Rushfield SAT for Execs; 'White Lotus' War; Tariff Terror; Dead Celeb AI Future
Plus: How 'Adolescence' sold to Netflix — and saved its production company
What happened in Vegas this week. . . was a series of amazing conversations curated by The Ankler in partnership with NAB Show for the conference’s first-ever Business of Entertainment track. Our programming kicked off last Sunday with Reel AI columnist Erik Barmack and producer David S. Goyer (known for Blade and his writing on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) on AI’s future impact on storytelling, followed by Series Business’ Elaine Low with CBS’ Fire Country co-creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater and CBS execs Yelena Chak and Bryan Seabury on the re-booming procedural (more in Elaine’s column Monday). Awards editor Katey Rich’s conversation with Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal and DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter (more on that below) broke big news of the Billy Joel doc opening the Tribeca Festival; later, Rosenthal and Glatter joined Ankler CEO Janice Min as cohosts — along with NAB’s Karen Chupka and Universal Music Group Publishing CEO Jody Gerson — for a chic VIP dinner at Hakkasan, sponsored by IW Group.
More heavy hitters hit the stage on Monday, starting with Janice’s lively chat with Gerson, who held the room rapt demonstrating the growing value of the catalogs of Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and one Bob Dylan (with an assist from Timothée Chalamet); Sean McNulty and Candle Media CEO Tom Staggs got candid about the changes rocking Hollywood; Elaine broke news with World of Wonder’s Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey (RuPaul’s Drag Race) about the new show coming to their WOW Presents Plus streamer, Kennedy Davenport Center Honors; and Boardwalk Pictures’ Andrew Fried (FX’s Welcome to Wrexham), Propagate Content’s Howard Owens (Netflix’s Untold), Pantheon and Velvet Hammer’s Jen O’Connell (who took us inside the digital-first reinvention of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show) and Wheelhouse’s Courtney White (who’s steering the Duck Dynasty reboot for A&E) had a frank conversation about the reality of reality TV with Elaine.
Also on deck: Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey with Webtoon Entertainment’s David J. Lee and Wattpad Webtoon Studios’ David Madden about their $1M creators and selling shows to Netflix and Tubi (more below on that).
And if you’ve never heard a Vegas crowd greet Paul “Triple H” Levesque, well, we wish you were there for exec editor Alison Brower’s main stage matchup with WWE CEO Nick Khan and Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer. They teased next weekend’s Wrestlemania 41; broke down how WWE mints megastars (“You cannot teach charisma,” Triple H said); revealed the phrase Khan never likes hearing employees say; and unpacked how WWE connects with audiences everywhere as its global reach expands thanks to Raw on Netflix. We’ll be rolling out that conversation as a special Ankler pod on Tuesday, other highlights are in some of our stories featured below, and you’ll get more great insights from our programming in the coming weeks. (And Sean, hope you are feeling better!)
Thanks to our NAB partners for a great collab.
Now, without further ado, ICYMI, our best of the week:
Rushfield: Save Cinema, Save Hollywood
Can you pass Richard’s Film Citizenship Exam? He created one as part of his campaign to reinstate film as the center of culture. As part of the mission this week, he also spotlighted four outsiders with fresh approaches to fundraising, distribution, marketing and social media, and sat down with Amazon Studios founder Roy Price:
Series Business: Tariffs; How Adolescence Got Made
Trump’s tariffs are still at least 10 percent worldwide, with China subject to an eye-popping 145 percent tax on imports. Elaine Low talks to production execs (paid subscribers only) about the types of series and budget items that’ll be most affected; how they’ll affect season planning; and what part of a series will be cut back to pay the additional costs:
In the nick of time: Adolescence producers Mark Herbert and Emily Feller of Warp Films tell Manori Ravindran about how their business was, like so many production companies today, on the brink before a Netflix exec put Adolescence on the fast track; which streamer said no; and their coming nuclear bomb project:
As The Handmaid’s Tale begins its final season, Lesley Goldberg catches up with show creator Bruce Miller about what’s interesting and nerve-wracking about doing a political show — and his feelings about doing this kind of show with Disney and Hulu:
Reel AI: Dead Celebrities’ Bright AI Future
A new humanoid robot of beloved — and deceased — Three’s Company star Suzanne Somers led Erik Barmack (paid subscribers only) to explore the legal change allowing celebs to now control their AI digital twins even after death; why agents and managers will need to become estate planners; and what studios are going to love about AI talent:
ESG: Theaters’ Missing Middle of $50M-$100M Hits
A Minecraft Movie’s success reveals theatrical’s over-reliance on event movies. Entertainment Strategy Guy reveals how to juice the middle of the market, once its backbone; what stars like Tyler Perry, Kevin Hart and Millie Bobby Brown should be doing to help; and why theatrical marketing is broken — and what could fix it:
Notable: White Lotus Composer Claps Back
White Lotus composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer follows his public war of words with creator Mike White by telling Rob LeDonne about the surreal nature of the feud; the hit score he believes was 'truly a gift' to White; his early 'Hawaiian Hitchcock' inspo — and his sharp words for HBO:
Prestige Junkie: Jane, Lesli & White Lotus’ Bad Dad
Join in on Katey’s super fun live-from-Las Vegas conversation with director and DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter (Zero Day) and Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal. Plus: Katey talks with Jason Isaacs, a.k.a. The White Lotus’ Tim Ratliff, barely 24 hours after he emerged from the show’s finale bubble:
THE WAKEUP
Sean McNulty and Tiger Woods are both seasoned vets who suffered recent back injuries — but only Sean showed up this week to play through pain to cover Minecraft’s box office boost and A24’s new film buys:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
WWE to Webtoon: Hollywood's New World Order CEOs, creators & Triple H shared optimism & opportunity from the Vegas stage:
Like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts
MARTINI SHOT
The Bezos Divide Rob Long wonders why Amazon shopping is so easy yet watching Prime Video is so hard:
📱 LIKE & SUBSCRIBE FROM NATALIE JARVEY
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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