A New Spec Script Boom Catches Fire
Writers are getting paid $1 million or more on so-called “naked” scripts — no IP, actor or director attached. It may sound like Shane Black’s 1990s, but it’s happening right now as Nicole LaPorte join...
20 Dec 202441min
Tales From the ’90s: Before ‘Wicked,’ Winnie Holzman’s ‘My So-Called Life’ Changed TV
Richard Rushfield sits down with Winnie Holzman, creator of the beloved but short-lived teen drama My So-Called Life, which ran for one 19-episode season from 1994-95 and later became a cross-generati...
16 Dec 20241h 7min
Joe Rogan Helped Trump Win. Now He’s Conquered Comedy
Pro-free speech, anti-trans, anti a lot of things, the standup comedians who made their bones on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast — from Theo Von to notorious Trump rally opener Tony Hinchcliffe — are...
13 Dec 202437min
Tales From the ’90s: ‘Last Action Hero’ Screenwriters Tell All
In this new Ankler series, Hollywood Stories, we are starting with wild untold showbiz tales from the '90s. For our debut episode, Richard Rushfield sits down with Adam Leff and Zak Penn, the original...
9 Dec 20241h 21min
HBO & the Harry Potter Gamble
What is HBO heading into 2025? A major prestige cabler that can attract any talent it wants? An empire in decline? A little bit of both? Series Business writer Manori Ravindran was at the intimate Lon...
6 Dec 202432min
AI Stole My Scripts: Rage as Big Tech Takes Without Asking
When The Good Wife co-creator Robert King saw that 139,000 produced TV and movie scripts — including his — were used for AI training, it “personalized” the AI issue for him. “There’s something very of...
27 Nov 202453min
MSNBC’s $125 Million ‘Ratings Viagra’
Ratings are down 40 percent, Morning Joe’s hosts are being ridiculed and the network’s anchors and shows are soon to be ruthlessly reshuffled. Turns out it’s time for MSNBC to take its $125 million “r...
22 Nov 202453min
The New Disney Magic
Don’t mind the $430 million revenue drop in linear over the last two years — Bob Iger would like to shift your attention over to streaming, where price hikes have proven a magical Disney attraction. E...
15 Nov 202439min
