ICYMI: AI Script Reading; Job Hope After Layoffs; Par's 99 Problems
Catch up on our recent best
Exciting times here this week: We’ve hired the great Katey Rich, who, after a decade at Vanity Fair, will be starting at The Ankler on April 29 as our awards editor, covering TV, films and festivals year-round. Katey will be overseeing our Prestige Junkie newsletter, moderating events and hosting a Prestige Junkie podcast interviewing Hollywood’s top talent beginning next month. (This also means I soon won’t be the newbie around here.) You can reach her at Katey@theankler.com.
Meanwhile, Elaine Low’s interview with Tom Hiddleston for our Ankler x Backstage Screening Series event for Loki was a smash, with a standing-room-only crowd on Friday, where the line of people waiting to get in snaked down Sunset. More on this later . . .
Okay, back to the stories of the week.
You’ll likely watch a streaming service, use social media, talk to Siri or Alexa and maybe even ride a Waymo today, all illustrations of how much technology has changed the industry and our lives. This week, we dove headfirst into the next frontier — artificial intelligence — with our Reel AI newsletter from Erik Barmack, Netflix’s former head of international originals. The founder and CEO of Wild Sheep Content, an international production and finance company, he and his small staff have been educating themselves about AI and cautiously experimenting with tools. In his first column, he shares some of his learnings. Our mission in enlisting Erik is to give you insight into real-world AI experience, how it already is being used on the job and where it might lead — the good and the bad.
Some of you had a lot to say about his inaugural piece about AI script reading. His column was our most-read of the week. Your comments were smart, passionate and visceral, and Erik, to his credit, read your feedback and responded with the respect you deserve. I never did improv comedy, but one of its truisms that guides me is to play to the top of your audience’s intelligence. We’re fortunate to have such thoughtful, engaged subscribers. Let’s keep the dialogue going.
You can read Erik’s column here:
Erik then joined Austin Cross on All Things Considered to talk AI and Hollywood as part of our partnership with LAist 89.3 FM:
A Terrible Jobs Anniversary
A year ago, Disney, Paramount and WBD slashed thousands of jobs. Elaine Low reports on the “vortex of hell” that is LinkedIn for job seekers, the shred of optimism for those going out on their own and the forthcoming industry brain drain as older workers hang it up early:
Elaine and LAist Morning Edition host Susanne Whatley then discussed the state of play for laid-off entertainment execs:
Game Over for Esports?
It’s not just the TV production bubble that’s burst. Entertainment Strategy Guy charts the hype cycle of esports— using it as an object lesson for an industry searching for magic bullets:
Notes from CinemaCon
Richard Rushfield lays out his takeaways from the confab in two pieces, including larger issues where the industry is in denial, and yet finding hope in every studio’s slate, from Warners to Disney:
U.K. TV Showdown
As MipTV moves its international television market from Cannes to the U.K., London correspondent Manori Ravindran dives into a marketplace showdown and what it might mean for TV sales:
Why Movies and Politics Don’t Mix
Alex Garland’s Civil War is the latest movie to flirt with our fractured political moment but not really exploring it deeply. Darren Franich on why Hollywood’s stuck in allegory and subtext:
☀️THE WAKEUP
Again, if you’re not starting your morning with Sean McNulty’s stellar roundups, you’re beginning the day behind. This week, Sean dove into the bonkers chess game around the David Ellison-Paramount mashup and much more:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
The Paramount Soap Opera Billionaires, boards, drama: Inside the Redstone-Ellison saga. Erik Barmack also joined to talk more about why he decided to explore AI as well as address some, uh, reader feedback:
MARTINI SHOT
Gossipy, Critical Snippy Rob Long picks apart Hollywood's art of nitpicking:
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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