issue 139
Hello! We have a guest writer for the preamble today. A first for this newsletter. It eased the pressure. But before we get into it, it would be wrong of me not to say this was one hell of a week. I have no more tears. Between the protests and rocket launch, I went through every emotion on Saturday. Society hasn’t changed since the 60s. Police brutality. Social injustice. A broken system.
Pandemic. Pandemonium. We need progress. We need leadership. We need hope.
To that end, our writer today takes a real honest look at the lack of leadership in Hollywood. They’re a beloved exec who’s been around the block once or twice. Without further ado, I present you anonymous talent rep:
If I asked you to name who the leaders of Hollywood are, where would you start? Who are the people that set the tone for the town—for better or worse—in the way that Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos do for the tech world? The last figure who comes to mind is the universally beloved Steve Golin, whose tireless work ethic, and love and care for his clients and projects every representative and producer tries to emulate. Following his passing, his Golin Rules (Dropbox link w/ PDF) were passed around every office in town like a new bible. In this time of uncertainty in our business, it feels like now, more than ever, there’s a glaring lack of leadership permeating throughout our ecosystem, which has forced me to consider if there’s even space for broadly transformative leaders in our current model.
Part of this curiosity stemmed from people’s reactions to Disney CEO Bob Iger’s book, as if it was a revolutionary document handed down from the mountain top. Were any of the ideals he laid out in his book actually revolutionary? The painfully short answer is that no, they are not; however, in entertainment, somehow—sadly—they were. Treat your subordinates well? Give them autonomy and trust the people you hired to do the jobs you hired them to do? In the Hollywood most of us were raised in, these ideals were not just revolutionary, but incendiary. It was counterintuitive to everything many of us were taught: treat everyone like an idiot, assume everyone is terrible at his or her job except for you, and above all else, never take responsibility for a f*ck up.
While rewatching LAWRENCE OF ARABIA recently, it occurred to me that there isn’t necessarily a lack of leadership in our business, but a diffusion of it. I came to realize that Hollywood has a lot in common with the Arab Tribes TE Lawrence allied with against the Ottomans. I’ll leave the rightful indictment of Lawrence’s Orientalism to Edward Said, but want to approach Lawrence of Arabia as a metaphor: we are a diaspora of disparate traders, each with our own differing interests, goals, and agendas. There are cities and power centers we all have to deal with because that’s where the markets are. Agencies, studios, financiers, and management companies all assert their power and control over limited parts of the business and our day-to-day lives. Each power center too has its own leadership style and culture, though rarely do they influence the way in which “the town” does business. Each is its own fiefdom. And it makes perfect sense! Most studio heads get four years to call the shots if they’re lucky. Agents and managers freely move between organizations. Producers have short-lived studio deals and companies can quickly disappear after a few unlucky rolls of the dice. Very few people, it seems, are genuinely interested in building organizations that outlive themselves, and contribute to changing our ecosystem.
Hollywood does, in fact, have many incredible leaders: directors that bring in projects on time and on budget, without harming the psyches of their cast and crew; executives who in this unprecedented time have given up compensation in order to prevent or push out layoffs; producers who pull productions together and see the possibilities from a mere headline or phrase a writer utters in a general. However, it’s a rare thing to see these people more broadly change the way we operate. Part of that may stem from our desert roots. We come together to try and make something great, and then go our separate ways. We can be so myopically self-focused on our work that the general health of our ecosystem becomes an afterthought.
In short, we lack a Lawrence: a leader who can unite us and enact change necessary to continue to push and mold our business into the 21st Century. That might be a good thing, because even though this new decade has had a tumultuous start, I think there’s a class of leaders, full of people who haven’t traditionally had a voice in our business, who are beginning to unite and advocate for necessary changes in our industry. This class has been raised by the old guard, but have persevered through the old world they were raised in. Their voices and calls for more inclusion, and better working environments are beginning to be heard. While there may not be space in the current model for a Lawrence, that doesn’t mean this generation can’t build their own. The future of Hollywood doesn’t require one Lawrence, but many.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you next week.
Tech
Looking Glass, holographic displays, raised $7.5m. SEC
Stringr, connects news orgs w/ on-demand videographers, raised $5.75m. TC
Niantic ships “reality bending” feature for AR. Nian
SpaceX Dragon successfully docks on ISS. Verge
Poplar, AR creative platform, raised $2.1m. PE
Kippo, dating app for gamers, raised $2m. VB
Snap plans to expand its developer platform. Info
ACLU sues Clearview AI, facial recog. Verge
Zynga to acquire Peak, Turkish mobile gaming platform, for $1.8b. MB Bberg
Podimo, Danish podcast producer and platform, raised $15m. Fins
Loom, video collab for work, raised $30m. Forbes
Scandit, AR, barcode and computer vision scanning, raised $80m. Aug
Podfund invests in Atypical Artists, podcast prod co. Med
Cabana, fancy van rentals to travel (into it), raised $3.5m. TC
TikTok starts educational initiative. AdW
D-ID, computer vision and identify software, raised $13m. TC
FB launches Venue, second screen to be paired w/ live events. TC
Decibel, digital experience analytics, raised $40m. BW
ThatDot, real-time streaming data analytics, raised $2m. BizJ
BlueCore, ai marketing automation, raised $50m. TC
FB shelved research on how it polarizes users. WSJ
Wiz AI, conversational chatbot platform, raised $6m. DSA
CarryFirst, African mobile games studio, raised $4m. TC
DefinedCrowd, ai data training collaborative, raised $50m. GW
Luminary, podcast network, raised $30m (is Grosvenor (founder’s dad) an LP in NEA?). SEC
FB launches CatchUp, audio only social network a la Clubhouse. TC
Rony is stepping down from Magic Leap. VB
Zynn, TikTok competitor, climbs ranks by giving away gift cards. SCMP
Orbita, chatbots for healthcare, raised $9m. Fins
FB launches Collab, music maker app. Verge
Gatsby, website builder, raised $28m. Forbes
Connexity acq SkimLinks, affiliate marketing. TC
Spectrum, conversational marketing, raised $3m. TC
SpaceX raised $350m. USAToday
Twitter fact-checked and labeled 45’s tweets on mail-in ballots. Verge
Apple may not include headphones with new phones, boost AirPods. 9to5mac
Datch, a voice visual ai assistant for industrial enterprise, raised $3.2m. Fins
Media
Trump might sign exec order to monitor social media (yikes). NYT
Warner Music Group to go public. S1
Amazon sent out scripted news segment, 11 stations aired it (…). Forbes
Advertisers seek to revise Quibi deal terms. WSJ
Guy Laliberte wants to buy back Cirque Du Soleil. CBC
Big Hit Ent, K pop label behind BTS, files for IPO. Forbes
Instagram to share revenue with creators. Verge
US Army signs deal w/ SpaceX’s Starlink for broadband. SN
Audible pushing more into podcasts. Bberg
HBO Max 90k downloads first day. Bberg
AT&T raised $3b in bond sales. BW
Bytedance to hit $3b in profit. Bberg
HBO Max and Comcast reach distrib deal. Dead
Amazon pushing more into localized podcast content. Axios
Live Nation terminates $480m deal to acq Ocesa, Mexican promoter. Bboard
Dazn continues to seek more money. FT
Bleacher Report tests in-app livestreams. Digiday
HBO, Netflix, and more support BLM. Var
Social media usage is at an all time high. NPR
Entertainment
Apple to co-fi Killers of Flower Moon (huge deal). WSJ
Tribeca’s We Are One festival lineup. Wrap
Safdie Bros sign first look with HBO/A24. Var
Ted Hope steps down from Amazon, enters into first look. Var
Agencies motion to dismiss packaging fee gripe with WGA. Dead
Gal Gadot’s Hedy Lamar series moves to Apple from Showtime. THR
All Harry Potter films to be on HBO Max at launch last week. Dead
Amazon acq Run Sweet Run from Blumhouse, Automatik. Dead
Upgrade series is in the works. Dead
The Three Amigos (Cuaron, Del Toro, Inarritu) breathe life back into Mexican cultural fund. IW
AGC to finance Panopticon from Scott Free, co-rep China w/ CAA. Var
Starz picks up YouTube cancelled series Step Up. Dead
Sony TV taking out Cobra Kai from YouTube. Dead
Lisbeth Salander (Girl Dragon Tattoo) standalone series at Amzn. Var
MGM remaking Fiddler on the Roof. Dead
The story behind the virtual film markets. Dead
Mubi acq TVOD and TV rights to Matthias & Maxime. Dead
Columbia grabs rights to We’re Not From Here, hybrid live action animation. Dead
Doug Liman to helm Tom Cruise SpaceX film. Var
Seed & Spark launched online festival platform. IW
Paul Feig to tackle School for Good and Evil at Netflix. Var
Blue Afternoon Lasted Forever lands at Paramount from Fully Formed. Var
IFP goes virtual, launches audio hub for podcasts. IW
Netflix finalizes acq of Egyptian Theater. IW
Solstice and Studio 8 team on futuristic thriller Mind Fall. Dead
Sony Intl and Amzn set multi-picture cosmic horror anthology w/ Alex Iglesia. Var
Scott Derrickson to direct Labyrinth remake for TriStar. Dead
Apple picks up Fraggle Rock from Jim Henson Co. Verge
TFI suspends operations indefinitely. Var
AMPAS short list of new members. Dead
Sony and Hyundai team on multi-film promo partnership. Dead
Sonic sequel in the works. Var
Virtual premieres for films. Dead
UK sets guidelines to restart prod this summer. IW
Australia sets guidelines for covid-safe production. Dead
Collaborative
Barack Obama on using this moment to instigate real change. Med
Trevor Noah video on racial injustice and more (must watch). YT
Is the brain useful to model AI? Wired
Reggie James on black excellence and our current times. HCR
John Maeda’s computational experience report. CX
BBC two year plan from May 2020. PDF
JK Rowling releases Ickabog book online. Ick
Nividia AI recreated Pac Man. Verge
Ben Thompson on platforms in an aggregator world, anti-amazon alliance. Strat
Dan Rose details the FB / DST Series D, very neat. DRtwtr
Evan Spiegel pens smart internal memo on racial injustice. Info
Some of the coolest experiments in Nasa’s cold atom lab. NASA
Timothy Lee on making cheaper and better batteries. ArsT
Scarce livestreams are booming for musicians. RS
Disney bosses on the social unrest. Dis
Interview with Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang. VB
Remix of This is America + Post being used in TikTok protest vids. Mash
It’s hard to delete yourself and your data from the internet. CNN
Profile on FilmChain, blockchain to film collection accounts (go Maria & Irina!). Guard
Details on the SpaceX and NASA launch that was supposed to go down. WSJ
MedMen might be flaming out. Politico
Ramy Youssef profile. Interview
Profile on Steve Buscemi. GQ
Strandfontein, food schemes in Cape Town during covid (really nice). YT
LVP on blockchain and gaming. Med
Moore twins on verticalized social networks. Med
Howard Marks letter, Uncertainty II. PDF
Send swag to improve company morale in these times. QZ
Pirate radio station, Radio Recliner, to help elderly in quarantine. RR
Lenny Ratchisky on his newsletter growth, shows the data (these things are tough). LRtwtr
Scientists record sounds of the elusive narwhal. Gizmodo
Daniel Gross on world 2.0 startups. DG
A look at the expansion of Ru Paul. Var
Scaling Roblox/Bert to serve 1b+ request on CPUs. Med
How music videos are made during covid. Ringer
Zoom video dates video (cringe). NewYorker
Jason Kilar WarnerMedia memo on the protests. Dead
Profile on Tani Adewumi, 9yo chess prodigy. ESPN
Josh Wolfe on investing in Variant, genes to make new mutants (pretty much). Med
Gunna and Young Thug. Interview
Human machine cooperation. NYT
Virtual production to likely flourish. LAT
Greg Isenberg on unbundling Reddit. SS
Fairview Capital on AI. FC
Driving around Bond’s latest Aston Martin. YT
NYC’s Blue Ribbon Alliance to fight covid / safely re-open. NYC