Press Tour Power List; Sound Stage 911; PAR's Plan B Era; Queer TV Crash
Plus: Bono's AI-VR doc gives Apple's Vision Pro a reason to exist
You don’t need me to tell you that your media diet isn’t what it used to be. Just the fact that you’re reading this, produced by me at a hot three-year-old startup, is proof of that. Not so long ago, an A-list star with a film or show to tout would book a Vanity Fair cover, a slot on Fallon, maybe an NPR interview and watch the buzz snowball from there. Today? They’re just the tip of a (broken) spear. So no surprise that Nicole LaPorte’s 19 Press Tour Stops Ruthless Publicists Care About Now (and Don't) became a runaway hit this week, filled with the kind of honesty and insight you’ve come to expect from The Ankler.
So get out your ring light and stay in the know! 👇
Speaking of buzzy conversations, we’ve got a few of our own brewing this week, and you’re invited!
New Yorkers: Ankler CEO Janice Min sits down with Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz tomorrow morning at Tribeca X to dig into how his 80-year-old company is building on the Barbie phenomenon and growing its storied toy pipeline. You can register for a pass here.
Angelenos: Today, The Ankler & Pure Nonfiction Documentary Spotlight Series returns to L.A. in a new venue — the Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists, which opened last year at the SAG-AFTRA building. Following a keynote Q&A with Harper Steele of Will & Harper, Pure Nonfiction’s Thom Powers will lead conversations with the filmmakers behind Music by John Williams, Social Studies, Chimp Crazy, Martha and Chef's Table. Come and join the creative exchange, vogue at our portrait studio and enjoy a celebratory reception. Request to attend here.
Up North: Elaine Low and I are in the Canadian Rockies for the next few days at the Banff World Media Festival, where she’s moderating today’s Showrunner Superpanel (featuring St. Denis Medical co-creators Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer and more), a keynote Q&A with CEO Anjali Sud on Monday and a Wednesday conversation about the ethical use of AI in entertainment. I’ll be holding Elaine’s bag and cheering her on, so look for both of us there!
Now, without further ado, ICYMI, our best of the week:
Series Business: Sound Stage Bar Mitzvahs; Queer TV Crash
As L.A.-based production plummets to record lows, Elaine Low reveals (paid subscribers only) just how bad the slump in SoCal sound stage usage is; surprising ways local stages are pivoting — from fashion shoots to video game activations to bar mitzvahs; and how AI and virtual production could finally make L.A.-based creativity scalable again:
Lesley Goldberg talks to execs and top creators including Liz Feldman and Benito Skinner about what it takes to get a queer show greenlit today as inclusion efforts unwind — and how rising LGBTQ voices can bypass traditional gatekeepers altogether:
Rushfield: Zaslav, Paramount & Contingency Plans
Real AI: Did Bono Just Fix Apple’s Vision Pro?
Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset promised to create fully immersive stories, and by using AI, Bono’s latest project achieves that aim. Erik Barmack dissects (paid subscribers only) how AI functions as a creative scaffold on the rocker’s Stories of Surrender; why immersive storytelling might finally work now; and how Hollywood can get in on the action:
ESG: Who’ll Win Streaming’s Final Holdouts
Are there any mountains left for streaming to climb? There’s one, says Entertainment Strategy Guy: the 60 million cable subscribers waiting to be poached. He analyzes which streamers are growing and flatlining; the impact of FAST channels’ rapid surge; and what the numbers tell us about those cable holdouts — and who’s best positioned to win them:
Prestige Junkie: Jason Segel’s Traum-Com; Tony Kaye’s Return
Katey Rich catches up with American History X director Tony Kaye about the long, winding road to his latest film as he readies for a Tribeca debut. Plus, she chats with the stars and creators behind Apple TV+’s Shrinking, Amazon’s The Better Sister and Netflix’s Forever:
Notable: No, Billy Idol Didn’t Overdose
Ahead of the doc Billy Idol Should Be Dead debuting at Tribeca, the 69-year-old rocker goes deep with Rob LeDonne about how that title came to be, his unruly career and what he was told about Sting and Trudie Styler at SNL:
Todd on the Town: The Boys to Poker Face
THE WAKEUP
In a difficult week across the industry, Sean McNulty breaks down the numbers and trends behind Disney’s big layoffs and Warner Bros. Discovery’s axing of several hundred jobs:
Monday Morning QBs: Live with Richard & Sean
Make sure to catch our weekly live show with Richard & Sean on Monday mornings PT time to review what just happened with weekend box office. This week, they assessed A24’s possible next hit and the mis-kicks of Karate Kid: Legends’ opening:
The Rushfield Lunch
On Wednesday, Richard was joined by Filmstack luminary Tepper for a talk about the state of young Hollywood, how she and her peers persevered through Covid, plus strikes and pullbacks and the ways of marketing to her generation that the industry hasn’t quite grasped yet:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
Now Renting: 8 Million Sq Ft of Sadness Bar mitzvahs? YouTubers? L.A.'s soundstages struggle to fill production's void:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
📱 LIKE & SUBSCRIBE FROM NATALIE JARVEY
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
As an Ankler subscriber, you are automatically subscribed to all of our newsletters and podcasts by default. Not interested in all of them? Customize which ones would like to receive notifications for. It’s easy to do.
Log into your Substack account, select "Settings" from the drop-down menu.
Under Subscriptions, click on The Ankler to review the sections you'd like to subscribe to/unsubscribe from.
On the next page, click on the toggles next to each newsletter and podcast you want to receive emails for. A gray toggle indicates notifications are off; orange or green means on.
Alternatively, when you get an email newsletter, select “Unsubscribe” in the footer of the email and click on “Turn off emails” next to each section you’d like to unsubscribe from.