Hello from L.A., where I’m fan-girling over the interviews in our Prestige Junkie Studio at TIFF, where Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen have welcomed Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value), Knives Out trilogy’s Daniel Craig and helmer Rian Johnson (Wake Up Dead Man), Tessa Thompson and director Nia DaCosta (Hedda), Cillian Murphy (Steve) and more. Just in this morning: Aziz Ansari (Good Fortune) and James McAvoy with his directorial debut California Schemin’ (he also appears in the musical biopic), and later today, Katey is going live onstage with Train Dreams’ Joel Edgerton at 4:30 p.m. (get ticket info here).
THIS JUST IN Katey Rich with Aziz Ansari (Good Fortune) in our Prestige Junkie Live studio. (Simone Flournoy)
Plus, tonight, I hope you scored an invite to the private soiree co-hosted by Ankler CEO Janice Min, Richard Rushfield and Letterboxd CEO Matthew Buchanan.
Follow @theankler on Instagram for more images and watch full videos of Katey and Chris’ lively interviews on YouTube, and keep a lookout for more Prestige Junkie Daily newsletters out of TIFF.
All studio portraits are by photographer Chris Chapman
HUNTING KNIVESWill there be more Benoit Blanc movies? “It’s exciting to keep making them, because each of them is so different than the last,” Rian Johnson, left, with Daniel Craig, told Katey.
SHIFTING THE LENS Tessa Thompson plays a reimagined Hedda Gabler in Hedda, from director Nia DaCosta. (Background: unblinkstudio)
APATOW ASCENDING Maude Apatow revealed she was an OG Ankler subscriber (“my favorite newsletter!”) during her interview with her cast for her directorial debut, Poetic License. (Background: unblinkstudio)
Remember, you can watch full interviews on YouTube. Below is a snippet of Katey with the Poetic License gang, from left: Andrew Barth Feldman, Cooper Hoffman, Nico Parker, director Maude Apatow and Leslie Mann.👇🏼
TEAM TORONTO 1. From left: The Ankler’s London Sanders, Christopher Rosen, Kelly Butler, Katey Rich, Janice Min, Hanna Hensler, Simone Flournoy and Kara Warner. (Matthew Byrne) 2. Chris Chapman snaps Thompson. (Kelly Butler) 3. Katey and Richard Rushfield in the Criterion Collection Mobile Closet. (Criterion Collection) 4. Our studio at Soluna Toronto. (Kelly Butler)
Now, ICYMI, here’s the rest of our best of the week:
Series Business: Yellowstone Origin Story; TV Buyers’ Wish Lists
Elaine Low’s TV Sellers’ Guide is simply a must-read, with intel from agents, producers and studio execs on what every streamer and network in town is looking for these days:
Tasked with turning Spike TV into a “general entertainment” cable hub in 2017, Kevin Kay and his team at then-Viacom hinged the net’s success on a script by Taylor Sheridan, a TV newbie. For the first time, Kay reveals the winding tale of how Yellowstone came to be, from a Hotel Bel-Air sit-down with Harvey Weinstein on Oscar Sunday, to a 4 a.m. call to get a greenlight — and why it’s a cautionary tale about AI:
Dealmakers: Where WME’s Indie Chief Sees the Market
Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME Independent gives Ashley Cullins her thoughts on Mubi, The Forge and the distributors shaking up the landscape; what these films must do to thrive in a direct-to-consumer world; and what indies can learn from KPop Demon Hunters’ success:
Speaking of KPDH, Ashley delivers a convincing case for the reverse window model behind Netflix’s hit theatrical sing-along (and Disney’s 10th anniversary Hamilton), identifying which genres are best suited for the strategy and two rules Hollywood can’t afford to ignore:
Hollywood once had leaders who defended the reputation and survival of showbiz, until they lost their way. Now we’re stuck in their mess, as Richard lays out the 10 man-made industry disasters that will define our collective experience this fall and begs for leadership to take charge:
On her Prestige Junkie podcast, Kateyjoins fellow pundits (and former Vanity Fair colleagues) David Canfield & Richard Lawson to weigh which films and studios have the upper hand in the swelling Oscar race:
Telluride, Venice, and New Beginnings with David Canfield and Richard Lawson
With summer box office in the rearview, Hollywood can finally set its sights on the massive opportunity ahead: next summer. Sean McNulty takes an early look at the first theatrical slate truly unencumbered (hopefully) by strikes or a pandemic, and how its volume, originals and heaviest hitters stack up:
This week, on our live box office show, Richard and Sean take stock of the 2025 summer, and how — without depth, different genres and runaway hits — it fell short of the also disastrous 2024 summer box office:
Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey delivers a two-fer this week, with an inside look at a day on the set of an independently produced $100K microdrama — with ambitions for a $1M sale — and a scoop about the new podcast from Celebrity Memoir Book Clubduo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton:
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