Speaker 1: Disney has an interesting money making scheme. Well you are not.
Speaker 2: Keeping the family means nobody.
Speaker 1: Gets They just produced movies that everybody wants to see.
Speaker 1: Although this Lelo and Stitch movie came out, my kids
Speaker 1: just kind of missed it. My daughter was born in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, so this kind of predated her,
Speaker 1: and then my son had no interest in watching. I'm
Speaker 1: sure they've seen it, but it was not one that
Speaker 1: was on heavy rotation at my house. And honestly, it
Speaker 1: didn't do great in two thousand and two when it
Speaker 1: first came out. It wasn't really the it wasn't really
Speaker 1: the kind of Disney mold of a movie. One of
Speaker 1: the movie posters they actually put out for Lelo and
Speaker 1: Stitch was other classic Disney characters, Pinocchio, Bell, Jasmine, all
Speaker 1: recoiling from the look of Stitch, this alien or I
Speaker 1: don't know, rabbit, that God was something, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: they were recoiling from it in horror. Ticket sales not great.
Speaker 1: They did a couple of directive video sequels. There was
Speaker 1: a cartoon in the two thousands. There was a Disney
Speaker 1: World ride for Leilo and Stitch in two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: but it closed down. There was a lot of I mean,
Speaker 1: they sold some stuff, but it wasn't their biggest by
Speaker 1: a far, wasn't their biggest franchise. So they make a
Speaker 1: live action Lelo and Stitch that's going to be released.
Speaker 1: I mean it is released now, but that would have
Speaker 1: been twenty three years later and they weren't quite sure
Speaker 1: what to do with it. Necessarily, they made it for
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars. It was originally planned to go
Speaker 1: straight to Disney Plus, but after just ten days in
Speaker 1: the theaters, it brought in six hundred and ten million dollars.
Speaker 1: It cost about seventy five million to market. It's probably
Speaker 1: going to come in when it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: somewhere around a billion dollars.
Speaker 3: They say.
Speaker 1: The biggest factor in that is going to be how
Speaker 1: it does the Japanese market. So Disney is going to
Speaker 1: make about three hundred million dollars or more or more
Speaker 1: profit just from the box office. That validates this u
Speaker 1: turn that they took a couple of years ago. Now
Speaker 1: Bob Eiger comes out of retirement, he goes back to
Speaker 1: the Helm of Disney. He cuts back on the originals
Speaker 1: that they were putting straight to streaming and reprioritizes releasing
Speaker 1: straight to the theater. So if you remember last well,
Speaker 1: last year in November, Mwana II was originally going to
Speaker 1: be a TV series. They were originally going to just
Speaker 1: put it straight to streaming as a series, but that
Speaker 1: brings in, oh, I don't know, one point one billion
Speaker 1: dollars in theaters. A co chair of Disney Entertainment said,
Speaker 1: going theatrical, getting that footprint across the entire world lifts everything.
Speaker 1: It lifts streaming, it lifts consumer products, it lifts the
Speaker 1: theme parks. It's harder to do that when you start
Speaker 1: with just streaming, when you start on a service. So
Speaker 1: they figured out nine months ago they finally made this decision,
Speaker 1: we're going to put it in theaters.
Speaker 3: We're going to put it on Memorial Day.
Speaker 1: And they had been promoting this thing, this live action movie,
Speaker 1: which boosted all of the Leelo and Stitch merchandise, I
Speaker 1: mean tenfold from five years before that, because there were
Speaker 1: people in their what mid twenties, late twenties, early thirties
Speaker 1: who did remember this movie when it was animated and
Speaker 1: did want to bring their kids to it. They were
Speaker 1: nostalgic about it, even though it may not have been
Speaker 1: the greatest box office success that Disney had. These people
Speaker 1: love that movie. Here's the problem. Then they were going
Speaker 1: to go up against Mission Impossible, the final Reckoning, and
Speaker 1: Disney was like, oh, great, of all the things we
Speaker 1: don't want to go up against, it's Tom Cruise and
Speaker 1: the end of the Mission Impossible series. And there was
Speaker 1: just a there were a couple of people around the
Speaker 1: board table at Disney who said, no, no, I think
Speaker 1: we're okay. I think it's counterprogramming. I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: do fine. And in the end, Memorial Day wasn't even close.
Speaker 1: Leilo and Stitch took in one hundred and eighty three
Speaker 1: million over the holiday weekend, more than twice what Mission
Speaker 1: Impossible brought in. Oh and Mission Impossible exponentially more expensive
Speaker 1: to make. Disney did everything right on this. They made
Speaker 1: a movie that people love, or I should say remade.
Speaker 1: They made it for the right price. They picked a
Speaker 1: release date, the marketing, the publicity, the social campaigns, everything
Speaker 1: fall and fell into place for Disney in this case.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean that all of these big production
Speaker 1: houses are going to get back to strictly theatrical releases.
Speaker 1: I have one example coming up actually later this year.
Speaker 1: That as one studio in kind of a conundrum. They
Speaker 1: still have time to make a decision about this. But
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that other big release that's coming out
Speaker 1: that might be a theatrical release, but definitely will be
Speaker 1: on the streamer.
Speaker 3: We'll tell you which one and what movie it is.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about movie studios and there are decisions
Speaker 1: about when to stream a movie versus when to release
Speaker 1: it theatrically. The traditional movie theaters think Paramount or Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers or Disney or something like that, and then the
Speaker 1: other ones like Amazon, Apple, Netflix obviously, and what you
Speaker 1: would prefer. Would you want to see a movie at
Speaker 1: home or would you want to see it in a
Speaker 1: big movie theater.
Speaker 2: Good morning Gary, without Shannon today. This is Vick in Glendale.
Speaker 2: And in regards to what movies I like to see
Speaker 2: in the theater, I enjoy going to classic theater to
Speaker 2: view classic movies like Robin Hood or Frankenstein or whatever.
Speaker 2: My be reliable modern movies I prefer.
Speaker 3: To stream interesting. I know the technology is different, Hey.
Speaker 4: Gary, Me personally, I like to go to the movie theater.
Speaker 4: It's just the whole experience. I take my kids to movies.
Speaker 3: I'm just a movie buff.
Speaker 4: I love movies, and there's certain movies like like the
Speaker 4: twenty eight years Later, that I just want to see
Speaker 4: in theaters. Like if I can catch certain movies in theaters,
Speaker 4: I'd rather see them there. It's just like the whole
Speaker 4: thing about just being out and getting popcorn and doing
Speaker 4: everything at a theater. Just this is not the same
Speaker 4: at your house, you know.
Speaker 5: That's what I prefer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, there is a romanticized version of it.
Speaker 1: It brings back memories of movies you saw in the
Speaker 1: theater as a kid or whatever. So it's funny that
Speaker 1: that guy mentioned Frankenstein because Netflix is out with its
Speaker 1: first trailer for the Guillelmo. It's hard to say his name,
Speaker 1: Guillermo del Toro's version of Frankenstein. I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, there have been two hundred
Speaker 1: film versions of Frankenstein or some version of Frankenstein, two
Speaker 1: hundred of them almost, And the one that is produced
Speaker 1: by Netflix and Guielmro del Toro looks like a full
Speaker 1: fledged old fashioned blockbuster of a movie. It is massive,
Speaker 1: and when Netflix makes a movie like this, they could
Speaker 1: be criticized for not releasing it in theaters. There's actually
Speaker 1: a Hollywood reporter refers to that as the roadhouse paradox,
Speaker 1: which means released movies that are perfectly watchable but mediocre.
Speaker 1: So on Sunday, Netflix releases the first trailer for Del
Speaker 1: Toro's longtime passion project of Frankenstein.
Speaker 3: And it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: You've got Oscar Isaac as Doctor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi is Monster,
Speaker 1: Mia Goth as Victor's fiance, all of this incredible Arctic imagery,
Speaker 1: because there's a whole North Pole section that's in the
Speaker 1: book that doesn't appear in many movies, Victorian imagery as well.
Speaker 3: And there are already people who.
Speaker 1: Are demanding if you can do that that Netflix released
Speaker 1: this thing in the theaters November ish, probably a Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: release is what they're looking at. And here you got
Speaker 1: to think of the again, the math that goes into this.
Speaker 1: I just explained how when Malana II and Leelo and
Speaker 1: Stitch go to movie theaters, Disney makes hundreds of millions
Speaker 1: of dollars more than they would have arguably, and you
Speaker 1: can then turn that into merchandise and theme park rides
Speaker 1: for years for years. This is a little different because
Speaker 1: it's a story that everybody knows. Granted, Lelo and Stitch
Speaker 1: was a story everybody knew, but this is Frankenstein. Well,
Speaker 1: almost two hundred film versions of Frankenstein in some capacity
Speaker 1: have already been out there, so this one is arguably
Speaker 1: the most expensive could be and it is going to
Speaker 1: be dramatic and fantastic. But is it enough to get
Speaker 1: a film theater release. A couple of comments on YouTube
Speaker 1: that I was looking through when I saw the trailer
Speaker 1: last night, Guillermo del Toro is too good for Netflix.
Speaker 3: This needs a theater release.
Speaker 1: Another one says, I think we can all agree that
Speaker 1: this should be released in released in theaters. Guillammere del
Speaker 1: Toro is for theaters, not for Netflix. All that man
Speaker 1: makes is art. Now listen. He is a Best Picture
Speaker 1: Oscar winner. The Shape of Water in twenty seventeen was
Speaker 1: a really incredible movie, and he has been on record
Speaker 1: saying that this Frankenstein story is something that he's wanted
Speaker 1: to make for twenty years, and it includes things like
Speaker 1: the North Pole sequence that again that exists in the
Speaker 1: book but does not exist in many of the film
Speaker 1: versions that we would see whether it's Peter Boyle and
Speaker 1: Young Frankenstein, whatever it is. But he said, this is
Speaker 1: the pinnacle of everything. Again, this is del Toro speaking.
Speaker 1: Part of me wants to do a version of it,
Speaker 1: part of me has twenty four of twenty five years
Speaker 1: chickened out of making it. And he says, I dream
Speaker 1: I can make the greatest Frankenstein ever. But then if
Speaker 1: you make it, you've made it. Whether you did it
Speaker 1: great or not, it's done. You can't dream about it anymore. So,
Speaker 1: to be technical, Netflix is going to release there's almost
Speaker 1: an absolute guarantee that they're going to release it theatrically
Speaker 1: somewhere for some amount of time because it has to
Speaker 1: be released in theaters for it to qualify for Academy
Speaker 1: Awards consideration and Screen Actors Guild and things like that.
Speaker 1: So it does have to be released in theaters for
Speaker 1: a time. But is that their main plan? Are they
Speaker 1: looking for a multi hundred million dollar film in Frankenstein
Speaker 1: or are they just going to use it to drive
Speaker 1: people to their service like they have in the past
Speaker 1: with other movies. We talk about it because that is
Speaker 1: the business of this town, specifically here in Burbank. But
Speaker 1: obviously in production studios across this city and across the
Speaker 1: county is where the vast majority of TV and movies
Speaker 1: are created in the world. And we've repeatedly talked about
Speaker 1: the industry itself struggling. One of the indicators of that
Speaker 1: is studio space sound stage for film and TV production
Speaker 1: and whether or not they're busy. And I ran into
Speaker 1: this article on vankler dot com a n k L E.
Speaker 1: R Ankler dot com by Elain Low and it says
Speaker 1: that the current state of our sound stages in LA
Speaker 1: kind of remind us of the failure of retail malls
Speaker 1: throughout the country over the last few decades. And Elaine
Speaker 1: is joining us now writer and host for The Anchlor,
Speaker 1: one of the top business publications on Substack, taking time
Speaker 1: for us this morning. Elaine, First, thanks for thanks for
Speaker 1: carving out some time in your day for us.
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Sure I read with great interest this piece on the
Speaker 1: state of where we are in terms of sound stages.
Speaker 1: So why don't you just kind of put it in
Speaker 1: a nutshell for us In terms of the square footage
Speaker 1: that exists for production in this town, it's not being
Speaker 1: utilized right now.
Speaker 4: No, there's something like two point eight million square feet
Speaker 4: of studio space. You have the largest operators, which are
Speaker 4: you know, when you count all of their stages together,
Speaker 4: you have Warner Brothers which is thirty six stages, Universal
Speaker 4: which has thirty, Sony has eighteen, Paramount has twenty nine.
Speaker 4: You know, you look at Radford Studio Center, twentieth Century Studios.
Speaker 5: You know known as the Fox Lot.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of sound stage space in LA And
Speaker 4: you know, when we talk about soundstages, we're talking about
Speaker 4: things like Gray's Anatomy, things that are you know, inside
Speaker 4: when they're in a room, you know, sitcoms, game shows,
Speaker 4: not we're not talking about on location like when you
Speaker 4: see a shot out on a street or outdoors. But
Speaker 4: it is a good barometer for how much production is happening.
Speaker 4: And the numbers are pretty stark.
Speaker 5: When you look at.
Speaker 4: Film LA's figures, and that's the official La County Film Office,
Speaker 4: the numbers in twenty sixteen, when things were humming along,
Speaker 4: soundstage space was at a high ninety six percent. And
Speaker 4: then obviously that figure dipped during the pandemic when all
Speaker 4: of production was halted for some time, but then it
Speaker 4: bounce back and around, you know, twenty twenty two or so,
Speaker 4: you know, you were looking at at about ninety percent
Speaker 4: occupancy again, and that was during the peak of peak TV,
Speaker 4: right when there were six hundred scripted TV shows on
Speaker 4: the air. But that number has come back down again
Speaker 4: after the WGA and SAG strikes of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 4: amid a broader industry wide contraction where they've all just
Speaker 4: been pulling back on their budgets and the number of
Speaker 4: TV series that they're producing and the complements of those
Speaker 4: factors has brought soundstage occupancy down to sixty nine percent
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty three, which was a strike year. But
Speaker 4: the more stark number is that it's actually down to
Speaker 4: sixty three percent in twenty twenty four, a year that
Speaker 4: wasn't impacted by labor stoppages.
Speaker 5: And that's what's remarkable.
Speaker 1: That part of it, the strike part of it, I
Speaker 1: think is what intrigues me because when those were going
Speaker 1: on writers strike and the actors strike, they were just
Speaker 1: coming back from COVID and all the production that was
Speaker 1: shut down, and I had this gut feeling like this
Speaker 1: is not the right time to do this, because you're
Speaker 1: already dealing with an industry that's been punched in the
Speaker 1: face and the guts and then kicked in the crotch.
Speaker 1: It was in a bad space at the time. Is
Speaker 1: there any blame that can land on the unions for
Speaker 1: those for those work stoppages.
Speaker 4: From the union's perspective, It's look, streaming has so severely
Speaker 4: disrupted the industry, you know, and you kind of look
Speaker 4: back to the two thousand and seven two thousand and
Speaker 4: eight writers strike when when people refer to streaming as
Speaker 4: like new media, and it was kind of like, well,
Speaker 4: what do.
Speaker 5: We do about this new media?
Speaker 4: And over the years, you know, the economics of TV
Speaker 4: have really changed so severely, and you know, writers and
Speaker 4: performers really felt like they weren't able to, you know,
Speaker 4: to reap the gains of you know, the many different
Speaker 4: streaming shows that are on you know, massive platforms like
Speaker 4: Netflix and Disney Plus and all of that, And so
Speaker 4: that was the reasoning behind those strikes. You know, certainly
Speaker 4: the town has still been in recovery mode over the
Speaker 4: last couple of years, and I think, you know, talking
Speaker 4: to people I talked to a lot of age and
Speaker 4: producers and showrunners, there was a lot of perhaps misplaced
Speaker 4: optimism going into twenty twenty four, coming right out of
Speaker 4: the strikes, thinking that things would bounce back, but that
Speaker 4: didn't really happen. It really didn't pick up again until
Speaker 4: the back half of twenty twenty four because the largest
Speaker 4: guild IATSE, which represents you know, something like one hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty thousand crew members, was in negotiations in the
Speaker 4: top half of the year, and so there was some
Speaker 4: apprehension about going back into production when there was potentially
Speaker 4: a third strike around the corner. Now that didn't materialize.
Speaker 4: They came to an agreement.
Speaker 5: This year.
Speaker 4: There's been a lot more optimism about the state of
Speaker 4: production though, but it's still kind of notable to see
Speaker 4: how much sound stage use has moved out of LA
Speaker 4: and outside of the strikes. A lot of.
Speaker 5: People would point to the tax.
Speaker 4: Incentive issue, the fact that there are just more appealing
Speaker 4: tax credits and tax incentives outside of California and outside
Speaker 4: of the country. You know, it's interesting when you think
Speaker 4: about game shows, like you know that low game show
Speaker 4: the Floor, which is thought I saw that in Ireland.
Speaker 1: If that was that's an amazing the idea of taking
Speaker 1: everything that you have here flying it to Ireland. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know they use some of the people there, but
Speaker 1: still that idea that that's a cheaper move for the
Speaker 1: studios than to produce it down the street here in
Speaker 1: Burbank or something is mindful.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah. I mean a lot of game shows film
Speaker 4: out in Ireland. It's it's wild and I don't think
Speaker 4: many people, you know, know that the average American viewer
Speaker 4: and they're watching a show like The Floor or something.
Speaker 1: Else, well if they maybe if they had Irish accents,
Speaker 1: that'd make a big difference. We're talking with Elaine Lowe,
Speaker 1: writer for The Ankler. You can find her work at
Speaker 1: Theankler dot com a n k l e r and
Speaker 1: specifically this story regarding sound stages and stage occupancy down
Speaker 1: to sixty three percent in twenty twenty four, down even
Speaker 1: from the year that they were the writers and the
Speaker 1: actors were on strike.
Speaker 3: And I wanted to ask you, Elane.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that obviously a lot of production has gone
Speaker 1: to places like British, Columbia, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee is
Speaker 1: now getting into this.
Speaker 3: Game as well.
Speaker 1: What are they doing right that either California or La
Speaker 1: County specifically is doing wrong.
Speaker 4: Regardless of who I talk to, it always comes back
Speaker 4: to the tax and Senates and the tax credit, and
Speaker 4: California lawmakers are looking at potentially, you know, there's a
Speaker 4: proposal to more than double that tax credit from three
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty million to seven hundred and fifty million
Speaker 4: right now, but some people say that doesn't even go
Speaker 4: far enough. You know, the way it's structured, you know,
Speaker 4: the intricacies of it just aren't as appealing as other
Speaker 4: states and other places out of the country. And you know,
Speaker 4: it doesn't apply to above the line salaries like you know, actors,
Speaker 4: and you know, non scripted you know, we.
Speaker 5: Were talking about game shows like The Floor, you.
Speaker 4: Know, anything that's a non scripted reality show, game show, documentary.
Speaker 4: Those are all not even for the tax incentive right now.
Speaker 4: So there's an entire part of the industry, you know,
Speaker 4: that would love to be able to be a.
Speaker 5: Part of that.
Speaker 4: And you know, there's a huge stay in LA production
Speaker 4: campaign to try and keep more production local to southern California.
Speaker 4: But again, it all just comes back down to that tax.
Speaker 1: Conversation outside of AI, which brings with it its own
Speaker 1: set of problems for actors and writers, et cetera. Will
Speaker 1: will technology make these sound stages obsolete at least the
Speaker 1: way we've used them for the last one hundred years.
Speaker 4: These are pretty old sound stages, a lot of them,
Speaker 4: but a number of them are being outfitted for virtual production,
Speaker 4: you know, when you have like a giant led wall
Speaker 4: and you can do things more digitally. And you know,
Speaker 4: I've talked at some folks who are optimistic about repurposing
Speaker 4: sound stages, you know, outside of TV and film use.
Speaker 4: You know, they're they're being leased out for like commercial
Speaker 4: usage or like magazine cover shoots or live events or
Speaker 4: boarding events, you know, but in order to actually keep
Speaker 4: production here. I was actually at this AI on the
Speaker 4: Lot conference last week talking to the CEO of light
Speaker 4: Craft Technologies, and you know, there's somebody that have a background,
Speaker 4: they have an engineering emmy, you know, and are working
Speaker 4: on AI and virtual production technology, and you know, you
Speaker 4: can do a lot with just a green screen. And
Speaker 4: I said, well, doesn't this, you know, disincentivize somebody coming
Speaker 4: to a traditional sound stage, and you know, they're there's
Speaker 4: thee I was telling me, Actually, you know, I really
Speaker 4: hope that this actually creates more opportunities. You know, if
Speaker 4: you divvy up a traditional sound stage, you know, put
Speaker 4: up some green paint or a green screen, and then
Speaker 4: maybe you can actually have more occupants in a you know,
Speaker 4: traditional large sound stage setting, you know, with that's rigged
Speaker 4: up with all the lights and acoustics and everything.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: So people are trying to get creative with alternate usage.
Speaker 4: But you know, episodic TV, which is really the lifeblood
Speaker 4: of the industry in you know, that's down to twenty
Speaker 4: percent soundstage use here, down from thirty percent.
Speaker 5: Year of a year.
Speaker 1: I'm also curious, I don't know if you saw this
Speaker 1: story about actors and producers demanding that their shows be
Speaker 1: shot in la Zach Braff has finally signed on to
Speaker 1: reprise his role as JD on the Scrubs reboot, and
Speaker 1: there was there was a going back and forth about
Speaker 1: whether or not they would. When he signed on, he said,
Speaker 1: I'll do it only if it's filmed in LA despite
Speaker 1: the original plans it to have it moved off to
Speaker 1: Vancouver and produce up there. Do you think that's a
Speaker 1: trend that we might see as some of these people saying,
Speaker 1: some of the actors saying they believe so much in
Speaker 1: keeping production in southern California that they make these demands.
Speaker 4: We've certainly seen that from high profile showrunners and producers
Speaker 4: and on screen talent, but it's a very small a
Speaker 4: part of a population that has the leverage to be
Speaker 4: able to do that, to be able to say, you know, no,
Speaker 4: we'd like to keep all production here, although certainly it's
Speaker 4: something that a lot of people would like to be
Speaker 4: able to have the power to do, especially again, there's
Speaker 4: this big stay in LA movement to try and keep
Speaker 4: production here. But again, that conversation keeps coming back to
Speaker 4: the tax incentive more than anything else.
Speaker 1: I know you've been writing on TV for a long time.
Speaker 1: What do you watch? What's your favorite show right now?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: Gosh, what am I watching? Just finished watching the four
Speaker 4: seasons that new Tina fe Steve Carell series from Tracy
Speaker 4: Bigfield on Netflix. That was fun, And just actually watched
Speaker 4: the season two with Squid Game.
Speaker 5: I know season three's coming up soon.
Speaker 3: You got to get caught up, Get caught up.
Speaker 4: I know there's too much TV out there.
Speaker 5: Well there's not too much, but.
Speaker 4: Well there's a lot of shows to catch up on.
Speaker 3: And it's funny that you mentioned that.
Speaker 1: I know that in your piece, you mentioned that peak
Speaker 1: TV probably was twenty twenty two when you said, what
Speaker 1: six hundred script television shows?
Speaker 4: The TV series we're on the air, I mean a
Speaker 4: lot of people call that a bubble. You know, we're
Speaker 4: unlikely to see that level of TV again because you know,
Speaker 4: there are only so many hours in the day.
Speaker 1: But we've we've broken away from I feel like we've
Speaker 1: broken away from the usual, you know, pre you know,
Speaker 1: season premieres in the end of September. Obviously they're still available,
Speaker 1: but now it seems like every.
Speaker 5: Three year around the industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: Listen, my couch loves it as well, because because it
Speaker 1: gets it gets a lot of good use. All Right, Elaine,
Speaker 1: what a wonderful conversation. Thanks for taking time for us.
Speaker 1: We'd love to have you back on because we know
Speaker 1: that this, this business of show business is UH is
Speaker 1: top of mind for so many people here in southern California.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1: You bet Elaine Lowe, writer for The Ankler. She also
Speaker 1: hosts the podcast at The Ankler. So go to The
Speaker 1: Ankler t h E A n k l E R
Speaker 1: Theankler dot com UH and find that podcast and listen
Speaker 1: to her talk with a bunch of these industry head honchos, etc. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mentioned, and I was going to do this a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier in the show. But Zach Braff, if
Speaker 1: you hadn't seen, he was the doctor in Scrubs. He's
Speaker 1: been doing a lot of directing recently. Did I think
Speaker 1: ted Lasso for a couple He did some shrinking episodes,
Speaker 1: but he signed on to reprise his role for the
Speaker 1: TV show Scrubs. If you remember that comedy about a
Speaker 1: hospital in the valley, and it comes after these negotiations
Speaker 1: that hit major hurdles over money and his request that
Speaker 1: the series be made in la not Vancouver as they
Speaker 1: were originally planning, so they finally came to an agreement.
Speaker 1: Scrubs is still in development, but no filming location has
Speaker 1: been announced. So good to see that somebody like that
Speaker 1: can throw their weight around and make a difference