"Pam Abdy & Mike De Luca"

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Guys, breathe.

Big in.

Big out, okay?

Big in one more.

Big in.

Through the nose.

Yeah, and out.

You just really get into your sit spot.

Okay, are you feeling a little bit relaxed, both of you guys?

A little bit?

Let me just tell you this.

I took some of the Smartless money, I put it in Bitcoin.

Wait, what?

Wait.

It's going to be fine.

Welcome to all new Smartless.

Smart.

I'm at the office today, so I'm not.

Wait, whoa.

But I've got a new.

What, office?

You don't have a fucking office.

I have an office I've had for a couple of years over here.

You don't need to talk all calm like it's no big deal.

Let's talk about it.

You're really impressed with offices.

yeah I am

remember the one we had you never showed up in yeah you know why because my dad spent 50 years working in an office and I'm an artist man

playing part of I'm not playing businessman

let me go in and are you storytelling are you working out how to storytell I'm an artist though okay I'm an artist wait truly truly honestly how long have you had this I've never heard about it a couple years you want me to turn the camera around so you can see wait is this where the beast lives yeah this is where the beast lives hang on who's what's the beast well wait listener just wait we'll

got a oh farm no he doesn't need to bring in it's not show and tell

oh oh oh he's got the leather who's got like the bachelor leather look at how unused that meeting space is what are you talking about jv you forget i grew up in a serious world you grew up so now you're playing make-believe office manager you've got a company

yeah but there's people in my office you've got an empty meeting space space.

Dude, it doesn't matter.

It's like those people who used to go,

we're going to have all these platforms for content, and we're going to create content.

Like, what's the content?

Anybody could have a fucking office.

Sean could have an office for Christ's sake.

I think he made us.

He's talking to us from

it's just off the kitchen, though.

Oh,

by the way, this is true.

Ricky's bed is there below his feet.

Ricky's right there on the floor.

Hey, so uh how is everybody's night everybody

uh so listeners we just uh or listener sorry i was a little ambitious there i know god what are you doing we uh we had we had dinner again our sunday dinner we haven't had how long did it

been months months yeah like two or three months yeah that uh that was fun it was good to see everybody it was really good it was really good it was really good to see danny d's yeah the great dan d's he's the bad the great him

And Don.

That he and Don

are part of our regular crew now.

That's really, it's nice.

It's nice.

Did everybody sleep okay today?

Yeah, we're a little tie-tie, yeah?

I guess so.

I got my PJs on still.

Will, do you wear your pajamas to the office?

I don't.

I could.

It's so fat.

It's a five-minute drive now from my new place.

It's great.

I bet they were very happy to see you.

You have not been in there for a while.

You're fresh back from your film.

I haven't been here in a minute.

They were happy to see me.

And

yeah, it was good.

I, you know, I was up super early.

I'm still a little jet lagged and still coming down.

My closet was all messed up from late nights and stuff.

So

I don't know, just one of those.

I woke up the other morning at like 4.45 and I got a coffee and then I was sitting watching outside and I saw this huge crazy light, you know, being followed by sort of mist.

It was kind of cutting through the mist, but the light was coming from behind.

I looked it up and it turns out it was a rocket being launched from just up the coast here in California.

UFO.

UFO.

It was pretty spectacular to see at like 5.30 a.m.

Yeah.

And so I've been feeling just a little spacey, just kind of coming back to the middle.

Well, you're still on Eastern time.

So you're still getting up.

And I'll bet you were getting up at 5 in the morning over there, which was 2 in the morning here.

We were doing 5 in the morning, like Monday, Tuesdays, and then immediately switching to nights.

And we did that for about three weeks in a row.

The little thing that I did, Jay, I was there like, you know, we had night shoots and it was two in the morning.

The listener, Sean, was in it as well.

Yeah,

but like two in the morning, I'm like, okay, bye, everybody.

I got to go home and I look back and I'm like, there's Willie still going till like five, six in the morning.

It was unbelievable.

And then I've got young Denny too.

So Denny's been, he's a little bit on New York Times too.

So he's like up early.

And, you know.

Anyway, it's all good.

These are great problems to have.

It's nice being in California.

Nice to see everybody.

I'm sorry about last night too.

I was going to grab a bite of steak and I forgot I had a dinner because our friends dogged me.

Okay, so JB, I'm going to walk you through this because it a little bit felt like a lie.

No, not at all.

Not at all.

Okay, well, hang on.

And I don't want to meet, I guess it looks like we have a double guest coming up, but which we, because we've got two squares.

But sorry, guests.

Sorry, guests, plural.

Jesus.

Yeah.

And then I want to, I want to, and then I want to ask you if you've locked down your car, and we don't need to say what kind it is.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes, I do.

You did?

That's a lot of stuff.

Oh, listener.

Bobby Big Deals at the fucking office got himself a real nice car this weekend.

Bobby Big Deals.

Jesus Christ.

I know.

I know.

I don't want to, let's not go too deep.

So

we want to go to deep.

But I said to Sean yesterday, I talked to him in the morning, we were talking about something, and I go, oh, you know what?

I think that the big boys have stuff after school and they have

music and athletic stuff.

So I said, well, do you want to go get a dinner, grab an early dinner?

He goes, yes.

And then they text me and he goes, oh, I forgot our friends, we made plans with our friends.

I'm like,

yeah, that is.

It felt a little excusey, you know?

No, I swear to God.

Because the initial thing was like, yes, of course I want to go to jar and have a steak with you.

But didn't you pile on the excuse just now and say that an animal had died as well?

It didn't pile on, but he had a friend, friends of theirs, Kevin and Carrie, you know, Kevin Carey.

And he said that they'd lost their dog.

I said, well, maybe we can help them find it.

Well,

which is a rip-off of an old Norm McDonald joke, by the way.

So, wait, so they lost their dog and they needed you and Scotty to sit around them and support.

You know, the doggy's like a family member.

JB,

have you tried this bar?

Yeah, I have.

It's not bad.

It's pretty good, right?

Yeah.

You can mention it, maybe get some free ones.

You know, I'm good for six bars.

I'll wait till you take a bite.

The bear bell, the bear bell bars, they're really good.

All right, listener, today

we don't have some fishy, flashy, fancy celeb type.

Uh-oh.

Oh.

Not today.

Today, we have got not one, but two people who make the flashy fancy types.

They are two of the most important people in the industry today, period.

What is it?

Full stock.

Entertainment industry.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Individually.

They're the only industry in the world.

All right.

But individually, individually, they've been behind such movies as Birdman, The Big Short, The Revenant, The Social Network,

Moneyball, Captain Phillips, Austin Powers, Boogie Night 7.

Together,

they have combined to bring us such films as Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Wonka, Dune, Part 2, and Barbie.

Let's find out how these two are able to bring us so much incredible entertainment.

Please meet the co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Brothers motion picture group, Pam Abdi and Michael DeLuca

on Smartless.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Great.

We're going to have a couple of smart folks come on and talk to us for fucking once.

This is cool.

I had to hold my laughter in.

Oh, my God.

I want to say Pam's still at home.

Mike, you're at the office.

I am.

I'm in the office.

You were both in the office.

We have two offices.

We have an office we share, and then we have a spillover office.

We need to do solo things.

Pam's in the spillover office.

These are people with two offices.

Warner Brothers.

We only have two offices.

Now, in the shared office, do you have one of those his and her desks where you're looking at each other?

No, we thought about it like an old

Howard Hawks movie, like a Ben Hecht screenplay where the desks in the newsroom are together.

But we went,

I think, a more realistic

cornered.

We did have that first time.

Jason and I had an office for a while, for a couple of years, where we faced each other, and he would always complain, as you could just tell this morning, that I was never there.

Again, my dad was in an

belly up.

Like a lead balloon.

Your shitty ideas sunk it.

Hey,

Mike and Pam.

Welcome to Smartlist.

Wow,

Smartlist.

This is an honor for us.

We're smart fans.

Pam and I have threatened to do this for a long time.

I'm so glad we finally found some time from your very busy schedule to do this next day.

Collectively, individually, and collectively, you two are responsible for some of the greatest pieces of entertainment that people have enjoyed across this country ever.

It's true.

It's really cool.

It's so impressive.

It is really impressive.

Thank you.

It It is.

Now, but what is unique, listener, is that usually the people who are driving

these factories of incredible entertainment, it's usually just one person.

But

this is a pair.

This is a duo.

And this isn't the first time that you guys have done it.

You came from, tell the audience where you started to work on your duo-ness.

Well, I got to meet Pam.

I was at this company, New Line, in the 1990s.

It was my first job, actually.

out of a.

This is a company.

I joined.

I was there as an intern in 85 from NYU.

So I've been at New Line

for a long time.

And Pam worked for this company, Jersey Films, which, of course, produced pulp fiction and so many great films in the 90s.

Daniel DeVito and Michael.

Shamburg and Stacey Scher.

Yep.

Many of my people moved to Jersey.

This is an ongoing dumbass bitch.

Some Italian guy in the back wings that likes to comment.

Sorry, push through it.

So that's where I met.

I met Pam at Pam.

Jersey Films produced a couple of movies for New Line.

That's where I met Pam.

We became best friends.

She's from Jersey.

I'm from Brooklyn.

We're united on all things Italian food.

It's the Holland Tunnel apart.

And movies.

Yep.

And then we had a chance.

We switched jobs many times.

I went from being an exec to being a producer.

She became an exec at Paramount.

I produced for her.

Then when I became an executive again after producing at MGM, I invited Pam to work with me.

And then we've been an executive team ever since.

Oh, it's just like, but so

then, again, for the listener, there's a, there's,

there's, you can either be selling stuff or you can be buying stuff.

And that's like a big, big difference.

You know, one, obviously, you're sort of like doing the dog and pony show and selling your wares.

And the other one, you get to sit back in the chair, fold your arms and say, sell me, let me hear what you've got

to overly reduce it.

So you guys have done both of that at very, very, very high levels.

You're obviously on the premium elite buying side right now.

Is there a side that you like more?

I mean, obviously with the selling part,

you spend more time sort of out there in the trenches and on set sometimes.

And on the buying side, you're in

a more air-conditioned situation.

Snacks are better, more consistent.

What do you prefer?

Well, you know, it's different pleasures.

When you're a producer,

it's more artisanal and you're building the project from the ground up with the director and you're just so much more intimately involved in

just the creative aspects of movie making.

And it's just a different pleasure.

You're kind of part of a family that erupts, you know, as the thing starts to take shape.

And

it's a really wonderful experience.

And you're with these people for...

It's stressy, I bet, yeah, because you're not in control.

You're not the buyer.

You sing for your supper a little bit more, but we find there's advocacy on both sides.

If you're a producer, you're advocating for a financier or a studio to greenlight you.

But even when you have the power of the checkbook, you're still advocating for

your boss or the board that you report to to finance a state of pictures.

And there's advocacy

both versions of the job.

But the agenda is different.

Yeah, Pam.

I mean, you're like, while you're advocating, you need to sort of mind the asset a little bit more on the buying side.

And on the selling side, side you can be a little bit more sort of purist and like no just whatever's better for the film I mean I'm oversimplifying it but you also know as both having having been on the other side that you know you you can't bullshit a bullshitter so if somebody comes to you and is like hey this and then you're like hey man I know how it's I know how the sauce is nobody can tell Pam nobody can tell Pam no no producer is going to pull the wool over Pam's eyes on budget she can literally do both jobs you know

my love I mean Jason knows this because Jason and I have produced a movie together and worked together.

My first love will always be producing because I just love the grind and being on set, as you guys know.

It's just the best.

There's nothing like it.

Well, then, do you miss that?

Always, but I love this too.

You know, they're not, they're not, it's not either.

You guys can go visit the set.

We do.

Exactly.

Anytime you want to.

But I am, you can't, you can't pull the wool over.

Studio.

Yeah.

Well, you've got to really watch it.

Like, if you're not, we try to visit the set.

If you don't visit, sometimes they think, oh, well, don't you care about us?

But then when you do show up, people are worried, like, oh, are we over budget?

Is there a problem?

Really got to navigate that carefully of when and how we show up.

Who's more prone to say, hey, let's go visit that set?

Who likes to get out a little bit more often?

Oh, Pam, for real.

I like to go rogue.

Yeah.

I have a terrible turbulence anxiety.

Like, I have a flying phobia.

So I do it, but, but it's not something that I volunteer for a lot.

Yeah, Will has a lot of ideas.

I do.

I really do.

Yeah, it's gotten increasingly worse.

And you know what?

In the last couple of months, it's been a little bit better, but these guys know I get quite a lot of people.

Will, you didn't have like a bad experience, right?

It's just like as you become older.

You can't when I had kids.

When I had kids.

Same with you, Mike, or did you have a bad experience?

Yeah, yeah.

No, no bad experience.

Shrink told me once it's a control issue, obviously.

A lot of people get it when they get their first dose of real responsibility.

So when I got, when they, when New Line made me head of production in the 90s, I was only, I was 26, 27, and I, I, you know, it was the first big responsibility I ever got.

That's when I got the flying phobia.

And then it just, it's escalated since I've had children and gotten more responsibility.

It just kind of increased exponentially.

Have you thought about working?

I have considered working through it because I know I have a friend of mine who years ago, and he had access to tremendous resources, but he went with that guy who's famous for walking people through that phobia.

And he did, I think he told me he did a month of flights.

And

he'd go to like LaGuardia.

He lives in New York.

And they'd pick a, they'd look at the board and they'd pick a flight and they'd go, they'd fly to Cleveland, then they'd fly to Houston, then they'd fly to Miami.

And he did that for about a month.

And the guy walked him through basically every scenario.

And he got on.

Yeah, well, I'm telling you, when I got stuck in that elevator, like my therapist said, the best thing you could do from now on.

Because then I was in such a massive panic.

She goes, ride as many elevators as you possibly can.

Right.

It's like aversion therapy.

It does help.

I accidentally stumbled into aversion therapy because my ex-wife lives in Fort Worth, Texas with my children, and I travel there every weekend.

So I'm on planes twice a week and it's just kind of normalized it for me.

So that's helped a lot.

And then information helps me.

So I fly with a lot of apps.

Like I have apps going that tell me where the plane is in relation to every other plane.

You can fly with them.

I need to what the weather is like.

It really helps.

Wait a second.

Matt.

Mike, I'll tell you something.

Mike, I do the same thing and I'll tell you what I've done recently.

Oh, you're in the air.

Yeah, I track my own flight and I look at active weather and I look at flight aware and to see what the thing is and I'm like, are these guys going to go around this storm or not?

I'm right there with you, brother.

I literally will go to the flight attendant.

Excuse me, flight attendant, I noticed that this plane at 34,000 feet is smooth because you perhaps ask our pilot to pick it up 2,000 feet because we're bopping around at 32,000 and she's going to be able to do that.

Do you know that they now have this new software that the pilots use that shows them where turbulence is, that they all share it and it's like a crutch pyreps yeah pilot yeah pyreps pilot course he knows everything

will he know everything i fly with him a lot but but here's my suggestion this is what i and this is recent just this spring i i decided to stop doing it i had a moment mike where i went where i went

i'm not flying this plane and the pilots don't want to die Right, yeah, yeah.

That's trust.

Somehow you've achieved trust.

I'm still working on trust.

Here's what I do.

I fly the first flight out as much as I can because I'm so unbelievably exhausted.

I don't care what happens.

Are you able to sleep on planes?

I fall asleep in a second.

Oh, I'm so envious of that.

That explains your diet, too, that you just don't care what happens.

Mike,

what about a nice cool beverage?

to cut to cut the edge?

Or maybe a...

You know, I'm sober, so I'm in a lifetime timeout of anything.

What about a, are sleeping pills on your list of?

No, I can't.

Yeah,

they're on the no-fly list for me.

What about melatonin?

No?

Yeah, no, I try to do it substance-free and just use my apps and

engage with the flight attempts.

Same.

When we're flying together, I'll go check on him, and then he tends to show me every app.

So then I start to have a panic attack, which I don't normally have on a flight, but yes, that's what we do.

Yeah, you know what I feel would help all of us is if we flew in one of those hurricane planes that the airplane.

I think about that often.

They fly literally into the wall of a hurricane

to measure the speed of the winds.

Well, that's just it.

It turns out planes can handle so much more than you think that they can.

So

once you basically scuba dive with a shark, you're no longer scared of sharks because you look them in the eye and they don't care about you.

And by the way, by the way,

I was talking to my therapist the other day, and it turns out that humans can withstand so much more, too.

Oh, really?

Yeah,

you can do it, Willie.

We are resilient.

Humans can too.

We can handle it.

Now, let's talk about real fear.

Let's talk about budgets.

Let's talk about

Zaz.

But also, but like to Jason's point, though, too, like, I want to get into that because I'm fascinated watching from the sidelines about movies and stuff.

And like, why, you know, what is your opinion about, because I'm sure you guys talk about this.

We all talk about this.

Everybody in the business talks about

what's the state of the business?

Because it seems like, first of all, it seems like you tell me the perception is that the star of any movie now is the idea.

Because movie stars, at least there are some that can still, you go, oh, I want to see that person.

I like that person.

I like that person.

But for the most part,

do I have that right?

Yeah, like stars used to open films and now it's a little bit more plot and premise driven to

drive audience.

I think there's an element of truth to that.

However,

you see each new generation kind of to

still want to create their own movie stars.

So you have people like Timothy Chalamé and Austin Butler,

Florence Q.

Basically, anyone on the red carpet for Barbie or Dune is an example of

young audiences creating new movie stars.

Brought audiences to that is the concept before the star, right?

It's exponential.

No, I think Chalamay playing Bob Dylan was a great example of

combining

something iconic with an actor people clearly want to see.

I think there's opportunities to create new movie stars.

Movie stars still matter.

But it is,

with the advent of streaming, where people get so much content constantly,

you do need that sticky idea and that provocative, audacious kind of concept to break through things.

Pre-existing IP like Superman.

And we've been inundated, right?

Who was it who said,

Tom Rothman who said

the tyranny of IP.

And we've been inundated with it, right?

And is there something says the guy who only has one Marvel title?

Way to go.

Way to go.

He just made his shit list.

Oh, no, I love it.

No, I know.

I know.

I'm kidding.

He's agreeing.

And we will be right back.

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And now back to the show.

My question is, I guess, in the face of all of that, is there...

And be as candid as you want to be, you're comfortable with being.

Given, if all things being equal, if you could control the appetite of filmgoers and people who go to the theaters,

what would you do?

What kind of films would you make?

Would you green light, would you develop?

All things being equal?

All things being equal, we really believe in a diversified slate because we feel like it's a, you know, the world's become pretty niche.

So we try to have something for everyone so all your eggs aren't in one basket.

You know, it's pretty, it's almost impossible.

Even for Disney, which owns those four giant labels of, you know, Lucasfilm and Pixar and

Marvel, you can't have a 20, 10-pole slate.

There's just not that much IP available to just have nothing but billion-dollar movies every year, although we'd certainly love it and everybody tries.

But there's room for the originals, too, like what you guys just did.

I think there were centers, right?

Yeah, we think a balanced slate.

We have something for everyone.

And yes, if you're lucky enough to have IP and you can mine those franchises, great.

But then it's also great to give new voices a chance, new filmmakers, directors that are going to be able to do it.

So if you could change one thing,

you'd maybe try to get the audience to be a little bit more thirsty for something weird and original and without.

I think they are.

Yeah,

I think if we could change anything, it would be to get our fellow studios to make more movies.

I think box office is down just because the amount of films has never really ticked back up since the pandemic started to receive.

Well, and also you can just get it on streaming.

Yeah.

I mean, the other thing I think that's important for the audience now is directors.

I think there is a relationship with this next generation where they can tell when a signature filmmaker has their voice on a movie.

They can tell that.

Like a Jordan Peel or Ryan Kugler.

Yeah, Jordan Peel or Ryan Kugler or Greta Gerwig or Chris Nolan.

Paul Thomas Anderson.

They can sense authorship or the lack of it.

They really do.

Jason Bateman.

Jason Bateman.

Absolutely.

Jason Bateman.

We're waiting for a much bigger filmography, man.

A Jason Bateman picture.

He refers to himself in the third person a lot, you know, that film by.

I think the world needs another Jason Bateman picture.

I love Sherry.

I love Singapore.

I told you, I told Jason to start directing when we were making identity themes.

He's such a good director, and we, and

we always encourage him to make more comedies, too, because he's such a funny mofo.

But, but can I ask you this, though, just while we're on this topic, is there, and again,

at the risk of,

I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings,

but

is there, has the

sort of the onslaught of the IP, and again,

there are lots of great films that have come out in this era, and there are a lot of people whom we all know and love

who have made these and have done really well and blah, blah, blah, the list is very long.

But have we,

in a certain way, have we dulled our

taste buds for other kinds of films?

Have we changed

Is there a chance that we altered

people's tastes of the music.

Because the big ones are so loud and sticky now?

Well, yeah, that we don't, you know, we were all, we're all older.

We're all the same sort of generation.

We were all raised on a diversified slate of films that came out every year, and there were lots of comedies and dramas and action, et cetera, et cetera.

And so we.

They had the verdict in Raging Bull and Kramer v.

Kramer, which now you can't have those sort of adult dramas.

And so now everything's been kind of, it's kind of like, you know, it's what people complain about pop music, if you will, that everything just becomes the very, you homogenized and very much the same.

And have we damaged tastes?

I don't think so.

I think, and again, because your tastes are always refreshed by new audiences coming up.

I think what's happened is the bar has just gotten higher for what we consider theater-worthy criteria, things that will make something not streaming, but theatrical.

But I think when you see a spread of theatrical successes from Long Legs or Everything Everywhere All at Once from the Neons and the A24s.

They're not tentpoles.

They're not making a billion dollars globally, but they are pulling in audiences theatrically.

And then on our side of the street, when you have

something

as diverse as Minecraft, and then the next weekend, Sinners or at Universal, Oppenheimer, and then we had Barbie.

I think that people are up for the theatrical experience and they're up for a variety of movies.

The bar is just higher for what will get them out of the house.

And that's our job to meet that higher bar.

And it's less about how how theatrical is uh not as good it is more about how streaming is more appealing and there's good stuff to watch at home and so convenient yeah they're not mutually exclusive you know there's enough to go around yeah i think i think there are there are consumers that are happy to wait for streaming or watch streaming originals and then there's consumers that want the theatricals

yeah and there are people who don't want to ever leave their house right who don't want to go they won't even go to larchmont even though it's three blocks away right

Oh, I wonder who that could be.

You can get everything on your phone.

Go ahead, Chuck.

Now, but you said, but you said you'd love it if studios made more movies.

What do you think

is the primary reason that they're not making more movies because it's getting increasingly more expensive to

build a sort of

a public profile for it, like a marketing profile?

Like you got to have, we got to buy a bunch of commercials for it and sort of build that social pressure to go see this thing because everyone's seeing the billboards and the commercials.

And oh my God, I guess I got to go see that because I got to talk about it at work.

It's cost so much money to buy those commercials and those billboards that people say, ah, maybe I'll just make it for streaming where I don't need to do all that stuff.

It's just production costs.

Is that one of the big things that?

No, I think it's about, yes, it's expensive to make some films, but you can make films at different, you know, different budget levels

depending on what it is.

But isn't the price to sell them the sniffing?

But I think you have to meet, I think marketing has changed.

And I think you have to meet

the audience where they're receiving their advertising.

Not necessarily a 30, right?

Not necessarily a 30-second linear TV spot, but like digitally.

Like what we saw, just how we saw the fervor of Minecraft with the chicken jockey and the memes taking on a life of its own, coupled with two weeks later, Sinners and like Mike and my TikTok feed just filling with people, you know, experiencing this film.

Like that was magical, like magical to see that happen and i think that's where they are i think every legacy studio by legacy studio i mean you know the the paramount sony us um the non-streamers

coming out of the pandemic everyone is cautious about okay is box office down because the pandemic irrevocably altered viewing habits or is box office down because we're making less movies you know Pam and I feel like it's because we're making less movies.

Some people feel human behavior may have been altered and the audience may be never coming back at the level they were in pre-pandemic.

So I think as everybody tries to figure out the answer to that, and it's a very fluid situation,

working your slate back up to 10, 15, 20 movies a year, I just is going to be a slow, cautious process.

Everyone's kind of feeling their way of

what's exactly causing the downturn.

Is it the hangover from the pandemic?

Or is it that we're not making the same amount of movies?

Right.

You know,

almost to that point, you know, it seems like, and and you guys tell me more people than ever out of work in the history of the entertainment business it seems like writers you know that used to work all the time can't find a kit like crew actors directors producer crew everybody why is that in your opinion and what does your crystal ball say about the future of that do you see that changing um like village road show didn't they just go bankrupt or something it just seems like

the entertainment business is collapsing constrict yeah yeah it's it's it's it's getting smaller because there's there's less stuff being made yeah yeah there's

there's been some consolidation in the industry, so that immediately means less buyers on the block.

There was a contraction in production, you know, both on the Siri side and the feature side, you know, as we were navigating the pandemic and then the so-called streaming wars, which were never really a war.

Netflix won that war before it even started because

they had a 20-year head start.

I do think things are picking up and will tick up, maybe not to pre-pandemic levels, but I think that has been a symptom of of both it's all it's it's all cyclical right pan

yeah i was just going to say just the studios making less movies like we were saying but also if you go to tv you know streaming has created the eight to ten episode series as opposed to what we all grew up with you know on network television with 22 episodes and you you constantly felt like you know you had all those linear networks that were creating multiple shows filling right must-see tv and all that stuff and i feel like that has been altered

quite a bit since the streaming and since the pandemic.

I used to do how many, 24 episodes a year of Unwilling Grace?

Sometimes 22, sometimes 26, sometimes 24.

It was amazing.

And then they don't.

Ozark, how many do you guys do?

Just 10.

JB?

13?

10?

10.

10.

And they're remaking it, right?

They're doing it with robots, and they said it's got more light to it.

You see the way

he can set it right in.

He can never hit it.

It breathes more.

Yeah, but oh, shoot, what was I going to say?

By the way, Will, we use Lego Batman in every tribute reel to Warner, every best of Warner Brothers reel that we screen in CinemaCon, we always include Lego Batman.

Yeah, it's our favorite.

Don't do that to him, Mike.

He's kind of dying out on that.

Thank you.

We love it.

So, so, guys,

you have

been

uniquely great individually and also together

in really getting behind some of the more

specific creative voices behind these movies, people like Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher, et cetera, et cetera.

When you are collaborating with someone like that, who they like to keep the edges on, and that's what the audience likes too, but sometimes, oftentimes, that's at odds with

the goal to get as many people into the tent as possible, buying a ticket and making it mass appeal and sound around the edges sometimes and not be as controversial, not be as challenging.

How do you manage that?

On the producing side, on the selling side,

it's probably a lot easier.

But in your current roles, as

trying to bring in profits as well, are those conversations difficult?

Do you err on one side or the other?

Walk us through that a little bit.

I find it because of our background.

I mean, listen, I'm 30 years in.

Mike's longer than that.

We're just a little.

It's very polite of you, Pam.

Thank you for saying

the number of years.

No, no, no.

I'm just saying I'm 30 years in whatever.

But I think because both he and I have been in the trenches

on a producerial side, there's a certain level of understanding and trust that we bring to this job.

So the filmmakers that we work with, some of them we've had long relationships.

Like we're working with Alejandro and Yorichu right now.

I'm on my fourth film with him.

I think...

I think it's, it's, there's, there's a trust, there's a collaboration, there's a respect.

I mean, you have to earn the filmmakers' respect, you know?

So, I think what we bring to the table is because we have this knowledge of being on the ground and going through the ups and downs and the difficulties of what it is to be on set every day and try to make something great.

Because we all set out to make something great and sometimes shit happens and it doesn't come out exactly how you envisioned it.

You have to be, you have to be in lockstep together as creative partners.

So, I think Mike and I try to approach it that way, where

we look at filmmakers as our partners.

We all have the same end goal to make something great and to get the biggest audience in the theater to see it.

So I don't find it difficult.

I actually find it invigorating.

Well, that's really funny, Pam.

That's really funny because you often hear people, you do in comments and stuff saying, these volume people in Hollywood and they just want to make shit movies.

Like nobody's trying, nobody sets out to make a shitty movie, by the way.

Everybody's intentions are good.

Right, right.

And it's, and there's no blanket statement for Hollywood.

Like, it's so, it's so, it's so different.

You know, our friend Donna Langley at Universal is different than Tom Rothman at Sony.

We do our thing at Warner's.

Like, it's not.

Donna, another one from New Line that started exactly.

Not as an intern, right?

No, we actually hired Donna.

She was an assistant to a manager at the time.

And

she, you know, and

she and another executive, Mary Parent, who went on to do great things and is

running legendary for Josh Grode.

Newline, it was a great kind of, you know, training ground for a lot of people in the 90s.

And you met Donna and you knew she was going to run an empire someday.

I mean, she was just born to be aware of that.

And has been in that position of leadership longer than anyone.

Anyone?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like ever.

Through multiple regimes.

Running Universal.

It's changed.

By the way,

the people who have come in and out of New Line, it's a pretty interesting slate of people now that I think about it.

All the people.

Brenner's still there with you.

Yeah, he is.

Then you've got Toby emerich wasn't obviously toby yeah and then you have our our our buddy uh ken alterman who uh

who he's there who's we're still jason i still play golf with we love cold ken's grave yeah

and i'm just thinking like wow that that was it what an interesting place that was for a lot of people who kind of you know um

learned their their their stuff there yeah we were given we were given the freedom to really run our projects and it and even though you're an executive you almost behave like a producer at in at New Line at that time.

So we all learned a lot.

And it really does seem like you guys are creating that or continuing that environment of trust and deference to a very specific filmmaker agenda, like something like Sinners, for example.

Like, I have not seen it yet, but from what I've seen from the materials and heard from people, it's a very specific and exciting creation.

Responses.

Incredible.

Oh, yeah.

It's been crazy for it.

We're so happy,

selling popcorn and getting incredible reviews.

So, like, that's that's the mother load right there, right?

So,

talk about how frightening that can be to,

well, you, as you say, Pam, you're a partner with the filmmaker, you're coming from a place of shared experience, and you kind of know what they're going through, and blah, blah, blah.

But eventually, one has to just kind of close your eyes and jump in.

and just say, all right, Ryan, I get what you're going for here.

We're really not going to be able to to gauge until we're done.

And so, we have to trust you.

We have to wait till after principal photography, get through post, have all that music come in and the color timing and all that stuff to create this very finely cooked meal that it looks like nothing coming out of the grocery store.

You look at all the ingredients, and like you don't know what you've got till it's cooked, and so you have to give him all of that runway.

Is that really, really frightening, or is it exciting or both?

And we'll be right back.

Sorry, we got to reload.

No, it is a good question.

It is a good question.

It is long, but it is a long question.

I find it exciting.

I have to be honest.

I think when you have that chemistry with a filmmaker, with a director, and when you're pushing and pulling on things, it's not like we're just sitting here saying, hey, go off and run in the field and make this movie.

You know, we're all talking all the time through the script process, through

Like running casado, though, it's just

running the field.

Go up and play it and play and play.

People are going to start to use this, by the way.

Thanks, Will.

Thanks for Mike teasing me.

Thanks, Will.

Netflix meeting tomorrow, they're going to be like, Look, we're going to be running in the field over here.

Ted doesn't want us running in the field.

Exactly.

We're going to

just want to run in the field.

Frolicking, you know, having a good time.

It's going to be the variety headline tomorrow.

Like, Pam Abbey of Warner Brothers advocates field running as a basic.

By the way,

by the way, the last six weeks I've been having, I wouldn't be surprised.

Anyway,

Warner Brothers.

Warner ankles field running.

But, you know, Ryan, when you're dealing with, like, Ryan comes to the table trailing, you know, like $2 billion in box office.

Like, he,

yes, you could call it IP, but he created the Creed franchise out of his head.

You know, and he, he, Black Panther, I'm a comic book fan.

I'm a huge comic book collector still and geek fan.

And I knew the Black Panther character, but it's not like that was one of the top 10 characters.

Ryan, you know, created that franchise also, again, out of his mind,

obviously under the brilliant Kevin Feige, too.

But so

when you're doing a film with Ryan Koogler, who has that pedigree, It is a little bit of a hedge against the unknown.

I mean, greenlining movies at a studio is like being at a casino.

You have a certain amount of money and you're placing bets and you're hoping more of them work than don't work.

But the only hedge against the unknown is sometimes you can point to someone's track record.

You know, like when we hired David Fincher to do Seven,

you know, I happened to thought, I thought Alien 3 was a beautiful movie.

It didn't work as big as they wanted to commercially, but there was tremendous artistry.

And of course, he had all his music videos and his commercials

before that point made hiring him for 7 very, very easy.

We were lucky to have him.

So when you can look at someone's pedigree, whether they're established like Ryan or a new voice coming up, like we just made a movie with this guy, Zach Kreger, who did the movie Barbarian, and I think he's an amazing

movie.

Wasn't that an amazing movie?

It's great.

Totally unique, surprising in the genre, innovated within the genre.

You know, we were lucky to get his next movie.

When you can look at someone's previous work,

also another great horror movie that came out, Talk to Me, you know, by these two directors who started on a YouTube channel, Rocka Rocka, in Australia.

Oh, wow.

When you can look at people's previous work, it gives you a little bit of a hedge against the unknown, and that helps us make that call sometimes.

There used to be that old adage or that thing that people would say that the studios are in the business of not making movies, right?

Do you remember now?

Is that true?

Yeah, I remember that.

I remember when they were.

There was a period, right?

Yeah, studios were playing games.

Well, there was a period when I was a non-writing producer, which is literally like Willie Lohman with scripts under your arm, like driving all over town, you know,

pitching your wares.

That was just from somebody who just got you, you get somebody passed on.

They're like, yeah, movies are dare.

Studios are making a movie.

Studios would almost be like, we dare you to make a movie.

We dare you to get us to make a movie.

And

that I find not a helpful attitude.

Yeah, that's not helpful.

I also don't think you can declare, like that, I think that was like in the early 2000s, Will, when people, when like after the boom of the 90s and like we're starting to shift and internet and all that stuff was happening and tech and everything.

I just don't think you can declare any one thing, right?

You can't say, this is the way it is, so we shouldn't make these kinds of movies

until one works.

Although when we lost DVDs, when DVDs went away, we did lose a safety net and

streaming doesn't quite make up that gap.

So it is, we are working without a net, you know, but I also think, like, Pam said, that can be really exciting because it just, I think for the consumer, it means that the bar for quality really, really has to be high to get you to get out of your house and convert to being a ticket buyer.

And but people couldn't, they couldn't have predicted back then in the early 2000s what it was going to become.

And I think that that sort of fear, so

you know, as you said, you lost DVDs.

However, everybody was so nervous at the advent of the internet and social media.

You remember the fear, you know, I remember the first when MySpace took off and people were trying to green light movies with people who had a presence on MySpace and everybody's clamoring to be

people

were not able to predict what it would be in the same way that we can't now with things like AI, et cetera.

And of course, we're going to look back in 10 years and say, my God, we were so foolish to spend so much time worried about X, Y, and Z.

I agree.

Because

obviously something else will happen.

People will want to watch stuff.

People will want to enjoy stuff in some way.

And

they want the communal experience, you know, for certain kinds of films.

They want to go and sit.

with their neighbors and go watch the movie and then go to a cafe afterwards or a bar and have a drink and talk talk about it.

Yeah, and I get that being in a big dark room with a bunch of strangers, it's really fun to

get a shared experience.

My 20s.

My 20s and Chicago.

Berlin for me.

That's Berlin.

Twice a year.

I allow myself twice a year.

We'll be right back.

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But to like everybody be in the same room all at the same time, get scared, I get why horror movies make so much money.

Now, to think about, you know, crying next to a stranger, I get how maybe dramas, I'd rather maybe see that at home on a streamer.

I get that.

What I don't get is that there isn't the desire for a shared experience with laughter in a group of people.

Like, so tell us what you guys think,

what is your theory of why comedy is such a hard sell in theaters in movie theaters nowadays?

I'm going to jump in real quick with a super fast answer than you guys do.

It's because comedy now you can get on your phone in little tiny bites and you're fulfilled.

And I think that has a

Sean.

You're welcome.

I got to run.

I got to run.

TikTok.

TikTok is.

We're so sorry.

I'll talk to you guys later.

Sean Hayes, brought to you by Netflix.

Yes, exactly.

And TikTok.

By the way, think about it.

People used to go to theaters to watch porns together.

Think about that.

What do you mean by sharing?

That's over now.

Right, Sean?

That's over now.

Right, Sean?

But

I think, you know, a lot of comedy has gone to live on streaming and

TikTok in short form.

However, I do think that theatrical audience is there.

I thought Jen Lawrence's movie, No Hard Feelings, was a good shot at it.

And I do think.

That's one for Tom.

Tom got right?

Is that Tom Rothman?

Yes.

Tom Rothman, you're back.

I'm going to give Tom Rothman too.

Anyone but you came out and worked theatrical audience.

Thank you, Mike, for showing Jason up.

Jason, Tommy's so mad at you.

Tom Moody.

Tommy's mad at you now.

Also, comedy is different now.

Comedy is different than when we grew up.

It's told in a different way.

But I think if you had, you know, if you, if you had,

we want to bring R-rated comedy back, we want to bring romantic comedy back.

But

I do think it's a case if you build it, they will come.

We just, so much of the talent, the new talent, has gone directly right into, you know, streaming and

TikTok and YouTube that we're just trying to

steer them back to, look, let's take a shot with an original script.

Let's take a shot with a script.

Well,

we had Blum on here a while ago.

Jason Blum, yeah.

Jason Blum, because he, yeah, and Tracy knows because she heard it.

And we had Blum on here because, because he basically forced us to have him on.

And

we love it.

We love him.

We love it.

We love him.

It's a joke.

He was amazing.

Yeah, we love him.

I couldn't love him more.

But we did talk to him about the, because he was, you know, he's obviously the master of horror and

horror.

And

he,

he, we, I said, why can't we make a comedy?

He said, you just can't make any money.

And he was quite blunt about it.

We're going to prove him wrong.

I'm just suspicious of blanket statements like that because everybody says,

so my career is 40 years now since 1985.

You look correct.

Every time someone says, thank you so much, I moisturize.

I think

every time someone says this will never work again, and then something comes out and proves it wrong.

I remember the R-rated comedy was dead, and then American Pie came out, and suddenly everybody had to have an R-rated comedy.

Hollywood can be such a pack animal sometimes.

And I just am very suspicious of blanket statements.

And reactionary, too, right?

Yes, very.

Yeah.

One of the greatest things I ever heard is everybody wants to be the second person to say yes.

Right.

That's a great quote.

Yeah.

Yeah, but it's more fun being first through the door.

That's true.

But of course.

Look, this could be famous last words, but for better or worse, Pam and I feel like you can't do this job if you're afraid of getting fired.

You've got to be fearless in it.

Because if you breed risk out of the system, then innovation dies and the customer moves on.

And it also breeds a culture of people not wanting to pitch exciting new ideas.

And just because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean it's not going to work.

And I just think you could do both.

You can walk in shoot them at the same time.

You can mine your IP, your franchises, but you can also try to find that next generation of filmmakers that'll give you new franchises.

Speaking of IP, you know, you mentioned earlier you're a big comic book collector, Mike.

And so, you know, one of the things you guys get to oversee is DC and

James Gunn and

Peter Saffron in there.

And tell us what you're excited about coming out of there.

Well, we actually have to stipulate DC reports directly to David Zaslov.

We don't oversee it, but we were big supporters of Peter and James taking the job.

Work in concert with.

Yeah, we agree that that label.

We thought our advice when we were asked is

it doesn't need another career executive.

It needs a storyteller in charge.

We were really impressed with Pixar.

They brought Pete Doctor, who's a filmmaker, in from the field, to be chief content officer and preside over their slate of movies.

And James,

I used to chase James as a producer when he did Slyther and started with his low-budget movies.

And he's really unique, and I think DC is in great hands with the two of them.

We've seen an early cut of Superman, and

I don't want to bury the lead.

There's a lot of marketing about to roll out on the way to its release, but he really understood the assignment.

His heart's in the right place.

His aim is true.

And we're really excited about their new version of DC.

That's great.

Yeah, James is great.

It's awesome for the whole studio, though, too, because it allows for you to sort of cross-promote.

And like, what is great?

Rising tides.

Will, what's the saying?

Well, all boats.

All boats rise.

What do you guys think about it?

I'd be going to love the real world at some point.

I just knew I was going to get it slightly wrong.

Honestly, it's really enjoyable.

It's funny to see you guys have each other's backs.

I know, I love it.

Yeah.

It's so funny.

What do you guys think about, like, remember Quibi when Quibi came out?

I wish I may have, may have remembered.

You promised to never bring up Quibi.

Come on, Sean.

What are you doing?

Wait.

Now

you hurt Rothman.

Now you're hurting Jeffrey.

I didn't say anything about it.

I just said you remember it.

I do remember it.

Okay.

And I just read an, I didn't read the whole thing.

I read a blurb about that.

That's coming back now, like short, short little things, like short episodes that are two minutes long, and they're really picking up.

And kids on social media are loving it.

They want a whole season of like two-minute episodes and 10 two-minute episodes or something that tell a story.

What do you think about that?

Is that true?

And is that really picking up steam?

Yeah, I personally think,

you know, YouTube and TikTok and some of the platforms are really about user-generated content.

And

I think that's great.

And I think some of the user-generated content kind of will evolve into scripted content occasionally.

But

in a way, when Quibi debuted, I'm not an MBA.

I'm not half as smart as a lot of the people involved who ran that company.

And

I would never say that I know better.

I did think, though, YouTube kind of has that base covered even then in terms of, and

I thought

what people really love about those platforms and short form content is that it's user-generated.

There's no distributor involved.

It's the creator directly to their audience.

That's right.

And it's for those platforms.

And I think that's kind of wonderful.

Yeah,

I agree.

Yeah, I mean, it was, I actually do think that it was a sort of a valiant effort to try to do that and to get into that space.

But I think that you're right.

And I think that it seems to me one of the one of the mistakes that is consistently made is that people try to jump out of their lane.

And there's nothing wrong with taking chances, but they

say, well, now we're going to do the thing.

We're going to try to create this and then make it into a movie.

Well, no, it is that.

It shouldn't be that.

It's like when they make the doc, you know, that documentary that everybody loved during the pandemic.

And then they go, let's make it into a movie.

Well, they've already got the documentary.

We know the fucking story.

Why are we doing that again?

I think the same thing.

Well, then why have you never said that then?

Why did I have to say it?

And then you can just agree as something.

You don't get to.

You're the second guy, the second guy in.

No, this is the line.

You can agree with me and say, yeah, you're really smart, but you don't get to have any ownership of it.

Wait a minute.

I agree, but there are examples where that has happened, but it worked where the documentary, I mean, where the film of the documentary is actually engaging and thoughtful and successful.

I mean, sometimes when we did

Captain Phillips

with Scott Rudin and Dana Brunetti,

the impetus was we were watching the news.

You get a version of the story from the news, but

we were thinking, gee, the news can't tell you what's being said inside that lifeboat or

what the hijackers are saying to Captain Phillips.

And when you can dramatize,

because I did Moneyball, Captain Phillips, and Social Network all based on true stories.

And the neat thing about dramatizing true stories, whether you're adapting a documentary or working off a nonfiction book, is you can bring audiences dramatic structure, which are peaks and valleys and moments that you can.

I'm the captain now.

And that was an improv line, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm the captain now and by the way I remember reading Moneyball that was 2003 the great Michael Lewis when that book came out the great Michael Lewis absolutely

I've read all his books these guys have never read a book in their lives and I read that my ears work they read book reviews though I'm sure but but I remember thinking at the time when I heard that they were making Moneyball into a film I thought if you've read the book you think well how the fuck are they gonna do that right or social network like I want to see a fucking movie about it was incredible I loved Moneyball the film we had the, I mean, Aaron Sorkin, who's one of the, if not the best working screenwriter, certainly one of the greats on social network.

And he co-wrote Moneyball with Steve Zellian, who wrote Chandler's List.

I mean, these are incredible screenwriters, and they were able to find the human story.

Obviously,

it's amazing.

It's brilliant.

If you've read the book, you realize how brilliant those screenplays are.

But talk a little bit,

if you don't think it's going to be a sleeping pill, like my questions are.

Is there an interesting story

that Tracy might be interested to hear about how when you do a true story, how do you put the words into the mouth of real people without getting sued?

Like, how do you, how does Aaron Sorkin go off and say, all right, now, you know, Mark Zuckerberg says this.

Because it's a dramatization.

It's not.

I know, but you're using real people.

So there's legal safe harbor you can.

Basically, the way, not to get too, too boring about it, but basically if you're not derogatory or defamatory, you know, you have dramatic license, certainly, to make up dialogue.

You also, we do a legal vetting of every screenplay based on a true story, and it goes through this vetting process of,

are you on the right side of the derogatory and defamatory lines?

This is the risk we're running here.

And can you back up things that you're alleging through documentation?

On social network, we had the transcripts of the lawsuit that Ed Saverin brought against Zuckerberg.

And if you remember the movie, that's kind of home base for Aaron.

Those depositions and that lawsuit are kind of what he cuts back to as the story's being told.

So he was on safe ground there.

On Moneyball and Captain Phillips, we actually negotiated the life rights of each of the people.

So we had sewn them up before the movies were shot.

But then

does that give them the right to then look at the script and say, no, I didn't say that or I would never say that.

Take it out?

Or was it necessarily written?

They signed it away before.

Now, of course, you don't want to, you try to be responsible because you don't want people saying when the movie comes out, you know, going on a PR jihad that, oh,

this is ruined my reputation.

Yeah.

Moneyball was actually great because we made our deal with Major League Baseball and they were the gatekeepers.

And all we had to do was make sure Major League Baseball approved the script and approved the kind of movie.

It is helpful when you have the life rights of people and you bring them into the tent.

Like films, just I worked on World Trade Center.

We had John and Will's rights on Aaron Brockovich, Aaron's Aaron's rights, on this film Freedom Writers years ago, of this teacher, Aaron Gruhl.

It was based on, you know, we had the kids involved.

We changed the kids' names to protect them and their background, but it was so helpful to have that authenticity and to have that collaboration with the real people.

But sometimes then your hands are tied, though, because it's a true story.

Maybe the ending isn't as movie-ish as you might want it to be, and then you have to deviate from the real story and create some weird ending.

Let's ask somebody who loves having their hands tied.

Sean, Sean, yeah, so I would prefer

a twist

or a twist.

That's with the glow stick in your teeth.

Sorry, pays to have their hands tied.

Go ahead, Jean.

Well,

before we let you guys go, can you talk a little bit about what you guys might be collectively or separately excited about that's coming out of Warner Brothers that the audience can be looking forward to?

You guys want to separately say which is your favorite?

You can't say which is your favorite coming out but that's like asking a parent like

all our babies yeah no but what's next

what's coming up next that you're excited about you're excited about all of them what's what's coming well look this is this this is this you know i'm i'm a little biased in about new line because i started my career there so it's just it's just neat for me to have it back in in my life um final destination six is a fantastic theatrical experience amazing it is so much fun incredible it is so much fun and then and then we have zach's movie weapons which is his follow-up to to Barbarian, which is completely original.

Paul Wayne.

And again, an incredible audience response.

And Paul Thomas Anderson has made a movie with DiCaprio.

It's so of its moment.

I mean, we're going to drop.

That was a teaser.

There's going to be another trailer.

It's so unique and so of the moment.

I think that's going to really blow people away.

We have Brad Pitt's F1 movie that's just

a fun, big Jerry Bruckheimer Joe Kaczynski production.

And they're day one.

Nobody's a bigger fan than

Coolett.

Cool at Will.

It's Brad Pitt at his Brad Pittiest.

It's really amazing to watch him in that movie.

And then, you know, again, as a comic book geek, I'm really up for, I think, I cannot wait for the world to see James' new Superman.

That's right.

I'm excited.

So I'm excited for all of our sleeve.

And we have Mortal Kombat as well, too, in the fall, which is super fun.

And I'm really excited for some of the stuff we have in post.

I mean, we started, we relaunched the animation.

Oh, yeah, Will, we launched Warner Animation to stand on the shoulders of Lego Movie and Lego Batman.

Oh, Will, you're I guess not included in that, though.

Well, we're going to have you back.

Warner Animation Group is back.

It's back.

Yeah.

I feel like I sunk you guys with Teen Titans Go to the Movies, which is actually a great movie if you've ever seen it.

What's it called?

It's a phenomenal movie.

What's it called?

Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

It's really cool.

I love that movie.

No, I love that film.

I hear that's great.

And I convinced, you know, we work with those writers, Aaron and

Michael, are brilliant.

They're brilliant.

I agree.

Yeah.

I think James and Peter are working on a live-action Teen Titans,

and a new Teen Titans go, I think, actually, too.

Will, you maybe could read for that.

You play pretty.

Yeah, we're really excited about the new animation label.

Yeah, our first movie next year is Cat in the Hat with Hayter as the cat.

Bill Hayter.

Really, really excited for that.

And

like Jason Bateman, Bill Hayter is a director that we hope hope to have making movies at the studio.

Bill's great director, too.

Yeah, we have Emerald Finnell's movie, Wuthering Heights, next year.

We have Maggie Gillenwald's movie, The Bride next year.

So we're really jazzed about the eclectic slate we're trying to build here with the existing IP and

filmmaker-driven.

It is really exciting that you guys are there and doing what you're doing and the way that you're doing it.

And I'm so excited for you.

The success.

I don't know when this is going to air, but

Minecraft and Sinners, double barrel, you know,

blockbusters coming out of the gate this month.

And so just

congratulations to you guys.

Oh, Jack's the best.

Look, man, it's the best.

Like, we love, when you love movies, it's the best job in the world.

You know, we've been obsessed with movies since we were toddlers, and to be able to do this is we're

a dream come true.

You can tell with the films, you guys are giving your yeses to.

So please keep doing that.

And

thank you very much for joining us today.

You guys are.

Oh, my God.

Thank you.

What an honor.

Thank you guys so much.

We love

SmartWatch.

So great.

Thank you.

Please now go back to your busy, your busy day and the green lights.

Well, this is the most fun we're going to have today.

So thank you for this.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks, guys.

Bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

See you later.

So, guys, you know, I got to mix it up a little bit.

Yes.

I was just going to say, I've been talking to them for a lot longer.

It's so interesting to talk to that kind of caliber of people on the show i know we never get to talk to those people we're always talking about them or about studios or about people who work for the studio they are running the studio they are in control of what america is seeing yeah

fascinating yeah and they've got such good taste and usually those folks don't get hired to to do such a corporately responsible job and they manage to balance the two i i'm just i'm uh really fascinated with how they're able to do both that yeah

god you're so stupid i'm so dumb i know It would be hard for me.

You know, I can't do two things at once.

I couldn't do anything.

I was going to like, imagine if I was in charge.

You think

we'd have bridges and roads?

There would be nothing.

We'd all be huddled under a tree if I'd been in charge.

Yeah, how do you think you would do at running a studio, Will?

I would say terrible.

I'd run into the ground one week.

What about you, Shawnee?

I would love it.

You would love it.

I think I would really love it too.

I don't think I'd be any good at it, but I would love it just for just for a week to be on the buying side, right?

I think I could do it.

Get to sit there and just say, yes, tell me.

Yeah.

And I think it'd be super fun.

And like they said, they'd both be horrible.

You'd drive everybody who'd work for you crazy.

Everybody'd hate you both.

Knowing you both as well as I do, everybody who'd worked there would fucking hate the hell out of there.

Snacks.

Snacks would be super hard.

And they wouldn't be able to tell you.

Neither are you self-aware in any real way.

We'd have a gummy

closet, a chips closet.

Yeah.

But you know what?

They're new.

Chocolate closet.

Snacks.

Yeah.

No, wait.

I got one.

Oh, here he comes.

You know, but the biggest movie that they did was so great.

What was it, last year?

What was it about?

The Hasbro, the doll.

What was it?

Barbara?

No, no, no.

No, it doesn't be.

It's not by.

So you can't use it.

But we've been lazy.

No, try another title.

If you want to find a word

that does

it.

You can just go and look up and use some help from A-by.

No, no, not there on the word.

No,

that's not a word either.

Barbai would have been great.

Let's see here.

Barbai?

Yeah, Barbie.

Yeah, Barb.

Barbai.

That would have been great.

Okay.

You know what?

I just checked with the judges.

They will allow.

You know what?

Hang on.

I'm going to look at a word, and you two, I'm going to put both of you on standby.

Bye.

Very good.

Bye.

No, that's a bye.

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