song is just as easy as popping onto Google and punching in some search terms, how do you convince folks...

Over Memorial Day weekend, Netflix released a new stand-up special from Norm Macdonald, who unexpectedly died in September of last year. Unexpected to us and his friends; perhaps more expected to the comedian, who had kept his cancer diagnosis incredibly secret. On the occasion of the release of Norm Macdonald’s “Nothing Special,”  Washington Post  national arts reporter Geoff Edgers published a ...

Sonny takes a break from talking to industry experts this week to kvetch about something that’s been bothering him and JVL: Why are theaters so empty of movies for kids? A nearly two-month gap between  The Bad Guys  and  Lightyear  feels like studio malpractice; why didn’t  Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers  get at least a token run in theaters? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is rejoined by CNN’s Frank Pallotta to preview summer movie season. Blockbusters, big horror, comic books, and kid-friendly films are coming to the multiplex—but they’re doing so at a slower clip than years past. What’s changed since the pandemic and how is the industry reacting to it? Plus: Netflix, Disney+, and the evolving streaming situation. Learn more about your...

This week, Sonny is joined by Suzanne Joe Kai to discuss her documentary,  Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong Torres . New to Netflix, her doc is a pleasantly vibrant look at the life and work of Ben Fong Torres, who is best known for his era-defining work at  Rolling Stone  magazine. This documentary covers that ground—just looking at Torres’s box of archival tapes is enough to...

This week, Sonny talks to Dade Hayes, co-author of  Binge Times: Inside Hollywood’s Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix , about the rise of streaming in the face of technological change and a population forced to stay home thanks to COVID. Among the many topics discussed: how will sports factor into the future of streaming; why are so many of the channels leaning toward ad-based mod...

David Herrin of  The Quorum —a must-check site for movie-data nerds—joins us live from the corridors of CinemaCon to discuss the mood of theater owners, the vibes of theatergoers, and the state of the industry as we exit the pandemic. If you enjoyed our chat, share it with a friend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Eric Hoyt, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about his new book on the rise of the Hollywood trade press and how these papers helped shape the movie business as we know it. From covering labor disputes to navigating the waters between big-city and small-town movie houses to engaging in some of the earliest film criticism, the topics covered...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners, to talk about post-pandemic moviegoing, the evolution of theatrical dining, the excitement of CinemaCon, and the potential of theaters as sites for esports and gaming events—both as spectators and as participants. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend! Learn more...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is very pleased—and a little star struck!—to be joined by Lloyd Kaufman, the mind behind Troma Entertainment, to discuss his latest film,  #ShakespearesShitstorm , as well as his 50 years in the business as one of the few truly independent indie filmmakers. Kaufman is probably best known for directing  The Toxic Avenger , its sequels, and  Tromeo and Juliet , as well...

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Keith Phipps about his new book,  Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career .  Looking at the trends of Hollywood through the lens of Nic Cage’s various personae—as an oddball actor catching the tail end of the 70s auteur wave; transitioning to a “normal guy”; hitting action star peaks in the 1990s; and settling into a series of more-...

This week, Sonny talks to the  Los Angeles Times ’s Ryan Faughnder about a new poll showing that  Coda  and  The Power of the Dog , the frontrunners for the Best Picture Oscar at this weekend’s Academy Awards, have been seen by just four and six percent of entertainment consumers, respectively. Then they discuss the walkout at Disney over the Mouse House CEO’s failure to speak up more vocally agai...

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Adam Novak, head of story at one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood, WME. Adam is also the author of the novel  Rat Park , out this week, as well as three other novels. Adam discusses his three-plus decades in the industry as a script reader for stars like Bruce Willis and directors like John McTiernan. What’s the role of a good reader in Hollywood? How do...

Sonny is joined this week by Andrea Chalupa, the screenwriter of  Mr. Jones , the true story of Gareth Jones’s efforts to bring the horrifying reality of the Stalin-made famine in Ukraine that killed between 3.3 and 3.9 million people. They talk about getting that film written and financed, the response to it, and how best to push back against Russian disinformation via the arts. Mr. Jones  is str...

On this week’s episode, CNN media reporter Frank Pallotta returns to the show to talk about studios boycotting Russia, why AMC is charging you a little more too see  The Batman  (but not a little less to see  Dog ), and Disney’s decision to put  Turning Red  directly on Disney+. Plus: Oscars talk!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to George Folsey Jr about his career as an editor. From the blaxploitation classics  Black Caesar  and  Hammer  to the great comedies of the 1970s and 1980s like  Animal House  and  The Blues Brothers  to assists on classics like Michelangelo Antonioni’s  The Passenger  and cult classics like Karyn Kusama’s  Jennifer’s Body , Folsey has had a hand in a number of...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Deadline’s Dominic Patten to talk about Village Roadshow’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. for killing the profitability of the  Matrix  franchise, the newly filed wrongful death suit against Alec Baldwin, and the Super Bowl’s big (but maybe not surprisingly big?) ratings. You can see Dominic’s archive  here  and follow him on Twitter  here . And if you enjo...

On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny Bunch is joined by John Zaozirny of literary management company Bellevue Productions. You can see John’s bona fide’s  here , but his clients have written scripts set up with virtually every major studio. Bellevue has had 42 screenplays make the last seven Black Lists—an important compilation of un-produced screenplays voted on by peopl...

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Erich Schwartzel, author of Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy . Erich’s book is a fairly exhaustive look at the sweep of Chinese influence on Hollywood, from Mao’s shutting the industry out during the Cultural Revolution to the return of blockbusters to the fact that Chinese investment funded the very recliners you sit...

This week on the show, Sonny is joined by Janice Min, who has teamed up with BGTH favorite Richard Rushfield to beef up Richard’s fabulous newsletter, The Ankler. Sonny and Janice discussed her career from US Weekly to the Hollywood Reporter to the wild world of Substack newsletters, how the Hollywood trades are defying the death of advertising, their strategy for spinoff newsletters, and why the...

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch talks to Rene Reyes, the Paley Center for Media’s Vice President of Public Programming and Festivals. Among other duties, Rene plans the much-loved PaleyFest LA, which has panels featuring some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed shows on television. We talked about the joys (and COVID-related challenges) of in-person festivals and ran through some of t...

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Kevin Goetz of Screen Engine/ASI and the author of Audienceology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love. Kevin is one of the masters of the art of audience testing, that stressful period of time in a film’s life when it leaves the loving arms of its director and enters the world for approval by the folks who will be paying to see it. Sonny and Kevin discusse...

Sonny is joined by Philip Gelatt this week. In addition to talking about the art of rotoscoping and the years-long effort to get his new film The Spine of Night made, and then released, we also discuss the state of animation more broadly in America and beyond. As a script adapter on Love, Death + Robots, Netflix’s hit animated anthology, he has a lot of experience and wisdom to share in this realm...

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Chris McKenna who, along with his writing partner Erik Sommers, wrote Spider-Man: No Way Home, which has grossed about $1.2 billion around the world … so far. In this in-depth interview, Chris discusses how a blockbuster of this nature gets made, from pitch meetings to brainstorming sessions to rewrites during the shoot to additional photography to tighte...