Transcript: Pain in the New Year: Amazon Layoffs, Paramount Peril

But the team swears — there could be a long-term silver lining in this playbook

Sean McNulty (00:04):

Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty from The Wakeup newsletter here at The Ankler on the afternoon of Thursday, January 11th here in New York City. I'm joined by Mr. Royal Crown Cola himself, Richard Rushfield. Richard, are they on board as a pod sponsor yet? What's going on?

Richard Rushfield (00:19):

They have not come aboard, but I have learned about the RC Cola fan element in our society because since we published a piece claiming that Jay Penske had turned the Golden Globes into the new Royal Crown Cola, I've received many howls of protests from the fan community, defending the honor of RC Cola and claiming it is the superior of colas out there right now.

Sean McNulty (00:44):

Did these people also watch the Golden Globes? Could they quantify the quality issue that maybe that would be part of the discussion?

Richard Rushfield (00:49):

They don't necessarily say, and that means the Golden Globes are great too, but it's implied.

Sean McNulty (00:55):

Just the general disparagement they're taking issue with. Okay. Very good. Elaine Low is also back with us, who's now The Ankler's official in-house Mission Impossible expert. Elaine, do I have that correctly?

Elaine Low (01:05):

A month ago, I hadn't seen a single Mission Impossible film, and now I am up to date. I've seen all seven.

Sean McNulty (01:11):

Wow. In one month. One month's time,

Elaine Low (01:13):

I've become an MI evangelist, Sean.

Sean McNulty (01:15):

Yes. I mean, was this in honor of Tom Cruise moving to Warner Brothers this week? Were you preparing for the big moment? Was this-

Elaine Low (01:21):

Yes. I had insider info, and that's what I did with it, Sean.

Sean McNulty (01:25):

I better watch all these movies, so I'm up to speed on this. Yeah, exactly. Wow. So just remind briefly remember the first one was which one? Now did you watch first? Did you watch your first one was first?

Elaine Low (01:33):

Oh, yeah. I watched them all in order.

Sean McNulty (01:35):

Oh, in order. Oh, you completed. Oh, you really? Okay.

Elaine Low (01:37):

I had to be a completist.

Sean McNulty (01:39):

All right. Well, which one's the best? Now I feel like we need to handicap this a little bit.

Elaine Low (01:44):

Six.

Sean McNulty (01:45):

Six.

Elaine Low (01:47):

Yes. Yes. The one prior to the one that just came out this past summer, Dead Reckoning was excellent. And I'll tell you, the only reason I even started watching any of these MI films is because of Hayley Atwell, because I'm a huge Agent Carter fan. So, don't tell me that that talent can't bring in a new viewer 'cause-

Sean McNulty (02:04):

Yeah. Stunt casting. Yeah. Exactly.

Elaine Low (02:05):

That's the back doorway I came into this franchise.

Sean McNulty (02:07):

Love it. All right. Whatever it gets you in the door. Well, now the casting for part eight is certainly very, very, very important now. So, all right. Very good. I'm impressed. Congratulations. You saw how many films in all of last year and you saw seven in a month. Okay.

Elaine Low (02:21):

Listen, Paramount Plus got a lot of viewership for me this past month.

Sean McNulty (02:25):

Exactly. Chicago's very cold over the winter break, so yeah, right, right. A lot of time in your hands. Anyway, congratulations over at Warner's, so yeah, we'll touch on this later. But yes, Mr. Cruise is setting up shop there, and they're definitely hitting the green light on the big star power. We'll dive into that. So, the layoff epidemic finally hit the tech streamers this week. Richard is also 80 percent through his trip into Wakeup lifestyle of doing a daily column. Richard, how are you holding up?

Richard Rushfield (02:49):

It's been a good week. Looking forward to doing my series of the 2024 tip sheets. Looking forward to the big events to come. Will this be the best year of Hollywood or the last year of Hollywood? Could go either way.

Sean McNulty (03:03):

If you're writing it, Richard, that really is 50/50, I think. Yeah. I guess that's a legitimate question, so I hope you've been enjoying those over at theankler.com. And in your inbox this week, Richard, I'm sure you're looking forward to going back to just one or two columns next week. We'll probably be where you're at as well.

Richard Rushfield (03:18):

All right. Well, next week I'll be reporting live from Sundance. So...

Sean McNulty (03:22):

Oh, that's right. Oh, Sundance is next week. Oh, man. Okay.

Richard Rushfield (03:26):

The fun continues.