The Business

This week, Kim Masters speaks with casting director Wittney Horton about helping Kane Parsons navigate his feature debut, Backrooms. Horton shares how she used a practice Zoom call to prepare Parsons for a meeting with Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor. She also considers how the new Oscar for casting might change the way her colleagues approach their craft, and whether an actor’s social media following should influence casting decisions.



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni explore what the 2026 midterm results could mean for Hollywood in the coming year. They discuss whether changes in the Senate could create hurdles for the federal tax incentive endorsed by Trump, and whether the recent Skydance deal could draw scrutiny from both the House and Senate.

This week, Kim Masters sits down with Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney to talk about his new film, Musk. Gibney explains how the project grew from two hours to nearly four as Elon Musk aligned himself with Donald Trump, and the unexpected difficulties he faced when major social media platforms initially refused to run ads for the film. He also discusses why he remains confident the documentary will stream on HBO, despite David Ellison’s takeover of Warner Bros. and Musk’s billion-dollar investment in Skydance, and shares his outlook on the upcoming midterms.

Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni take a closer look at Musk’s relationship with the Ellisons, what a multi-billion dollar investment from Elon could mean for Skydance’s future, and whether Hollywood talent might think twice about working with the company.

It’s official: Bela Bajaria and Dan Lin are out at Netflix, and Peter Rice is in as the streamer’s new chief content officer. Kim Masters and Matt Belloni break down the shakeup, how Rice landed the top job, and who he might recruit to oversee Netflix’s future projects.



Plus, we’re sharing some unheard moments from Masters’ recent conversations. Tiger King filmmaker Eric Goode explains how his years running New York nightclubs, restaurants, and hotels prepared him for a documentary career involving venomous snakes and armed exotic animal traffickers. And veteran marketing executive Gerry Rich looks back at working with the Broccoli family to revive James Bond with GoldenEye, along with his experiences working for a notorious Hollywood producer who once threatened to break Kim’s kneecaps.

This week, Kim Masters sits down with veteran Hollywood marketing executive Gerry Rich to talk about his memoir, Chasing Hollywood. Rich recalls the nightmare of working for Harvey Weinstein at Miramax, helping launch Iron Man before Marvel became part of the Disney empire, and getting a crash course in Amazon’s bizarre corporate culture after it acquired MGM. He also revisits a bitter Paramount power struggle involving Josh Greenstein, who now co-chairs Skydance’s film group overseeing Paramount and Warner Bros.



Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni break down yet another round of Hollywood layoffs, this time at Netflix. The banter partners discuss the streamer's decision to cut 1,000 jobs amid slower-than-expected growth and what the latest reductions signal for the streaming business.

This week, Van Dyke Parks sits down with The Business showrunner Joshua Farnham to look back at a career that stretches from childhood acting to collaborating with Brian Wilson, and scoring films for Jack Nicholson. He also recalls his first arranging job, The Bare Necessities for Disney’s The Jungle Book, and how Harry Nilsson talked him into spending five months in Malta for Robert Altman’s Popeye.

Plus, Kim Masters and Matt Belloni sort through who’s in and who’s out at Skydance. They discuss the unceremonious dismissal of Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who’s taking their jobs, and the company’s promises for paying down its mountain of debt.