The Business

Writer-director Adam McKay is known for his Will Ferrell comedies like Anchorman and Talladega Nights. He’s gone a different direction with The Big Short, and now the film about the 2008 financial collapse is up for five Oscars. 

Director Lenny Abrahamson didn’t expect author Emma Donoghue would choose him to make a film based on her bestselling novel Room. Abrahamson tells us how he made his pitch to Donoghue -- and she explains why it worked.

First-time director László Nemes knew it would be tough to find funding for his intensely realistic Holocaust film, but he had no idea the level of resistance he'd face. He tells us how he went from having the movie no one wanted to touch to being a Cannes darling and Oscar contender.

Filmmaker Andrew Haigh had a difficult time funding his first film, a small indie drama called Weekend. When that movie charmed critics, everything changed. He tells us about his new film 45 Years.

Kim Masters, Michael Schneider of TV Guide Magazine and Matthew Belloni of the Hollywood Reporter, join forces for a 2015 year-in-review. They take on the year of the woman (or not), the fight over the future of Viacom, feast or famine at the box office, peak TV and more.

Rapper, actor and producer Ice Cube long hoped to make a movie about N.W.A., the hip hop group that gave him his start. Straight Outta Compton faced hurdles and backlash but that was no surprise to Cube. He tells us how he finally got the story to the screen.

Creed director Ryan Coogler wasn't even born when most of the Rocky movies were made, but he fell in love with the franchise thanks to his father. Coogler tells us how he went from football player to filmmaker, and how he convinced Sylvester Stallone to go another round with Creed.

Bill Pohlad has spent the past decade producing award-winners like Brokeback Mountain and 12 Years a Slave. With Love & Mercy, a unique Brian Wilson bio-pic, he comes back to directing after a 24 year hiatus.

KCRW's Saul Gonzalez checks in on the headshot -- still a staple of the industry despite changing technology. And executive producer Betsy Beers tells us why she's sick of talking about diversity and how an all-woman producing duo locked down Thursday nights on ABC.

Despite a shrinking budget and difficult subject matter, director Tom McCarthy pulled together a stellar ensemble including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams to portray the unglamorous work of investigative reporting for his new movie Spotlight.

Nick Hornby has seen his novels like High Fidelity and About a Boy made into films. He's also adapted other writers' work for movies, including An Education, Wild, and now, Brooklyn, an immigrant love story already generating Oscar buzz.

Bryan Cranston and Trumbo director Jay Roach tell us how they ended up making a biopic about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and what drew them to the story of Hollywood’s darkest hour.

Director Leslee Udwin was in India as a court blocked the broadcast of her documentary about an infamous gang rape and murder in that country. Her film, India's Daughter, remains banned in India to this day. She tells us about putting herself at risk and in debt to make the film. 

Director Lenny Abrahamson didn’t expect author Emma Donoghue would choose him to make a film based on her bestselling novel Room. Abrahamson tells us how he made his pitch to Donoghue, and she explains why it worked.

Early in his career, Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim declared he would never make documentaries. He tells us about the bad experience in Hollywood that made him have a change of heart, and talks about his newest film, He Named Me Malala, which profiles activist Malala Yousafzai and her family.

The German thriller Victoria follows a bank heist in Berlin in real time. Director Sebastian Schipper shot the entire film in one long take. Schipper and actress Laia Costa tell us how you make a movie without ever saying "cut!"

With her new film Prophet's Prey, documentarian Amy Berg takes on the polygamous, fundamentalist arm of the Mormon Church. She tells us about encountering unwilling subjects and also addresses her Hollywood child sex abuse doc, An Open Secret.

Filmmaker Anna Muylaert has won acclaim at home and abroad for The Second Mother, which is Brazil's Oscar entry this year. But even with all the success, Muylaert's found that she's still not taken seriously within an industry dominated by men.

It may seem strange for the head of a cable network that's gone from two to 20 shows in the last decade to say there's officially too much TV, but that's exactly what FX's John Landgraf declared at this summer's TCA gathering. He breaks down his thinking for us.

The 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet was banned in China, and its director Jean-Jacques Annaud barred from entering the country. A decade later, China came to Annaud and asked him to direct Wolf Totem, an epic Chinese movie. Annaud tells us what changed.