The Business

Kim Masters talks to Dale Cohen, special counsel to PBS's Frontline, and director of UCLA Law School's Documentary Film Legal Clinic, about the threat of litigation filmmakers face from the wealthy and powerful people they choose to cover, such as Donald Trump. Cohen laments that so few investigative films are being produced right now, a situation that wasn’t helped when Disney and CBS paid up to settle dubious lawsuits from Trump. Cohen is hoping that Disney’s recent willingness to do battle with the FCC signals a growing realization that appeasement doesn’t work.



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss the latest developments in the legal battle over the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued to stop the merger this week, but has also potentially signalled some conditions that would satisfy his objections.

Kim Masters talks to LA Times Awards Columnist Glenn Whipp about the Emmy nominations announced this week. Whipp thinks this was not a stellar year in television, meaning that top nominees, The Pitt and Hacks, are likely to feast at September’s Emmys. But Whipp is pleased that stand-out new shows, Widow’s Bay and Pluribus, got some nods. And he says give Harrison Ford an Emmy already!

Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss the UK possibly intervening in the Paramount-WBD merger, and CAA’s criticism of Meta’s opt-out policy for AI images.

This week, an encore presentation of Kim Masters’ interview with Alexandria Stapleton, the DGA Award nominated director of Sean Combs: The Reckoning. The Netflix docuseries examines the rise and fall of the hip hop mogul. Stapleton discusses partnering with executive producer 50 Cent, her approach to telling the story without turning it into a hit piece, and the care required when working with the alleged victims of Combs. She also explains why Netflix proved to be the ideal partner for this project, and how its legal team vetted controversial pre-arrest footage that Combs had commissioned himself.



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss Comcast’s surprise decision to break up the company. The cable/internet giant, which also owns NBCUniversal, could find an attractive suitor for its parts in Netflix.

Kim Masters talks to John Carney, who after his 2006 indie breakout film Once, has made a career of making movies about musicians making music. Generally, the ones who never got famous. His new film, Power Ballad, stars Paul Rudd as a wedding singer alongside Nick Jonas, who plays a flawed former pop star. Carney discusses his struggles to raise money for his films, and reveals what he says to - or maybe shouts at - buskers in Dublin who have their amps cranked up to 11.



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss why Amazon dropped out of distributing Artificial, a movie critical of Open AI. Although initial reactions to a cut of it have been lukewarm, there may be other reasons why Amazon pulled out.

Kim Masters talks to screenwriter David Koepp about Disclosure Day, his latest collaboration with director Steven Spielberg. After Spielberg sent Koepp a 40 page treatment for the movie, which Koepp gave notes on, Spielberg emailed him back that “it’s your problem now.” Koepp also reveals the downside of his early success, which included writing the Jurassic Park screenplay when he was just 29. He also explains why he’s not that scared AI will replace him, and offers his very dark pitch for one final Tom Cruise-led Mission Impossible movie (Koepp wrote the original 1996 release).



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss Fox Corp’s acquisition of the streaming company Roku. Roku is used by over a 100 million people, giving Fox access to countless homes, and a lot of consumer data.