The Movie Business Podcast

FRED MILSTEIN  is CEO of Media Guarantors, a CAC Group Company, with over 30 years of independent film production, completion guarantee and financing experience. Fred was the prior Global Head of Production at Miramax and also held senior-level positions at Aon and ProSight, focusing on film. Career highlights include BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, directed by Sidney Lumet, THE IMAGINARIUM OF...

BLAIR RICH , Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer at Legendary Entertainment, drives marketing, branding and communications, emphasizing new technologies and data analytics. Earlier, she was President and Chief Business Officer of Virgin Galactic's Commercial and Consumer Operations, leading marketing for the groundbreaking Unity 22 spaceflight. Blair served over 20 years at Warner Bros.,...

MARYANN BRANDON, A.C.E.  is   a film and television editor, best known as a frequent collaborator with director J.J. Abrams. She earned an Oscar nomination for  STAR WARS: EPISODE VII -THE FORCE AWAKENS  and an Emmy nomination for the series  ALIAS.  Other film credits include VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE, STAR WARS: EPISODE IX – THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, VENOM, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, SUPER 8, KUNG...

DAMIÁN ROMAY  is an Argentinean American film and television producer, writer, and director with some 79 producing credits on TV movies. His production company, Sunshine Films, based in Miami, has made nearly 100 movies for Tubi, Netflix,  Amazon Prime, Lifetime, BET and Marvista Entertainment, among others. For example, Damián wrote and directed ISLE OF HOPE, starring Diane Ladd and based on the...

NEVILLE SPITERI  is founder and CEO of WEVR, a creative development and production studio, pioneering the field of immersive interactive experiences. Signature projects include “Harry Potter VR” with Warner Brothers, “Gnomes & Goblins” created with Jon Favreau, an Emmy finalist for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media, and the immersive underwater VR experience “The Blu,” discovered at...

Once again, presenting our annual “Crystal Ball” episode, featuring predictions and a review of the entertainment business, with ILAN HAIMOFF, Partner and Entertainment Practice Leader at accounting firm GHJ. His specialty includes forensic accounting on behalf of talent, investors, co-producers and distributors. With over 30 years serving clients in entertainment and financial services, he has ov...

VINCENT LANDAY,  Oscar-nominated producer,   is renowned for his collaboration with director Spike Jonze on BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and HER. They’ve worked on music videos for artists including Jay Z and R-E-M, and a range of commercials. Vincent has collaborated with other creatives, from David Fincher to David Lynch; helped co-create Vice Studios; created virt...

JILLIAN BORDERS  is head of preservation at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, a unit of UCLA Library, overseeing the restoration of a broad range of titles, including classic Hollywood and independent works, reflecting the diversity of UCLA’s holdings ~ the largest university-based collection of moving images. Her work on photochemical and digital projects spans the breadth and variety of fi...

PETER J. DEKOM  is a lawyer, management/marketing consultant and entrepreneur in entertainment and the internet. Clients have included George Lucas, Ron Howard and JVC. As advisor to New Mexico, he helped create their film incentives. Honors include Forbes top 100 U.S. lawyers; Premiere’s 50 most powerful people in Hollywood; named Entertainment Lawyer of the Year by Beverly Hills and Century City...

PETER SAPHIER  is a veteran producer and creative executive at studios including Universal and Paramount. At Universal, he acquired JAWS, co-produced SCARFACE and supervised over 150 movie and TV projects. Career highlights include working with Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron, Al Pacino, Oliver Stone, Sylvester Stallone and Michelle Pfeiffer, among others. He is a member of the Mot...

ANDRE MORGAN  is a globe-trotting film and television producer. Fluent in Mandarin, Andre was CEO of Golden Harvest in Hong Kong, working with Raymond Chow to expand it into one of the largest film businesses in Asia, launching the international careers of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, director John Woo, and others. Later, Andre partnered with GODFATHER producer Albert S. Ruddy to produce over 40 movies...

ANA MARIA QUINTANA  is a Script Supervisor with over 70 credits, working with world-class directors: ten with Steven Spielberg, four with Cameron Crowe, BLADE RUNNER with Ridley Scott. Credits include three HUNGER GAMES movies, two JURASSIC PARK movies, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, THE REVENANT, AVATAR, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TERMINAL, CATCH ME IF YOU C...

KAITLYN YANG  is founder and Visual Effects Supervisor at Alpha Studios. She has over 70 visual effects credits, including “The Walking Dead,” “Grey's Anatomy,” and “American Born Chinese”. Kaitlyn is also a co-founder of 1IN4, a coalition for increasing employment and authentic representation of disabled people on screens. She was honored as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Entertainment, one of...

JOE DZUBAN  is a Sound Designer and   Re-Recording Mixer who has worked his way up in key positions including Sound Engineer, Recordist, Dialogue Editor, Sound Effects Editor, Supervising Sound Editor, to Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer on over 100 movies including AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, THE KISSING BOOTH 1, 2 and 3; AQUAMAN, STAR TREK BEYOND, CONJURING 1 and 2, FAST AND THE FURIOUS 6...

DAVID S. GOYER  has served as writer, director, producer and/or showrunner for franchises THE DARK KNIGHT, MAN OF STEEL, BLADE and FOUNDATION,  plus other movies and series. He is Executive Producer of MURDERBOT, upcoming from Apple TV+. David wrote the story for three “Black Ops” video games and also wrote and executive-produced the groundbreaking VR series VADER IMMORTAL for Lucasfilm and Oculus...

DAN FELLMAN  is Chairman & CEO of Fellman Consulting, Beverly Hills, after serving as President of Warner Bros Domestic Distribution, responsible for releasing franchises including HARRY POTTER, THE MATRIX, THE DARK KNIGHT, THE HOBBIT and more. He began his career at Paramount, then Loews Theaters, then founded American Theatre Management. Dan has served as Chairman of Motion Picture Pioneers,...

GRADY MILLER  is Chief Marketing Officer of NRG, National Research Group, after serving as head of consumer insights for Apple TV+ where he established and  built the group responsible for leveraging consumer insights across the streaming subscription service. Previously, he was VP of strategy at NRG after working in production at Sony Pictures Entertainment and at research agency Penn Schoen Berl...

Presenting our annual “Crystal Ball” episode, featuring predictions and a review of the entertainment business, with  ILAN HAIMOFF , Partner and Entertainment Practice Leader at accounting firm GHJ. His specialty includes forensic accounting on behalf of talent, investors, co-producers and distributors. With over 30 years serving clients in entertainment and financial services, he has overseen cou...

JOHN ATTANASIO , CEO, and  LUISA HUANG,  COO, are Co-Founders of Toonstar, an animation story studio building content for social media platforms such as YouTube and Snap, which is also an investor. Their community-driven animated series include “The Gimmicks,” “Space Junk,” “House of Chico,” and franchises like “StEvEn and Parker” with influencer Parker James. As former Warner Bros. and Disney exe...

PETER J. DEKOM  is a lawyer, management/marketing consultant and entrepreneur in entertainment, the internet, and telecommunications. Clients have included George Lucas, Ron Howard and JVC. As advisor to New Mexico, he was an architect of their film incentives. Honors include Forbes top 100 U.S. lawyers; Premiere’s 50 most powerful people in Hollywood; named Entertainment Lawyer of the Year by Bev...

SCOTT SHOOMAN , Head of AMC Networks Film Group, leads acquisitions, development, production and theatrical distribution for IFC Films, RLJE Films and the Shudder streamer. As senior vice president of acquisitions and production for IFC Films, he acquired some 30 movies a year. Senior executive positions include Endeavor Content, CBS Films, Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Worldwide Ac...

JOSEPH N. COHEN  is a media investment banker and film financier who founded American Entertainment Investors, AEI, which has advised independent production companies including Alcon, known for THE BLIND SIDE, River Road (12 YEARS A SLAVE) and Black Label (SICARIO). Earlier, he held senior positions at Salomon Bros. and Lehman Brothers before becoming president of Largo Entertainment, with hits in...

ARON LEVITZ  is President of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, an innovative studio from WEBTOON Entertainment that combines technology, a diverse new generation of creators, and passionate global fans to create data-backed, audience-driven series, films, and books. Wattpad WEBTOON Studios develops content from the WEBTOON and Wattpad platforms and their global community reaches 170 million users across 15...

JOEL GOTLER  is CEO of Intellectual Property Group, a literary management company based in Los Angeles, whose film clients include Michael Connelly, John Scalzi, Piers Anthony, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Russo, Viet Nguyen, JD Barker, Debbie Macomber, David Wiesner and Andre Dubus III, as well as the estates of Sue Grafton, James M. Cain, Stephen Ambrose, Roger Ebert, Frank McCourt and John O’Hara...

RACHEL JOY VICTOR  is a consultant and co-founder of FBRC.AI, which creates AI-supported tools for content production from films to games to location-based experiences. As a designer, Rachel draws from her education in computational neuroscience and spatial economics to facilitate the creation of data-informed emergent experiences where world simulation, systems design, and cognitive architectures...