Transcript: The $10 Billion in AI Cash About to Rock Hollywood

Studios, agents and lawyers are navigating how to profit — not perish — from machine learning's big money

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Sean McNulty (00:04):

Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty of The Wakeup newsletter here at The Ankler, here in New York City on Thursday, October 3rd. I'm joined in Los Angeles by Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield, who apparently was the runner-up in the bake-off for the top Sony Pictures job this week. Richard, I'm kind of surprised you lost something called a bake-off.

Richard Rushfield (00:23):

I was robbed.

Sean McNulty (00:24):

You were robbed?

Richard Rushfield (00:26):

Recount.

Sean McNulty (00:26):

Oh boy.

Elaine Low (00:27):

You didn't win the write-in vote, Richard?

Richard Rushfield (00:29):

Just have some strange priorities there at Sony. I presented my pitch on-

Sean McNulty (00:34):

Yeah, what was the pitch, Richard?

Richard Rushfield (00:35):

On the new menu items we could add to the cafeteria there and some new kind of espresso drinks. And I had a whole revamp of the entire operation from appetizers-

Elaine Low (00:46):

The entire cafeteria operation.

Richard Rushfield (00:48):

Yeah, exactly. And I don't know, this guy, I don't know what this other guy was focused on.

Sean McNulty (00:54):

This head of TV guy. Yeah. I don't know what his bright ideas were, but exactly.

Richard Rushfield (00:59):

So yeah, I'll be watching the menu there to see.

Sean McNulty (01:03):

I was going to say, they're going to steal your ideas, Richard. Be careful. I hope you have that pitch deck. Could copyright that.

Richard Rushfield (01:07):

They'll be hearing. I'm shopping that around.

Sean McNulty (01:11):

There are other jobs around town, so yes, exactly. But we'll get into the changes there at the top of Sony Pictures Entertainment in just a little bit. But Richard, get that Ankler champagne bottle ready. We have to pour one out for another TV studio in Hollywood this week. Unfortunately, last month, of course, Paramount shut down Paramount TV Studios, and this week Disney's saying farewell to ABC Signature, leaving just 20th Television as the main TV studio there at Disney. There's still, of course, Disney Branded TV, which kind of handles the kids and teen stuff mostly, and 20th Animation, which is certainly formidable. But ABC Signature over the years had a few iterations at Disney starting back as Touchstone Television back in the mid 1980s, which was, Richard, quite a powerhouse there in the 2000s and 1990s, and even ABC Signature today still was a very active studio there, so still carried on to a degree, but Richard, the Fox brand won. That's new, right? 20th Television survives.

Richard Rushfield (02:06):

That is right. But I guess you also got to do everything you can to say, "Hey, look at that $85 billion really paying off."