Neon CEO Master Class; Ari & Bryan Succession; 'Snow White' Morons
Plus: Hollywood Dems rage as Hakeem Jeffries comes to town
Happy Sunday. In the wake of Anora’s Oscar triumph, Ashley Cullins interviewed Neon CEO Tom Quinn (paid subscribers only) for one of our most popular reads this week. Quinn’s company has scored two best picture Oscars and five Palme d’Ors in its short life (Katey Rich dubbed Quinn the Palme d’Oracle). He articulates to Ashley an inspiring, clear vision for building a distinctive, profitable business that showcases and empowers great original filmmakers. And rather than pull the ladder up behind him, he also lays out a playbook for others to follow his path. In the editing process, Janice added bold to all of Quinn’s sharp, memorable lines, and well, it was a lot of highlighted text. Do not miss this one:
It isn’t just the indie sector that has its bright spot right now. My former colleagues at Fast Company released their annual World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies this week, and Hollywood was there: Disney’s FX (No. 22), Fox’s Tubi (No. 33) and Sony’s Crunchyroll (No. 39). Also among the 50: YouTube; Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang; L.A.’s Intuit Dome (CAA Sports and its co-head Mike Levine oversaw the development, design and construction of the state-of-the-art arena); Courtney Cox’s home goods brand Homecourt; collectible popcorn bucket maker Zinc; and romantasy publisher Entangled. (There’s also a top 10 list of just film and TV companies.)
That is a mighty impressive showing for one supposedly moribund industry, to be among the likes of self-driving cars, AI coding apps and high-resolution satellites. I helped run this list for 12 years before joining The Ankler, so I can attest to the rigor that goes into making it. In other words, this is no fluke.
Amid the alarm about the state of Hollywood these days, there’s a lot of good happening and all I have to say is: More please.
With no further ado, ICYMI, our best of the week:
Series Business: The Hot Job Change; Credits Crisis
Executive coaching isn’t just for bad bosses anymore, says Elaine Low (paid subscribers only), who reveals which former names from CAA, UTA, HBO and WBD are now coaches, and why, with staffers too stressed to mentor, the need for leadership advice is resurgent. Plus: the best free advice coaches have for early career and mid-level staffers:
Amid a missing credit kerfuffle around Bear Grylls’ Netflix series, Manori Ravindran explains the industry agita around recognition, how it can impact future job prospects, and the U.K. below-the-line union trying to fix the problem:
Former CBS president Kelly Kahl had an epic three decades at the Tiffany Network, and gives Lesley Goldberg his first interview since being ousted in 2022. He details what it felt like to lose that top job, and how his executive skills informed his first creative project — a sports doc born from a childhood passion:
Rushfield: Snow White Nonsense; Apple’s Prestige Problem
Richard tackles the manufactured outrage over Snow White — cranked to 11 by the click-bait Penske monopoly; Apple TV+’s reported $1 billion annual losses and how it could solve its woes; and the looming succession conversation we should be having about CAA and WME right now:
Furious H’wood Donors to Dems: ‘What the Hell?’
Matthew Frank scooped news of a Hakeem Jeffries fundraiser held in L.A. this week and the rage it incited from leading Hollywood donors (despite Deadline’s copycat several hours later claiming it as an exclusive; we’re noticing a pattern), as many vow to pause all giving until the Democrats have a plan — any plan — to deal with Donald Trump:
Prestige Junkie: Early Emmys Intel; 2026 Oscar Predictions
Katey Rich looked ahead to likely Emmy contenders and shares her annual prognostication for next year’s Oscars. Plus: She dives into the outrage over the threat by Miami’s mayor to punish a local independent theater screening the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land:
THE WAKEUP
This week, Sean McNulty looked at how essential studio movies are to Netflix viewership and why Amazon continues to invest in film projects. Not bad for an industry that’s supposedly dying!:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
MrBeast & Beyond: Hollywood's New Stars Why streamers are going creator crazy; plus: Apple TV+'s billion-dollar losses:
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MARTINI SHOT
The Lineman TikTok TV Show Rob Long calls for new much-needed words in the Hollywood lexicon:
📱 LIKE & SUBSCRIBE FROM NATALIE JARVEY
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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