ICYMI: Tennis is the New Lunch; Production Flees Calif.; Mid-Budget TV Squeeze
Plus: Rushfield and McNulty's summer post-mortems
A big chunk of The Ankler team is currently on the scene for the Toronto International Film Festival, where Katey Rich interviewed Hugh Grant for her first Prestige Junkie live podcast taping yesterday and Richard Rushfield was — seriously — spoken to by security after throwing popcorn at a fellow audience member he saw texting during a screening. Say hi if you catch them today (but maybe put your phone away) at the Sunday breakfast Jason Reitman is having for his talk-of-the-festival film, Saturday Night, or later, at our Documentary Spotlight: Raoul Peck Presented by Pure Nonfiction and The Ankler event on Sept. 10 with our partner Thom Powers, who programs documentary for TIFF. (Peck won the L’OEil d’Or prize at Cannes for his new film, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, and previously screened 2023’s Silver Dollar Road and his Oscar-nominated film, 2016’s I Am Not Your Negro, at TIFF.
I’m pleased to tell you also we have two new additions to The Ankler staff as of this week. Hanna Hensler has joined us from Variety as director of marketing and events and Abigail Barr, who previously managed social media for streaming services, live event venues and podcasts, has joined as our head of audience development and social media strategy. (Fun fact: Abby once was featured as a “best up-and-coming comedian” in Vulture’s Follow Friday column.)
We want to create even more opportunities for you to connect — both digitally and especially IRL — and Abby and Hanna are already developing fun ways to make this happen that we’ll be telling you about soon.
Read more here:
Speaking of events, our next one is Sept. 25 in L.A. Learn more about producing in Vietnam amid a festive evening, featuring delicious Vietnamese food and live music, and every attendee is entered into a raffle to win several exciting prizes, including business class tickets to Vietnam, and most notably, an electric SUV worth $50,000! RSVP here.
Now, with no further ado, here’s our best of the week, ICYMI:
Hollywood’s Hot Racket
Wondering where to meet friends, talk shop, make deals and even get better at your job? Forget the U.S. Open — how about the tennis court near you? As writer-producer Gracie Glassmeyer tells Elaine Low, she’s learned “problem solving, determination, anticipation, adaptability” through playing — and met her spouse and best friend. No wonder the industry is taking to the sport in droves:
California’s TV Production Crisis
Movie shoots outside L.A. have become commonplace, but with TV shows following suit, studio lots are vacant and Hollywood workers are alarmed. In this week’s Dealmakers (for paid subscribers only), Ashley Cullins details the outsize impact Netflix has had in accelerating California’s production exodus; how talent and showrunners often lose money on relocation costs; and California politicos’ moves to keep production in the state:
Rushfield: Apple’s Big ‘Bummer’; Crises Averted
Let’s all give Richard Rushfield a modest 7-minute standing ovation this week for his work examining George and Brad’s awkward Apple Wolfs rollout in Venice, the imminent doom we as an industry have avoided — and, yes, the trades’ endlessly annoying obsession with festival films’ applause times:
TV’s Hollowed-Out Middle
In this week’s Series Business (for paid subscribers only), Manori Ravindran goes beyond the industry talking point of the disappearing mid-market show to reveal the hard numbers for the actual cost per hour for low-end, middle and high-end shows; the kinds of genres being bought; the one distributors won’t touch with “a barge pole”; and how distributors are replacing broadcasters as the ones commissioning series:
Prestige Junkie: Festival Season!
As Telluride and Venice conclude and TIFF begins, Katey Rich surveys the buzziest premieres on her Prestige Junkie podcast and, in her column, talks to Eddie Huang, the writer, TV personality and chef who debuted Vice Is Broke, his searing documentary of the 2010s media brand, in Toronto:
THE WAKEUP
Sean McNulty not only listens to the executive investor conference appearances so you don’t have to, but he connects the dots between the comments of WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra and NBCU CCO Donna Langley to reveal where the industry sees its next wave of growth:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
TV Series are California Leavin' Hollywood empties out as productions leave L.A. to shoot and what streaming has to do with it:
On Apple Podcasts, subscribe and listen here
Transcript here
MARTINI SHOT
A Heartwarming Tax ID Number Rob Long on how TV writers find companionship in money:
On Apple Podcasts, subscribe and listen here
Transcript here
👓 THE OPTIONIST
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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