The Business

Writer/actor/producer Grant Heslov moves to the director's chair on the new George Clooney movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats. Plus, "I'll make you a star! - for 5,000 bucks."

This week, how Warner Brothers used interactive tricks to power a surprisingly strong opening weekend for Where the Wild Things Are. Plus television writer/producer Dan Harmon toiled in basic cable on Comedy Central and VH1.  Now, as creator of NBC's Community he tells us how the game is different on a big broadcast network. And, as always, the Hollywood news banter.

A new book argues that media moguls act like spoiled brats, squandering the shareholders' money on toys that they don't really need. Plus, how do you create a TV spin-off that's original but not too original? We ask the producer of the CBS shows NCIS and the brand new NCIS: Los Angeles.

This week, how the recession and major changes in the entertainment industry are impacting the lives of film and TV writers. Plus, Disney and Universal are the latest studios to shake up the executives suites and send a tremor through the industry.

A producer who was haunted by passing on the Blair Witch Project produces a low-budget horror film with big hopes of redemption.  Plus Irving Thalberg changed the studio system. Now his life is on display.

This week, fans came out in full force to a recent celebration of all things Disney. But major changes are afoot in the Magic Kingdom. Plus, was the Toronto Film Festival a bloodbath for indie filmmakers or just a shift in the life cycle of independent film?

Does winning an Emmy matter to you, to me, to the business?  And, the Television Academy puts TV legends on-line.  Plus after 72 years, Guiding Light gets snuffed.

The summer box office broke records, but was blockbuster season really all that? Plus, what does the Leno prime-time experiment mean for the TV business?

Disney buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Is it a super deal or super dud?  Plus, the division and drama continues in Hollywood's labor unions, and two top TV producers and their money-making program they call the "total engagement experience."

Programming note: This program will be not air on KCRW as it will be pre-empted by special Labor Day programming. It will be available as a podcast and on demand, and will be archived online.

The producers of the hit show Ghost Whisperer on making great TV…and a successful marriage.  Plus, we talk to the newly-elected president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.