The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

Occasionally, someone will ask me if I think they should invest in a movie. My answer is, invariably, the same: you should only invest in movies you really believe in; you should understand that even if you invest, the movie will likely never get made because most movies never do; and you should only invest if you’re willing to lose everything you put in, because even those movies that do get made tend to show a loss. I lead with this because today I’m talking to Jeff Annison of Legion M, a production and distribution company built on the idea that fan investments are a great way to both develop seed capital and drive enthusiasm at theaters. Legion M is not a fly-by-night company and has a number of productions under its belt, including My Dead Friend Zoe and The Man in the White Van. Jeff will be the first to tell you that investing is risky and should only be done if you’re comfortable with losing it all, though he obviously has staked his claim with Legion M and put no small amount of his own capital at risk. And they’ve certainly seen some successes with films like the Nic Cage-starring Mandy (one of my favorites of the 2010s). We discussed how changes to investment laws in 2016 helped spur a shift in indie fundraising from crowdfunding models to models that allow individuals to earn equity in the movies they contribute to the production of. We also discussed the Legion M Film Fund, their distribution-minded arm that provides last-in, first-out money for films seeking a domestic release. And we chatted about the effort to build a consistent fan base via the cultivation of retail investors.

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Lou Diamond Phillips, who you know from … well, tons of stuff. La Bamba, Young Guns, Longmire, and last year’s best new TV show, The Chair Company. He’s on the show this week to discuss his new film, Keep Quiet, which is playing this Saturday evening at the Dallas International Film Festival and should hit theaters this summer. We talked about all sorts of stuff, but one thing I find really fascinating is Keep Quiet’s place in the burgeoning mini-genre we might think of as Native Noir: films like this, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Wind River, TV shows like Reservation Dogs, Dark Winds, and Longmire, etc. It’s an interesting moment, and Keep Quiet is a key part of it. I hope you’ll seek it out once it hits theaters … don’t worry, I’ll remind you when it’s about to happen.

Special two-part episode of the podcast this week! The big news in Hollywood this week has been the burgeoning effort by Hollywood creatives to fight the purchase of Warner Bros. by Paramount Skydance. Thousands of names—including some of the biggest in the business—have signed an open letter in the hopes of demonstrating that not everyone in the industry is on board with the potential deal. So I wanted to talk to some of the folks behind it. First up is an interview with Ted Hope, indie producer extraordinaire and author of the Hope for Film Substack. We talked about how indie production has changed over the last few decades and what could be lost if Warner Bros. and Paramount are allowed to merge. Then I got Jon Reiss and Jax Deluca of the Future Film Coalition on the horn. We discussed what concrete steps could be taken to help fight this merger and what media consolidation means to the indie filmmakers out there. If you found this podcast interesting or informative, I hope you share it with your friends!

I’m joined on this week’s episode by Ed Solomon, the writer of the new Steven Soderbergh feature, The Christophers, which is in limited release this weekend and going wider next. It’s the story of an aging artist, played by Ian McKellen, and his new assistant, played by Michaela Cole, who has been hired by the artist’s son and daughter to forge a series of paintings from an earlier, more successful period in his career. The idea being that, when he dies, the kids can sell the “found” works for millions. Solomon discussed the idea for the film, which began with a single sentence from Steven Soderbergh, and blossomed from a twisty noir into something more emotionally resonant. We also discussed their previous collaboration, No Sudden Move, and why he wishes more people had had a chance to see it; the difference between more conceptual art and actual paintings; and the joy of working with McKellen and Cole in shaping the voice of the characters on the screen in The Christophers. It was a wide-ranging chat, is what I’m saying, and we didn’t even get a chance to discuss Men in Black or the Bill & Ted series of films, which he co-wrote. Maybe next time! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Steve Starkey to discuss his new book, On the Set of Forrest Gump. Steve won an Oscar for best picture as producer on that film, but he has a career that, as I told him, has meant a lot to me, with credits on, among other pictures, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the two Back to the Future sequels, Contact, Cast Away, and, of course, Forrest Gump. We discussed all sorts of stuff here, from the movie magician who made Lt. Dan’s legs disappear, to his work as second unit director, to the early days of using digital trickery to fake the words and faces of famous people, to the worst note he’s ever gotten after an audience test, to the difficulties facing California’s film industry in the face of global tax rebates and production credits. On the Set of Forrest Gump is laid out like a coffee table book and is beautifully illustrated with 250 or so full-color stills from set. So it’s nice to look at. But the story he tells is a fascinating glimpse into the push and pull of art and business, the struggle between the producer on the ground trying to make sure his director has the resources he needs and the studio bankrolling the whole thing and worried about losing tens of millions of dollars on a movie that isn’t a guaranteed hit. Anyway, I hope you check it out. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be joined by McKay Coppins, author of April’s cover story in The Atlantic: “Sucker: My Year as a Degenerate Gambler.” We discussed the rise of sports betting apps, why his boss gave him $10,000 to lose, how the wild proliferation of sports gambling could destroy faith in the sports we watch, and why Kalshi/Polymarket could wind up getting people killed. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! And make sure to read McKay’s story! It’s really quite good.

I’m very pleased to be rejoined by Kevin Goetz, who is the guru of movie testing to discuss his latest book, How to Score in Hollywood. When you spend nine figures on a film and another eight figures marketing it, you want to know what works for audiences and what doesn’t, and Kevin’s the guy who can help you do that. He believes that nearly every movie—if it’s made for the right price and marketed to the right people—should be able to make money, and he’s happy to explain how his company, Screen Engine/ASI, can help make that hope a reality. Our discussion runs the gamut—from concept testing to post-screening focus groups to some Oscar chatter—and I hope you enjoy.

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be joined by David Streitfeld to discuss his new book, Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry. Amongst the topics discussed: McMurtry’s obsession with book buying and selling; how his books and the films they were made from helped shape the view of the west; and why Lonesome Dove—both the book and the miniseries—endures more than 40 years later. From The Last Picture Show to Brokeback Mountain, McMurtry rests alongside Cormac McCarthy one of the great modern voices of the American west.

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be rejoined by Rod Blackhurst (we had him on a couple of years back to discuss his indie crime drama Blood for Dust) and joined for the first time by Ethan Suplee, veteran character actor we all know and love from films like Mallrats, Remember the Titans, and The Wolf of Wall Street and TV shows like My Name Is Earl. We’re discussing their new film, Dolly, a true indie endeavor made in the spirit of American classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Evil Dead or the New French Extremity’s High Tension. Rod and his partners raised some money, brought some folks to the woods of Tennessee, and put together something he hopes will be memorable for the audiences who see it. It’s hitting theaters this weekend, playing around 800 or so screens across the country, and if you’re a horror head—or just someone looking for something different—I hope you’ll check it out. (It is a horror movie, though, so I cannot provide any refunds if the onscreen terror sparks a walkout.) As I said, getting Ethan on the show is a real treat because I’ve been a fan for years and it’s been interesting to watch him dip his toes into some darker waters in recent years in films like Dolly, Babylon, Blood for Dust, and God Is a Bullet. It was fun to pick his brain about consciously making that shift and why his film work often gives him a little more space to stretch than his TV work.

We have a special bonus episode this week: I’m joined by Óliver Laxe, the director of the Oscar-nominated Sirāt, to discuss his film about a rave at the end of the world and how we can find community in an age of dislocation and isolation. I wanted to get this out now because a.) the film is expanding this weekend, b.) Laxe himself will be in attendance at a handful of shows across the country over the next week or two here, and c.) it really is the sort of movie you need to see in a theater. For the sound system and the big picture, yes, but also the sense of community a packed theatrical showing can generate. You’ll want to experience it with other people, believe me.

I’m joined by Paul Fischer on this week’s episode to discuss his new book, The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema. It’s a fascinating look at a pivotal moment in film history, when the breakdown of the studio system gave rise to the auteurist 1970s, the first half of which was dominated by Francis Ford Coppola, only to cede the landscape to the blockbuster entertainments that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg mastered in the back half of the decade and beyond.

This week, I’m joined by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman to discuss their Oscar-nominated documentary, The Alabama Solution. Currently streaming on HBO, their documentary combines interviews, investigative journalism, and footage from within the prisons themselves obtained via contraband cellphones to reveal the horrible and dangerous living conditions of those serving time in the Alabama correctional system. It’s a documentary primed to shock the conscience, and I hope everyone out there watches it. You can also go to the documentary’s website, TheAlabamaSolution.com, to learn more about the deaths inside Alabama’s prisons. And if you think this is an important film and an important issue, please share it with a friend.

Remember that weird moment in the 2024 campaign cycle where Donald Trump started referring to how much he loved and identified with “the late, great Hannibal Lecter”? That was odd, right? I discussed that and more with Brian Raftery, whose new book Hannibal Lecter: A Life is both the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for the love consuming your heart and a fascinating portrait of a bizarre creation from a reclusive writer. Indeed, the most interesting part of the book is the early deep dive into the life and writing of Thomas Harris, who has given just a handful of interviews over his nearly 50-year career.

I’m very pleased to be joined this week by Matthew Robinson, who is the screenwriter of the new film, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. It is the rarest of things: a mid-budget, high-concept, sci-fi action-comedy. Starring Sam Rockwell as a time-traveler from a ruined future (or possibly just a bum with a fake bomb strapped to his chest), Robinson and director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean) have crafted a piercingly satirical take on our obsession with screens, our inability to deal with the tragedy of modern living, and the creeping fire that all-powerful AI will wind up killing half of us and enslaving the rest. It’s opening wide on February 13, and I really hope you check it out. I may write a hair more about it in my newsletter though I probably won’t review it properly as I try not to review movies made by people I’ve interviewed so as to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. (Ethics, baby!) That said, I strongly recommend going to see it in a movie theater if for no other reason then to demonstrate that there is an audience for original films with a clear point of view and something to say about our world and our moment.

On this week’s episode, I’m very pleased to be joined by Ric Roman Waugh, the director of the new film Shelter, starring Jason Statham. We talked a lot about making that movie and how he best utilized Statham’s skills as opposed to Dwayne Johnson’s in the movie Snitch or Gerard Butler’s in the Greenland films, Kandahar, and Angel Has Fallen. Shelter, which is in theaters now, is a little more meditative than some of Statham’s recent work, though no less effective for it. We discussed why Statham was attracted to the part and how his fatherhood helped inform his role as the protector of an orphaned young girl. Then we discussed making the transition from stuntman to director: Waugh worked with Tony Scott on a number of pictures, and had some interesting insights into the methods of the great action director. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to practically restrain myself from just doing 30 minutes on Waugh’s Shot Caller, a gritty prison drama.oo

The Oscar nominations dropped yesterday morning and I grabbed our favorite Oscar prognosticators, Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen of The Ankler’s Prestige Junkie, to chat about what it all means. Does Sinners’s 16 nominations mean it could upset One Battle After Another for best picture? What does it mean that Wicked: For Good took home zero nods? Perhaps most importantly: Will Delroy Lindo get his dang Oscar, as we demanded back in October? All that and more on this week’s episode, including a SHOCKING prediction by Christopher at the end of this podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out their podcast. And please share this one with a friend! (And Delroy Lindo’s agent, we gotta get him on this show to talk about his career, amirite?)

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Chuck Klosterman to discuss all things football and his new book, aptly titled Football. (Please buy a copy for yourself and your friends; you’ll thank me, and then your friends will thank you.) We hit on an array of topics, including but not limited to the potential demise of the sport, the ways in which television and football are a perfect match, why streaming services are spending billions to acquire the rights to NFL and NCAA games, how gambling and fantasy football have fundamentally changed our relationship to the sport, and trying to think through how we think about football and why it matters.

On this week’s episode, I’m pleased to be joined by W. David Marx, author of the new book Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century. Alongside Marx’s Status and Culture, this book is one of the key texts to understanding how and why the culture has shifted so radically so quickly: the combination of “poptimism” (we discuss what, precisely, this is early on) and cultural omnivorism (the merging of all genres and all forms into a sort of equally viable mass entertainment) and the internet’s flattening of culture have led to a stagnant culture and a revanchist counter-counterculture eager to exact revenge and facing no real opposition in that effort. If you enjoyed our conversation, or simply want to understand how we wound up in the world we wake up to every morning, I strongly recommend picking up Marx’s book. And if anything was unclear from our chat, drop me a line in the comments and hopefully I can help clear things up!

On Monday, Sam Stein DMed me and asked if we could put together a little livestream event celebrating the work of Rob Reiner; he described it as sitting shiva, and I was happy to take the lead on putting this group of mourners together. I was joined by my colleague Bill Kristol, The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield (whose great column on Reiner you can read here), and Semafor’s Dave Weigel (whose book on prog rock is a must-read for fans of the genre).

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Vulture’s Nicholas Quah to discuss his and Savannah Salazar’s piece on what Netflix might do with Warner Bros.'s tie-ins with Universal Studios and Six Flags, and then expanded the conversation to consider the vast universe of WB’s entanglements. The studio also owns an enormous video game company, the second-biggest comic book company in DC Comics, and all sorts of other stuff. What is Netflix going to do with all these disparate pieces? Who knows! But we do some rank speculation.