A $1M Microdrama Sale?; What Every TV Buyer Wants Now; WME Indie Chief
Plus: An exec’s ‘Yellowstone’ origin story; Rushfield rebukes our industry leaders
Hello from L.A., where I’m fan-girling over the interviews in our Prestige Junkie Studio at TIFF, where Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen have welcomed Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value), Knives Out trilogy’s Daniel Craig and helmer Rian Johnson (Wake Up Dead Man), Tessa Thompson and director Nia DaCosta (Hedda), Cillian Murphy (Steve) and more. Just in this morning: Aziz Ansari (Good Fortune) and James McAvoy with his directorial debut California Schemin’ (he also appears in the musical biopic), and later today, Katey is going live onstage with Train Dreams’ Joel Edgerton at 4:30 p.m. (get ticket info here).
Plus, tonight, I hope you scored an invite to the private soiree co-hosted by Ankler CEO Janice Min, Richard Rushfield and Letterboxd CEO Matthew Buchanan.
Follow @theankler on Instagram for more images and watch full videos of Katey and Chris’ lively interviews on YouTube, and keep a lookout for more Prestige Junkie Daily newsletters out of TIFF.
All studio portraits are by photographer Chris Chapman
Remember, you can watch full interviews on YouTube. Below is a snippet of Katey with the Poetic License gang, from left: Andrew Barth Feldman, Cooper Hoffman, Nico Parker, director Maude Apatow and Leslie Mann.👇🏼
Now, ICYMI, here’s the rest of our best of the week:
Series Business: Yellowstone Origin Story; TV Buyers’ Wish Lists
Elaine Low’s TV Sellers’ Guide is simply a must-read, with intel from agents, producers and studio execs on what every streamer and network in town is looking for these days:
Tasked with turning Spike TV into a “general entertainment” cable hub in 2017, Kevin Kay and his team at then-Viacom hinged the net’s success on a script by Taylor Sheridan, a TV newbie. For the first time, Kay reveals the winding tale of how Yellowstone came to be, from a Hotel Bel-Air sit-down with Harvey Weinstein on Oscar Sunday, to a 4 a.m. call to get a greenlight — and why it’s a cautionary tale about AI:
Dealmakers: Where WME’s Indie Chief Sees the Market
Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME Independent gives Ashley Cullins her thoughts on Mubi, The Forge and the distributors shaking up the landscape; what these films must do to thrive in a direct-to-consumer world; and what indies can learn from KPop Demon Hunters’ success:
Speaking of KPDH, Ashley delivers a convincing case for the reverse window model behind Netflix’s hit theatrical sing-along (and Disney’s 10th anniversary Hamilton), identifying which genres are best suited for the strategy and two rules Hollywood can’t afford to ignore:
Richard Rushfield’s 5-Alarm Fire
Hollywood once had leaders who defended the reputation and survival of showbiz, until they lost their way. Now we’re stuck in their mess, as Richard lays out the 10 man-made industry disasters that will define our collective experience this fall and begs for leadership to take charge:
Prestige Junkie: Little Gold Men Reunion
On her Prestige Junkie podcast, Katey joins fellow pundits (and former Vanity Fair colleagues) David Canfield & Richard Lawson to weigh which films and studios have the upper hand in the swelling Oscar race:
The Wakeup
With summer box office in the rearview, Hollywood can finally set its sights on the massive opportunity ahead: next summer. Sean McNulty takes an early look at the first theatrical slate truly unencumbered (hopefully) by strikes or a pandemic, and how its volume, originals and heaviest hitters stack up:
Monday Morning QBs
This week, on our live box office show, Richard and Sean take stock of the 2025 summer, and how — without depth, different genres and runaway hits — it fell short of the also disastrous 2024 summer box office:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
Summer Duds, Fest Buzz: What the Hell is Happening to Movies As box office bombs, prestige takes the stage:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
MARTINI SHOT
Back to School, Hollywood: Start with Porky’s Rob Long’s syllabus for reaching young men again:
📱 LIKE & SUBSCRIBE BY NATALIE JARVEY
Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey delivers a two-fer this week, with an inside look at a day on the set of an independently produced $100K microdrama — with ambitions for a $1M sale — and a scoop about the new podcast from Celebrity Memoir Book Club duo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton:
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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