Jobs Advice From an Economist; Why’s Every Director a White Male Again?
Plus: Jon Landau’s dishy memoir; Beatrice Springborn Q&A
There’s no sugar-coating it: Tens of thousands of entertainment jobs have been lost. But new lanes of opportunity also have opened up. Elaine Low spoke to Patrick Adler, Ph.D., about what the future holds for Hollywood workers as AI’s unpredictable but massive impact unfolds (Adler also answers the question: Should we blame the strikes for the contraction?).
In this time of unrest, Richard Rushfield continued his deep dive into who gets to direct movies in 2025 — with a truly shocking rundown of how few people of color have helmed studio releases this year. It’s another reminder (after last week’s look at the paltry numbers of women in the director’s chair) of how far we’ve backslid in an age when Gen Z is turning to a far more diverse creator economy.
Ankler Media’s CEO and editor-in-chief Janice Min had strong words to say about all these trends when she accepted a LEA Award from The WICT Network: SoCal on Friday at the Beverly Hills Hotel — with legendary exec Anne Sweeney as her chosen presenter — plus some motivating ones about leadership in periods of disruption: “I challenge Chat GPT-5 to beat your women’s intuition, your emotional intelligence, your soft power,” she said from the stage. “I have no doubt that we already know what algorithms don’t — and never will.”
Janice clearly has AI on her mind. At Web Summit Lisbon, she’ll hit the stage Wednesday for a can’t-miss interview with Particle6 CEO Eline van der Velden, whose new AI talent studio, Xicoia, created lightning-rod AI actress Tilly Norwood. Janice, Sky News Group executive chairman David Rhodes and ProRata.ai’s Annelies Jansen also host a private dinner tomorrow in Lisbon for powerhouse figures from tech and media and top digital creators including Josh Richards and Jordan Howlett. And look for Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey’s “Decoding Virality” panel onstage at Web Summit with Shit You Should Care About’s Lucy Blakiston and Pubity’s Kit Chilvers. Tchin-tchin!
Meanwhile, here in L.A., catch Katey Rich’s Prestige Junkie Live Q&A with The Summer I Turned Pretty creator Jenny Han on Nov. 11 (request to attend here) or find her next Sunday at the Governors Awards.
Now, ICYMI, here’s more of our best of the week:
Series Business: UCP Chief Q&A
Universal Content Productions and Universal International Studios president Beatrice Springborn tells Lesley Goldberg how her studios’ global model gives them a value edge over Netflix, why international is NBCUniversal’s next growth engine, what to expect when Taylor Sheridan’s NBCU megadeal begins and much more:
Rushfield: PSky’s First 100 Days
Richard drills down on David Ellison’s first 100 days, looking past the sweeping rhetoric and overheated promises to find, well, a mixed bag of big swings ($100 million for James Mangold) and harsh moves (1,000 layoffs, with more to come):
Reel AI: A 5-Alarm Fire
As Amazon plots a 75 percent automated workforce, Erik Barmack weighs the implications and the inevitable ripple effects on Hollywood: how Wall Street’s “efficiency gospel” invited AI to finish the job and why full human creativity may soon exist only for a few indie weirdos:
Jon Landau Rips Katzenberg, Posthumously
James Cameron’s Oscar-winning producing partner, Jon Landau, spent the last year of his life on a memoir that delivers the dish — and names names. The Optionist’s Andy Lewis relays which star Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted to play Robin Williams’ part in Dead Poets Society, Landau’s fraught early ’90s interaction with John Hughes and much more:
Mamdani to the Hollywood Rescue?
Ahead of Zohran Mamdani’s decisive mayoral win on Tuesday, Elizabeth Spiers looked at how hizzoner’s stance on unions, production credits and affordability will transform Hollywood-on-Hudson:
Prestige Junkie: Sydney Sweeney
Katey Rich chats with Sydney Sweeney about the heavy amount of prep and producing she put into her Oscar hopeful Christy. Plus, Katey pits the generations against one another to see who’s up, who’s down and which will take home the most Oscar gold:
The Wakeup
Warner Bros.’ generational heater at the box office wasn’t enough to overcome the parentco’s continued linear TV decline, as Sean McNulty analyzes WBD’s Q3 earnings — and why Paramount, Comcast or Netflix would still want to buy it:
Our Shows
Monday Morning QBs: Richard and Sean assess the fitting culmination to the worst October of the century — a weekend with no major releases and no film scoring even $10 million:
Rushfield Lunch: Richard welcomes Barry Hertz, the film editor and chief film writer at The Globe and Mail, to talk about his upcoming Fast & Furious retrospective, Welcome to the Family, and how the franchise shaped the Hollywood of today. Don’t miss this coming Wednesday, when Richard will welcome two very special guests: Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy:
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