ICYMI: A Week on the Brink
Catch up on The Ankler's recent best
The Ankler team took stock of where things stand for Hollywood amidst extraordinary tumult this past week. (And if you have some version of the many circulating ailments in petri-dish L.A. or your city, feel better!)
Our new series, The Squeeze, about the impact of entertainment’s worsening economics on workers at every strata, kicked off with excellent advice in How to (Maybe) Save Your Job During Layoffs from career coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin (her company website lists clients including Disney, Comcast and Sony).
Coming pieces over the next few weeks under The Squeeze banner will dive specifically into how the crunch is hitting:
Producers
Execs and agents
Actors
Young Hollywood
Below the line
And writers
Reminder, The Squeeze series is for paid subscribers only.
THE RESULTS ARE IN!
The first great Ankler poll on Agents, Managers and Attorneys saw huge numbers of our paid subscribers vote. The results scored some resounding wins for CAA, with a lot of general ambivalence on the state of agents, agenting and managers revealed.
More polls for paid subscribers are coming soon about different sectors of the industry. You can read Richard’s take on the poll results here.
SBF AND OTHER EXCLUSIVES
The Ankler revealed that writer Michael Lewis had embedded for six months with FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, the basis of a book that CAA is shopping for adaptation. Read all about it.
Andy Lewis had the story of Apple TV’s about-face on Maggie Haberman’s Trump book. The tech giant had quietly optioned Confidence Man then declined to pick-up the series as political projects become radioactive. Meanwhile, Lewis’ The Optionist reports Jeffrey Toobin’s Timothy McVeigh book was optioned for a limited series by Mr. Robot-creator Sam Esmail.
TECHENFREUDE
Richard let loose on the town’s techenfreude as our tech overlords stumble into one quagmire after another. He wrote: “Lookie lookie here. Turns out the data-driven geniuses are taking a few spills along the road to utopia. Turns out, that the world isn't just praying that this too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a cartoon character in Mark Zuckerberg's Sims wonderland… Add to that a fawning tech worship through the years that created a how dare you question me expectation for its founders and their companies.” Read it all
LISTEN
The Week the Floor Fell Out — Again How has Hollywood's tech-led experiment turned out? Ooof
Martini Shot: Turned Away at the Studio Gates Rob Long on superstitions and finding signs
5 DAYS OF THE WAKEUP
BLACK PANTHER hits mark, also beats FABELMANS on a per-screen average
AMAZON's Q4 hiring freeze turns to massive layoffs in 2 weeks time
BLUMHOUSE & James Wan creating massive Horror powerhouse at UNI
WBD: Holiday Ad Biz worse than Pandemic, ENDEAVOR stops hiring for 2022
TWITTER loses hundreds more employees🫡, locks offices as the disaster deepens
It’s time to give holiday gifts! Surprise your colleagues, writers room, agent or assistant with 52 weeks of the smartest analysis and news about the entertainment industry.
As ever, send questions, comments or concerns to richard@theankler.com or janice@theankler.com. For general information or to advertise with our fast-growing 35,000-strong subscribers, please email info@anklermedia.com.