The Business

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.

This week, Kim Masters talks to Alvaro Bedoya, a former FTC Commissioner, about why he objects to the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger. Bedoya says it will mean fewer jobs, higher subscription fees for consumers, and more censorship when the Ellison family - who own Paramount Skydance - control both CBS News and CNN. Bedoya also addresses a surprising accusation from Paramount’s Chief Counsel against some who oppose the merger.

[Editor’s note: this episode first aired before the Department of Justice announced on Friday afternoon that they would not challenge the Paramount-Warner merger.]

Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss the box office prospects for Steven Spielberg’s new movie Disclosure Day. Can the director, who popularized the summer blockbuster, still bring people out to the theaters?

This week, Eric Deggans talks to Eric Kripke, creator of the Amazon Prime series The Boys, about criticism of the show’s final season. Elon Musk went online to trash the finale of the politically provocative superhero satire, and some of the show’s less wealthy fans also didn’t care for it either. Kripke also talks about how The Boys managed to be pretty prescient about the current state of the country, and whether the franchise–with its multiple spinoffs–is actually becoming like the superhero genre it mocks.

Plus, Kim Masters and Matt Belloni discuss the firing of CBS’ 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. The duo also discuss the success of the movie Backrooms, and how it made its leap from YouTube to the big screen.