The Business

If we've learned anything from the Leno/Conan debacle, it's the value of a well written contract.  We talk to one entertainment lawyer and find out exactly what he does to earn his 5 percent.  Plus, the author of About a Boy and High Fidelity didn't write the movies based on his novels, but he did write the script to An Education.  Nick Hornby tells us why.

The television business is crazier than ever. We try to make sense of it all with two veteran TV journalists. Plus, a look at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival with the fest's new director, John Cooper.

It's a new year and the Oscar race is in the final stretch. We go behind the horse race with two industry veterans.

The year 2009 was a crazy year for the business, and 2010 should top it. This week, its the Hollywood year to be with Cynthia Littleton of Variety and John Horn of the Los Angeles Times.

We look at the ups, the downs, the all-arounds of the Hollywood year that was with Cynthia Littleton of Variety and John Horn of the Los Angeles Times.

Pixar scored big with Up! this year, and now they're seven for seven. We chat with a member of the company's original brain trust and the director of Up! about Oscars, 3-D and making movies that almost everyone loves.  Plus, James Cameron's Avatar cost hundreds of millions to make.  How much green does it need to earn to put Fox in the black?

We look at the crazy story behind the new movie Crazy Heart.  It's got Oscar buzz now, but it almost didn't make it into theaters. Plus, Twilight has made hundreds of millions at the box office, but a lot of other people have been riding on the cape tails of everybody's favorite vampire movie.

James Cameron's Avatar isn't just a hugely expensive sci-fi adventure – it's a titanic bid to transform movies. We get inside the mind of one of Hollywood's biggest players with Rebecca Keegan, author of the new book The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.

Did the Academy's documentary short list short some docs? Plus, Hugo Chavez takes on Hollywood.

In an industry where honesty is such a lonely word, the creator of a hit TV show says what he thinks on line. We talk to Kurt Sutter of Sons of Anarchy about his blog, Sutterink.  Plus an Academy Award-winning writer on how show business is like every other business we know.

A Hollywood rags-to-riches-to-rags story might have a happy ending after all. We talk to Troy Duffy, the controversial director of The Boondock Saints.  Plus, a not-so-fresh report from the American Film Market with Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman.

The Motion Picture Academy hands out the first Thalberg Memorial Award since 2000, but what exactly it?  Plus, DVD's are dying. What will take their place, and how will it change the way we watch – and pay for – movies?

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?