Adam McKay is a film director, writer, and host of the podcast Death at the Wing.“Sometimes you do a project and then you look back and you’re like, Ah, shit. I let some of myself get in the way of that. It sucks, but it’s also a part of it. And there are so many times where you’re excited that the story did take off, the wind did catch the sail and it went off on its own. And that just feels so good that it far outweighs the times when you make a mistake, or let something go wrong, or too long, or hit the wrong tone. Which is going to happen. There’s no way around it. But those times when it all just catches perfectly—it’s just so exciting that you keep doing it.”

Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.

Show notes:

@GhostPanther

00:00 Anchorman (Dreamworks • 2004)

00:00 Stepbrothers (Columbia Pictures • 2008)

00:00 The Big Short (Paramount Pictures, New Regency Productions • 2015)

00:00 Vice (Annapurna Pictures • 2018)

00:00 Succession (Gary Sanchez Productions • 2018)

00:00 Death at the Wing (Hyperobject Industries and Three Uncanny Four • 2021)

12:00 The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (George Packer • Farrar, Straus and Giroux • 2014)

14:00 Don’t Look Up (Hyperobject Industries • 2021)

29:00 David Grann on Longform Podcast

31:00 Anchorman 2 (Paramount Pictures • 2013)

36:00 The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (Michael Lewis • W. W. Norton & Company • 2015)

39:00 Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria • Annapurna Pictures • 2019)

40:00 "The Hustlers at Scores" (Jessica Pressler • The Cut • Dec 2015)

41:00 "Breslin: Digging JFK grave was his honor" (Jimmy Breslin • New York Herald Tribune • Nov 1963)

43:00 Bad Blood (Excellent Cadaver)

43:00 Bad Blood (John Carreyrou • Vintage • 2020)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices