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Ankler Agenda

TheAnkler.com

"Ankler Agenda" breaks down the headlines, trends and creativity shaping the evolution of Hollywood, the creator economy and entertainment.

The show is hosted by Elaine Low, author of Ankler Media’s popular “Series Business” Substack newsletter, who is joined weekly by her colleagues Sean McNulty (“The Wakeup”) and Natalie Jarvey (“Like & Subscribe”) -- in addition to Richard Rushfield, the Ankler himself. Episodes will also be available every Thursday on YouTube.

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  • 29 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 32 min
  • English

Episodes 29

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  • September 17 · 37 min

    1,000 Sony Hacks at Once? Hollywood’s AI Doomsday

    A dire warning from Anthropic and OpenAI that increasingly autonomous AI agents could launch cyberattacks – or worse – has an especially chilling implication for Hollywood, where studios and streamers are rapidly weaving AI into their businesses. "Imagine a world in which there are thousands of Sony hacks happening in real time," Reel AI columnist Erik Barmack tells Elaine Low and Sean McNulty. "You could take down the entire industry. Confidentiality, protections, the secure release of IP – all of those things could be harmed." And while the guilds fight generative AI and Hollywood hashes out rules for how the technology can be used, Erik says the industry may be focused on the wrong threat: "What happens when recursive learning gets better and better, and these agents go off and do thinking on their own?" Plus: There may finally be momentum behind a federal film and TV tax incentive. Rep. Laura Friedman tells Elaine that lawmakers from both parties are working with Hollywood's guilds and Jon Voight – Donald Trump's special Hollywood ambassador, whom she describes as a key bridge to the president. Friedman says she hopes the proposal can move by year-end – and describes the unusual bipartisan effort as giving lawmakers "an extra sort of joy" in working together: "We're still one country." 00:00 Intro 00:24 Welcome To Ankler Agenda 01:35 Paramount Vs. State AG Showdown 03:00 Did Bari Weiss Sink 60 Minutes? 04:46 Ai Leaders Sound The Alarm 05:53 The 1,200 Agent 'Collective' 08:21 Hollywood's Big AI Bet 09:41 Bots That Lie And Hack 10:49 The Next Sony Hack, Times 1,000 12:59 Will A Slow Down Actually Happen? 13:41 Guilds Fighting The Last Battle 15:20 Studios Vs. Big Tech Power 17:44 Bring Back The Landline 18:40 Next: Rep. Laura Friedman 19:01 Hollywood's Economic Freefall 20:40 143,000 Jobs On The Line 21:51 From Film Producer To Congress 24:38 Inside The Bill And The Timeline 26:30 Jon Voight's Role As Trump's Bridge 29:05 Bipartisanship In A Polarized Era 31:05 Selling It To Non-Hollywood States 32:28 California's $750 Million Fight 34:30 The Goal: Every Soundstage Full Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • September 10 · 37 min

    Who’ll Save the Film Industry? France Is Trying

    Inside President Macron’s summit, where Ted Sarandos, Dana Walden and Hollywood power players attended — very quietly French President Emmanuel Macron summoned some of the biggest names in global entertainment to the south of France this week to talk about nothing less than the future of cinema — and Hollywood came. Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Dana Walden, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and other industry heavyweights attended the first-ever Lumière Summit, co-hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, as filmmakers, executives and government leaders grappled with AI, the attention economy and the threats facing traditional entertainment. “He did something that I think people who work in the entertainment industry in the U.S. have been really hungry to see happen,” says Ankler EIC Janice Min, who stops by the pod after attending the summit at the invitation of the French government. “Somebody in charge saying things about an industry that’s struggling.” But if France was eager to lead the conversation, Hollywood’s own leaders were considerably more cautious. Sarandos and Walden were seen but not heard, while Sony’s Tom Rothman and a very pointed George Clooney were among the few major American figures willing to speak freely. “No one’s saying Trump, but it’s kind of about Trump,” Janice says of the geopolitical undercurrent running through the gathering. “It was great that Hollywood showed up — and it was revealing that a lot of them didn’t feel like they could take the stage.” Plus: Thanks to Widow’s Bay, Apple TV leads the pack ahead of the primetime Emmy telecast, and Natalie Jarvey crowns a winner in the Ankler Agenda summer box office draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • September 3 · 34 min

    Studios Ghost the Film Festivals; Trump's Hollywood Rescue Plan

    It wasn’t long ago when studios took the biggest jewels of their fall slates — the Gravitys and Jokers and First Mans — to the Venice Film Festival to kick off awards season and put A-list talent on a gondola. But this year, not so much: The Venice lineup is light on flashy studio premieres — don’t look for Tom Cruise and Digger or Timothée Chalamet and Dune: Part Three or Jeremy Strong and The Social Reckoning — and heavy on indie and international titles. Elaine Low and Sean McNulty talk to Ankler awards editor and Prestige Junkie host Katey Rich about how the studio calculus on festival season has shifted — and how best picture winner One Battle After Another was a canary in the coal mine for this year’s underwhelming slate. Then: Katey sticks around to talk with Elaine and Natalie Jarvey about the top Emmy storylines — including the Television Academy’s controversial decision to boot major categories from the primetime show (sorry, David Harbour and Dakota Fanning) and why, with the final season of Hacks and prohibitive drama frontrunner The Pitt leading the way, this could be the last stand for HBO Max before the merger. Also: Elaine and Sean on Donald Trump‘s sudden renewed enthusiasm to bring production back to Hollywood and why there’s actual bipartisan support for federal film and TV tax incentives. Make Hollywood great again? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 24 · 13 min

    BONUS EP: ‘Sleep in the Bed They Made’: Bonta Fires Back as Paramount Talks Collapse

    So much for détente. California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled Monday’s planned meeting with Paramount after accusing the company of leaking — and misrepresenting — confidential settlement discussions to the press. “They need to sleep in the bed that they made,” Bonta tells Elaine Low in this bonus episode of Ankler Agenda, blasting Paramount for “playing games” and waging a PR campaign while, he says, losing where it matters: in court. The rupture comes even as Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and several Hollywood guilds have all voiced varying degrees of support for getting the two sides to the table. Does that growing pressure change Bonta’s thinking? “Not at all,” he says. But Bonta also makes clear that the door isn’t permanently shut. He says he’s ready to resume negotiations if Paramount stops the leaks and comes back in good faith — and, for the first time, gets unusually specific about what a deal might require. Forget the chatter about CNN: Bonta says the news network “is not our focus” and that resolving the states’ antitrust concerns would require some portion of Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery’s combined cable portfolio to be placed under separate ownership. Bonta also explains why behavioral remedies are a nonstarter, says he hopes Republican attorneys general may still join the case, and dismisses as “meritless” and “silly” a request seeking his correspondence with Mark Ruffalo following backlash over the actor’s criticism of the Paramount deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • July 28 · 13 min

    BONUS EP: California AG Rob Bonta on the Coming Paramount Trial: 'We're Not Talking Settlement'

    What could Paramount Skydance do to make a dozen attorneys general drop their lawsuit against the Warner Bros. Discovery merger? Sell off CNN? Paramount Pictures? According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta: not much. “We’re not talking about settlement. We’re going to be telling the judge when we want a trial date,” he tells Elaine Low on Friday, shortly after Paramount announced it would delay the merger until June 2027 or until a pair of antitrust lawsuits against it work their way through the courts — whichever comes first. “We’re not going to have oligarchs or kings in the economy,” says Bonta. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showing 1–20 of 29 episodes