The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

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.

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Scott Mendelson of The Outside Scoop, whom I’ve tasked with answering a very simple question: Is there a good business case to be made for rebooting the Rush Hour franchise or is it merely a (very odd) sop to Donald Trump and his wife’s chronicler, Brett Ratner? (:47). Then we discussed Zootopia’s crazy popularity in China. (14:16) We taped this episode before news broke that Netflix had completed its purchase of the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros., but we were prescient enough to discuss what might happen if Netflix picked up a controlling stake in WB. Spoiler: Nothing good for competition in Hollywood! (33:15)

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by David Coggeshall (previously on to discuss Orphan: First Kill and the first Family Plan) to discuss his sequel to the surprise 2023 hit for AppleTV+. We talked shooting in London and Paris, the inspirations this holiday-season film, and what might come next for this series (and his career!). If you enjoyed this episode—or need a “drunk uncle movie” to watch with the family, as David described his film—make sure you check out The Family Plan 2, streaming on AppleTV now. And please share this with a friend!

For a goofy franchise that started with gangsters stealing DVD players and wound up with a Pontiac Fiero going into space, The Fast and the Furious movies are a pretty fantastic lens through which to view the last quarter-century of Hollywood economics. From the DVD boom and bust to the internationalization and diversification of ticket-buyers to questions of propriety surrounding the digital resurrection of deceased actors to the desire for all-encompassing franchise-based “cinematic universes,” the series has ridden every economic wave buffeting the movie business since the original’s release in 2001.  Author Barry Hertz does a wonderful job of weaving that story amidst the tangle of egos and artistic energy that makes up the Fast series in his new book, Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters that Supercharged the World. Full disclosure: I’m not a particularly big fan of the series, so I was a little skeptical when I agreed to check out Barry’s book. But even if you don’t really care about the Fast and Furious movies, there’s more than enough behind-the-scenes drama and economic intrigue to keep you riveted. And it’s a must-buy stocking stuffer for anyone in your life who lives their life a quarter mile at a time.