The Business

When the Writers Guild went to war against the agencies two years ago, few thought the union would prevail. But when WME, the final agency holdout, signed a deal with the Guild last month, it marked a decisive victory for the writers. WGA West Executive Director David Young and President David Goodman explain how they stayed the course through an emotional struggle and heated negotiations. And they look ahead to the Guild’s future battles. 

Today, director Channing Godfrey Peoples and producer Neil Creque Williams finish each other’s sentences. More than a decade ago, they were just two graduate film students at USC. They’d each heard about the other’s work, but didn’t actually meet until a chance encounter in an elevator 11 years ago. They've been working together ever since. Now married, Peoples and Williams have made their first feature, the mother-daughter coming-of-age drama "Miss Juneteenth." 

The new movie “Minari” is a personal story from filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung. It’s about a Korean American family struggling to run a small Arkansas farm in the 1980s. Chung says he thought “Minari” was going to be the last script he ever wrote before leaving the industry entirely. He’s joined by Christina Oh, the producer at Plan B Entertainment who read Chung's script and fell for it.

Eliza Hittman was at the Berlin Film Festival last February with her art-house abortion drama “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” She thought about staying for the awards ceremony, but instead flew back to New York. As soon as she landed, she got an email asking her to come back. Hittman had won the Silver Bear in Berlin, and now her film is in awards contention stateside. Kim Masters spoke to “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” director Eliza Hittman last year. 

“The White Tiger,” Aravind Adiga's darkly comedic novel about a clever servant’s rise out of poverty in India, won the Booker Prize in 2008. Thirteen years later, “The White Tiger” is a big hit for Netflix. The film adaptation is written and directed by Adiga's friend from college, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani.

Austin Winsberg, creator of the NBC series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and producer-choreographer Mandy Moore check in from Canada, where they had just finished shooting the show’s 100th musical number. After working on season two under new COVID guidelines, Moore and Winsberg say they’ve become experts at reading each other’s eyes while working with masks on. 

Garrett Bradley's documentary “Time,” about one woman’s fight to release her husband from prison, was an award winner at Sundance last year and is considered a top Oscar contender. Bradley says “Time” was originally going to be a short film until it demanded more … time. Rahdi Taylor is one of the people who convinced Bradley that “Time” should be a full-length feature. Taylor supported the film as head of the Artists in Residence fellowship program at Concordia Studio, where Bradley was one of Concordia's first fellows.

The Romanian movie “Collective” is in Oscar contention for both Best International Film and Best Documentary. Directed by Alexander Nanau, “Collective” follows a group of sports reporters in Bucharest who uncovered a massive scandal in Romanian hospitals that led to dozens of needless deaths.

George Clooney and his long-time producing partner Grant Heslov talk about their new movie “The Midnight Sky,” a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama, now on Netflix. Heslov and Clooney discuss recent sea changes in the industry, especially at Warner Brothers, the studio they called home for 20 years. Plus, the politically engaged pair addresses the recent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

Bryan Fogel won Netflix its first feature documentary Oscar with his Russian doping exposé “Icarus.” Critics at Sundance raved about his latest film, “The Dissident,” about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. So why didn’t Netflix call to lock up the rights? Fogel shares why his new documentary had streamers running scared. And Tom Ortenberg, the executive who had the guts to distribute the film, explains why his company Briarcliff Entertainment wanted to take it on.