Daniel D'Addario, Variety chief correspondent, details his reporting on FX's massive bet on the sci-fi series "Alien: Earth," tapping into the franchise launched with the 1979 Ridley Scott film "Alien." Adam B. Vary, senior entertainment writer, offers a curtain-raiser on what to expect — and what not to expect — at San Diego Comic Con this year. He also discusses Marvel chief Kevin Feige's mea culpa to fans for getting overextended with movies and TV series.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Wednesday, July twenty third,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
we'll talk to Dan Didario, Variety's chief correspondent, for our
(00:31):
cover story segment in this week's print edition. Dan dives
into the world of FX and showrunner Noah Holly to
capture all that is on the line for both with
the dawn of Alien Earth on August twelfth, and we
hear from Adam b Veri about what to expect when
San Diego Comic Con begins tomorrow. He also gives us
(00:51):
some color on his recent interview with Marvel chief Kevin Feige.
It was an unusually candid session. Feigi acknowledged head on
that marl has simply been over extended in recent years.
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines just in this morning that you need to know.
Variety has unveiled. This year's Power of Young Hollywood honorees.
(01:12):
Singer Tyler Stranger Things, star Finn Wolfhard and Sam Novola
of White Lotus Fame will be saluted on August sixth
in our print edition, on digital and at our invite
only event the following day. Series orders have been flying.
Netflix has renewed Wednesday for season three. NBC has given
(01:32):
a series order to cheerleading comedy Stumble from Universal Television,
and Stars has given an eighteen episode order to Power Origins,
a prequel series revolving around the characters of Ghost and
Tommy and Rip Ozzy Osbourne, who died Tuesday at age
seventy six. What a career. Our music team is working
hard to pay tribute to the legendary artist who define
(01:55):
the sound of hard rock vocals for many decades. Now
we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news and
trends in show business. For today's cover story segment, Chief
correspondent Dan Didario details his epic journey into Noah Hollyland
with his inside look at Alien Earth. Dan Didario, Chief
(02:17):
correspondent for Variety, Thank you so much for joining me. Well,
thanks for having me, Dan, You wrote this week's cover
story all about Alien Earth, which is a truly big,
big bet that FX is making on another event series.
Tell me, as you've covered many shows, you've reviewed many
shows for us in your previous life as a chief
(02:38):
TV critic. From what you learned about the production and
the backstory, what stands out to you as unique about
Alien Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, I think that in the years since FX became
part of the Walt Disney Company after the twenty nineteen merger,
they've gone from the scrappy upstart network that punched above
weight to a network that has the capability to make
really big investments in things. You saw this last year
with Shogun, which was an international production of sunning levels
(03:09):
of craft. This show is even bigger. FX's president of Entertainment,
Gena Bialien, told me that it was a larger investment
of cash of capital, and also it is just as
big as it gets. I mean, Shogun was an international
production that had dazzling levels of craft and a huge,
sprawling cast. This is that, but also with alien spaceships
(03:29):
crashing into cities and the Xenomorph, the famous creature from
Ridley Scott's Alien film from nineteen seventy nine. And its sequels,
prowling around, eviscerating people. It is a level of ambition
that recalls Game of Thrones a decade ago, and it's
exciting that something so truly cinematic.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
FX is known for its signature, for its stylish look.
You know what an FX show is, and it'll be
interesting to see how they apply that to Alien a
well established you know, a welles dablished franchise that has
tent poles and pillars in the minds of fans. So
it's a swing for them in a number of ways.
Let me ask you from your vantage points. So you
(04:10):
talked to everybody, you did the three sixty reporting, from
the executives, to the creatives, to the stars, But from
what was your sense from FX executives? There's so much
on the line, and again the bar is high. With Shogun,
did you get a sense of nervousness? Did you get
a sense of real confidence? They can't wait to get
this out.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I would say the differentiation is that with Shogun there
was a sense of nervousness. I think that that's no secret.
I think with this there was a sense of excitement.
I think that they proved they could do it. With
Shogun granted a very different thing, but they hijacked the
zeitgeist with this piece of IP and transformed it and
made it new and made it fit for television. I
(04:51):
think they believe they've done it again.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Of course, you're reminding me as we're speaking that you
also did a great piece on Shogun just before it's launched,
So you are the perfect or to put this all
into perspective for FX. But yes, FX and Showgun really
worked around the world for Disney. Plus you segue nicely
into Noah Hawley. Why did FX pick Noah Hawley as
the person to adapt Alien?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, Noah is an idea machine. He said something interesting
when we spoke that didn't there wasn't room for it
to make it into the story, which is years and
years ago. Eight years ago, FX approached him and said,
if we could ever, if we ever got the rights
and the stars aligned, would you have an idea for
an Alien show? And he said something along the lines
up if you ask me if I'm going to have
(05:33):
an idea, I will. And so he just has the
capacity to think expansively about this universe. As he pointed
out to me, Alien unlike Star Wars, unlike Star Trek.
There's not a lot of mythology to it. So that
provides a clear, flat, clear flat plane in which you
(05:54):
can build anything you want. We know there are alien creatures,
we know there is commercial space, commercial space exploration, and commerce.
That's pretty much it. And so into this universe he's
extrapolated the way the government works. There is no more government.
The world is ruled by corporations. In a literal sense.
It is a hot, wet world because that's how he extrapolates.
(06:14):
The climate will change and AI, that incidentally, which has
become the defining issue of our time, is completely transforming
every aspect of life, down to the protagonist played by
Sidney Chandler, who is a human's consciousness inside a robotic shell.
I suppose it's not AI, it's real intelligence, it's artificial being.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I was saying that what you're describing is sounding less
and less like science fiction now reads.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Like the newspaper. Gina Baialien told me he wrote up,
you know, five pages, as just a pitch. If he
were ever able to do this eight years ago, at
every element in his pitch made it to the show
in its final form. He's a novelist He's written and
directed feature films, and he has the ability to hop
through is IP world without having it feel like a
(07:02):
crass brand extension. It's alien, but it is fundamentally a
Noah Holy show as well.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Players here are Sidney Chandler, who plays the lead character
Timothy Olifant, who is also no stranger to FX from
the Justified universe. He's back. He is in this series
as a key role. What is your sense of the
kind of the ensemble here. Do you think that this
is going to be a star making machine for some
of the ensemble players?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, I do. I think that a key element of
the show is that Sidney Chandler, who is the show's lead,
plays effectively the leader of a troop of children in
adult bodies. She goes by Wendy and they are her
lost boys, as in Neverland. And that ensemble of young
adult actors recalls to me, say Mazie Williams and Sophie
(07:51):
Turner and Kit Harrington on Game of Thrones, or more
to the present day, the younger actors on House of
the Dragon. It is a lineup of killer actors. I
would also spotlight Babu Sisea, who has fantastic role as
he begins the series on a ship kind of like
the one Sigourney Weaver traverses the universe on in the
(08:15):
Alien films, and he has complex motivations that would be
unfair to spoil, but he gets a very big spotlight.
He's a fantastic actor with whom I was not familiar
and he does a really great job. Oliphant and Sie Davis,
who played a key role in the film The Baba Duok,
are the known quantities. And as with shows like Game
(08:38):
of Thrones or The Last of Us, Chandler inhabits. As
Holly pointed out to me, it is a franchise that
has historically been fronted by e laite actress. The same
was true in last summer's Alien film with Kaylee Spainey,
and now Chandler steps into that role.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You're wedding my appetite to check this out. I want
to address it's it's in your cover story. It's a
prominent part of your cover story. There was a bit
of a hiccup with our cover photo shoot session with
Sidney Chandler. We had very much hoped and planned to
have her on the cover. There was a number of
things that came up in some conversations that were had,
(09:14):
and the upshot was that she did not participate in
the photo shoot. We were disappointed, but of course respect
her decision as an artist to make the choice that
she needs to and draw the boundaries that she needs
to in this world. We absolutely, I think we all
have to respect that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We had already spoken Sydney and I for what I
thought was going to be our only conversation for the piece,
and she was enthusiastic about the show, enthusiastic about her experience,
but very clear eyed about the fact that it had
been a challenge for her. She described her experience as difficult,
and I kind of chalked it up to production being
(09:51):
challenging in the best of times. This did give me
a moment of pause that she was taking a step
back from the promotion. Was able to get back on
the phone with her, and she made clear that there
were certain boundaries. She is a performer who wants to
be known for the quality of her work and not
for elements of her life. I would describe both of
(10:11):
our conversations as very thoughtful, unusually so. Chandler, who incidentally
grew up in Austin, not Hollywood with her parents. Her
father is the actor Kyle Chandler, always intended to be
a writer, not an actor, and has a recognized spirit
of a writer of pensiveness, and we, of course as
an institutional, respect her decision. It is unfortunate that the
(10:35):
lead of the show isn't on the cover, and we
felt we had to address it and talk about it,
and it gives a new perspective on that. Yes, it
was challenging for her to be part of the production.
It doesn't mean she disavows the show, and if the
show goes more seasons, she and Noah Hollywood want for
her to be a part of it. So I think
this is the beginning of a long career for someone
who is super talented.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Let me conclude Dan by asking you, drawing on your
background as as a TV critic, how do you think
this is going to perform for efics? Do you think
their investment will be well placed?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I believe so. I think this has the makings of
a huge hit. I think there is such a core
affection for the Alien franchise that even film entries in
recent years that have been have been of varying quality,
have been embraced by the fandom, and I think this
is of high quality. I think that fans will not
(11:28):
be disappointed. They will get everything they love about the franchise,
plus the secret sauce of Holly's extrapolations and visions of
the future. So I think there is a lot to
appreciate in this and I think that it will go
duly appreciated by people who are looking forward to it.
I think they have a lot to look forward to.
And thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Listeners, Please run, go get a print copy of Variety,
or go find the story on writey dot com. Dan
as ever, thank you for your reporting.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the chance to get
to do this story.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Next up, we'll hear from Adam Baveri on what's happening
and what's not happening this year at ComicCon. He also
shares impressions of his recent sit down with Marvel chief
Kevin Feige. Adam b Veri, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
You are getting ready for your super Bowl, which is
San Diego Comic Con, and you and Angelique Jackson sat
down for Variety with Kevin Figi, the main man of Marvel,
who has been steering the MCU to great heights for
nearly a decade, but there have been some stumbles in
recent years. Adam, what did you find? What did Figy
want to get across to you?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, he met with.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
A group of journalists at Marvel headquarters in Burbank, and
it's a first of all, it was just a rare
thing that you know, basically, any syllable that Kevin Figee
utters makes news. So he's become more and more careful
about when and how he gives interviews. But privately, Marvel
executives have been talking for a while now about how
(13:01):
much they've needed to change course, and this was the
first time Figie had really gone on the record in
a real robust way to address all of the difficulties
they've been having and you know, make his assessment of
what has been going wrong and how they're going to
be sort of riding the ship as it were, and
(13:23):
looking to their future.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What was Figi's diagnosis for kind of what set them
off track?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
He basically confirmed in a way what Disney's CEO Bob
Iger has been saying multiple times for a while noo actually,
which is that they made too much. You know, he
cited that the what's called the Infinity Saga, the series
of movies that came out between two thousand and eight
and twenty nineteen, that was about fifty hours worth of content.
(13:54):
But since then, because of the advent of Disney plus
they've made including animation, I think over one hundred and
twenty hours of content in half the time. And fig,
he said, flatley, that's too much. And you know, he
said that after the enormous triumph that was Avengers Endgame,
(14:15):
they wanted to enter a period and the way he
phrased it was a experimentation and evolution. That's how you
get movies like Eternals with Khoijao or Shang Chi and
the Legend of Ted and Rings. Whereas they were making
at most three movies a year at all, like and
that was it. They're you know, sometimes they had upwards
of nine to ten titles on film and television coming
(14:38):
out in a calendar year, and that just massive increase
in volume. Really, you know, diluted the brand, diluted their quality.
It's one point, he said, you know, for the first time,
quantity trumped quality. And you know, that's a pretty blunt
assessment for what went wrong. I think the crux of
what had been going wrong for.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Them, Disney, as we know, has shifted a lot of
gears to put so much into Disney. Plus, we know
that the increase came because of the real need to
feed Disney Plus, so very interesting. Business school students will
no doubt be parsing, be parsing these words. What did
he say in terms of here's what we're going to
do to kind of get back into that sort of
(15:19):
that sweet spot of fans love it.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
A lot of it is just sort of turning the
hose down, as it were. You know, he said, at most,
you know, they'll be making three movies a year, sometimes
only two or one. And on the live action television front,
he said they'll be years where they'll only have one show,
and I think in fact, next year that will likely
be the case. They'll have a show based on the
(15:44):
character of Vision, headed by Paul Bettany. I don't think
they have anything else on the docket for them, but
I think more than that, they also have the benefit
of being able to start making X Men movies. The
X Men I think are next to you know, Spider Man,
just sort of like across the board, separate from anything
(16:05):
that else Marvel's most popular characters, but those characters belonged
to twenty century Fox for a long time. Once Disney
acquired twenty Century Fox in twenty nineteen, those characters came
over to Marvel.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So segueing into comic Con, now that starts Thursday, runs
through Sunday, what are you expecting this year?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Well, as I said, you know, Marvel's not going, and
Marvel is always the sort of eight hundred pound gorilla
comic Con, so their absence makes it a quieter festival.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
DC is also not going to have a large presence there.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
They're only going to bring one of their shows, Peacemaker
season two, which James Gunn is a major architect for
James Gunn being the co chief of the new DC Studios,
so he'll be there to show that off. But they
may take a bit of a victory lap about Superman
at that panel, but.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I would bet on it.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I would bet on it. But you won't see.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I don't think we should anticipate seeing preview of Supergirl,
which is their movie coming out next year. They're going
to have a sort of a very quiet presence too,
so it's just generally going to be a little bit
of a quieter comic Con. There's a Ryan Gossling movie
called Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
They're going to have a big preview there. And then
(17:18):
I think the thing that's going to be big for
the kind of geeks is there's a remake of a
movie called The Toxic Avenger. If you're a big sort
of like you know, grade Z genre fan, you'll know
that property. It's by a company called Troma, and Peter
Dinklic is playing The Toxic Avenger. And on the TV front,
(17:40):
Alien Earth is going to have a big presence. They're
going to premiere the first episode and then have a panel.
The Star Trek two Star Trek shows are going to
be there, Star Trek Strange New Worlds and the new
show Star Trek's Starfleet Academy, and that people get their
first look at that. There'll be the second season of
gen V, the spinoff of the Boys. There'll be fun
things here in but overall, I think you won't expect
(18:02):
the kind of sort of titanic news that usually comes
out of Comic Con.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You can have a little more contemplative time as you
walk around hallh and everything else, Adam, thank you as
ever for keeping all of this mythology and characters and
brands and capes and tights, keeping all that straight. We
really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for the Netflix documentary The Truth About Jesse
Smolla is generating a lot of advance buzz. The doc
from the documentary Shop Raw revisits the twenty nineteen incident
involving the Empire Star. It's set to bow August twenty second.
Buckingham Nicks returns. The legendary nineteen seventy three album released
(18:48):
by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham shortly before they joined Fleetwood.
Mac has been out of print for more than forty years.
It'll be re released by Rhino Records on September nineteenth. Woohoo,
before we go, congrats to Anaka Jones. She's joined Maxine
Productions as Executive VP of Development and Current. She was
previously Chief Content Officer for Left Right Productions. Maxine Productions
(19:12):
is part of the Unscripted group at Sony Pictures TV.
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Dan Didario and Adam Baveri. It was
edited by Aaron Greenwald Stix Nix hick Picks. Thanks for listening,
Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of
your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode
(19:34):
of Daily Variety
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Wednesday, July twenty third,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Lyttleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
we'll talk to Dan Didario, Variety's chief correspondent, for our
(00:31):
cover story segment in this week's print edition. Dan dives
into the world of FX and showrunner Noah Holly to
capture all that is on the line for both with
the dawn of Alien Earth on August twelfth, and we
hear from Adam b Veri about what to expect when
San Diego Comic Con begins tomorrow. He also gives us
(00:51):
some color on his recent interview with Marvel chief Kevin Feige.
It was an unusually candid session. Feigi acknowledged head on
that marl has simply been over extended in recent years.
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines just in this morning that you need to know.
Variety has unveiled. This year's Power of Young Hollywood honorees.
(01:12):
Singer Tyler Stranger Things, star Finn Wolfhard and Sam Novola
of White Lotus Fame will be saluted on August sixth
in our print edition, on digital and at our invite
only event the following day. Series orders have been flying.
Netflix has renewed Wednesday for season three. NBC has given
(01:32):
a series order to cheerleading comedy Stumble from Universal Television,
and Stars has given an eighteen episode order to Power Origins,
a prequel series revolving around the characters of Ghost and
Tommy and Rip Ozzy Osbourne, who died Tuesday at age
seventy six. What a career. Our music team is working
hard to pay tribute to the legendary artist who define
(01:55):
the sound of hard rock vocals for many decades. Now
we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news and
trends in show business. For today's cover story segment, Chief
correspondent Dan Didario details his epic journey into Noah Hollyland
with his inside look at Alien Earth. Dan Didario, Chief
(02:17):
correspondent for Variety, Thank you so much for joining me. Well,
thanks for having me, Dan, You wrote this week's cover
story all about Alien Earth, which is a truly big,
big bet that FX is making on another event series.
Tell me, as you've covered many shows, you've reviewed many
shows for us in your previous life as a chief
(02:38):
TV critic. From what you learned about the production and
the backstory, what stands out to you as unique about
Alien Earth.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, I think that in the years since FX became
part of the Walt Disney Company after the twenty nineteen merger,
they've gone from the scrappy upstart network that punched above
weight to a network that has the capability to make
really big investments in things. You saw this last year
with Shogun, which was an international production of sunning levels
(03:09):
of craft. This show is even bigger. FX's president of Entertainment,
Gena Bialien, told me that it was a larger investment
of cash of capital, and also it is just as
big as it gets. I mean, Shogun was an international
production that had dazzling levels of craft and a huge,
sprawling cast. This is that, but also with alien spaceships
(03:29):
crashing into cities and the Xenomorph, the famous creature from
Ridley Scott's Alien film from nineteen seventy nine. And its sequels,
prowling around, eviscerating people. It is a level of ambition
that recalls Game of Thrones a decade ago, and it's
exciting that something so truly cinematic.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
FX is known for its signature, for its stylish look.
You know what an FX show is, and it'll be
interesting to see how they apply that to Alien a
well established you know, a welles dablished franchise that has
tent poles and pillars in the minds of fans. So
it's a swing for them in a number of ways.
Let me ask you from your vantage points. So you
(04:10):
talked to everybody, you did the three sixty reporting, from
the executives, to the creatives, to the stars, But from
what was your sense from FX executives? There's so much
on the line, and again the bar is high. With Shogun,
did you get a sense of nervousness? Did you get
a sense of real confidence? They can't wait to get
this out.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
I would say the differentiation is that with Shogun there
was a sense of nervousness. I think that that's no secret.
I think with this there was a sense of excitement.
I think that they proved they could do it. With
Shogun granted a very different thing, but they hijacked the
zeitgeist with this piece of IP and transformed it and
made it new and made it fit for television. I
(04:51):
think they believe they've done it again.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Of course, you're reminding me as we're speaking that you
also did a great piece on Shogun just before it's launched,
So you are the perfect or to put this all
into perspective for FX. But yes, FX and Showgun really
worked around the world for Disney. Plus you segue nicely
into Noah Hawley. Why did FX pick Noah Hawley as
the person to adapt Alien?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well, Noah is an idea machine. He said something interesting
when we spoke that didn't there wasn't room for it
to make it into the story, which is years and
years ago. Eight years ago, FX approached him and said,
if we could ever, if we ever got the rights
and the stars aligned, would you have an idea for
an Alien show? And he said something along the lines
up if you ask me if I'm going to have
(05:33):
an idea, I will. And so he just has the
capacity to think expansively about this universe. As he pointed
out to me, Alien unlike Star Wars, unlike Star Trek.
There's not a lot of mythology to it. So that
provides a clear, flat, clear flat plane in which you
(05:54):
can build anything you want. We know there are alien creatures,
we know there is commercial space, commercial space exploration, and commerce.
That's pretty much it. And so into this universe he's
extrapolated the way the government works. There is no more government.
The world is ruled by corporations. In a literal sense.
It is a hot, wet world because that's how he extrapolates.
(06:14):
The climate will change and AI, that incidentally, which has
become the defining issue of our time, is completely transforming
every aspect of life, down to the protagonist played by
Sidney Chandler, who is a human's consciousness inside a robotic shell.
I suppose it's not AI, it's real intelligence, it's artificial being.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I was saying that what you're describing is sounding less
and less like science fiction now reads.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Like the newspaper. Gina Baialien told me he wrote up,
you know, five pages, as just a pitch. If he
were ever able to do this eight years ago, at
every element in his pitch made it to the show
in its final form. He's a novelist He's written and
directed feature films, and he has the ability to hop
through is IP world without having it feel like a
(07:02):
crass brand extension. It's alien, but it is fundamentally a
Noah Holy show as well.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Players here are Sidney Chandler, who plays the lead character
Timothy Olifant, who is also no stranger to FX from
the Justified universe. He's back. He is in this series
as a key role. What is your sense of the
kind of the ensemble here. Do you think that this
is going to be a star making machine for some
of the ensemble players?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, I do. I think that a key element of
the show is that Sidney Chandler, who is the show's lead,
plays effectively the leader of a troop of children in
adult bodies. She goes by Wendy and they are her
lost boys, as in Neverland. And that ensemble of young
adult actors recalls to me, say Mazie Williams and Sophie
(07:51):
Turner and Kit Harrington on Game of Thrones, or more
to the present day, the younger actors on House of
the Dragon. It is a lineup of killer actors. I
would also spotlight Babu Sisea, who has fantastic role as
he begins the series on a ship kind of like
the one Sigourney Weaver traverses the universe on in the
(08:15):
Alien films, and he has complex motivations that would be
unfair to spoil, but he gets a very big spotlight.
He's a fantastic actor with whom I was not familiar
and he does a really great job. Oliphant and Sie Davis,
who played a key role in the film The Baba Duok,
are the known quantities. And as with shows like Game
(08:38):
of Thrones or The Last of Us, Chandler inhabits. As
Holly pointed out to me, it is a franchise that
has historically been fronted by e laite actress. The same
was true in last summer's Alien film with Kaylee Spainey,
and now Chandler steps into that role.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
You're wedding my appetite to check this out. I want
to address it's it's in your cover story. It's a
prominent part of your cover story. There was a bit
of a hiccup with our cover photo shoot session with
Sidney Chandler. We had very much hoped and planned to
have her on the cover. There was a number of
things that came up in some conversations that were had,
(09:14):
and the upshot was that she did not participate in
the photo shoot. We were disappointed, but of course respect
her decision as an artist to make the choice that
she needs to and draw the boundaries that she needs
to in this world. We absolutely, I think we all
have to respect that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We had already spoken Sydney and I for what I
thought was going to be our only conversation for the piece,
and she was enthusiastic about the show, enthusiastic about her experience,
but very clear eyed about the fact that it had
been a challenge for her. She described her experience as difficult,
and I kind of chalked it up to production being
(09:51):
challenging in the best of times. This did give me
a moment of pause that she was taking a step
back from the promotion. Was able to get back on
the phone with her, and she made clear that there
were certain boundaries. She is a performer who wants to
be known for the quality of her work and not
for elements of her life. I would describe both of
(10:11):
our conversations as very thoughtful, unusually so. Chandler, who incidentally
grew up in Austin, not Hollywood with her parents. Her
father is the actor Kyle Chandler, always intended to be
a writer, not an actor, and has a recognized spirit
of a writer of pensiveness, and we, of course as
an institutional, respect her decision. It is unfortunate that the
(10:35):
lead of the show isn't on the cover, and we
felt we had to address it and talk about it,
and it gives a new perspective on that. Yes, it
was challenging for her to be part of the production.
It doesn't mean she disavows the show, and if the
show goes more seasons, she and Noah Hollywood want for
her to be a part of it. So I think
this is the beginning of a long career for someone
who is super talented.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Let me conclude Dan by asking you, drawing on your
background as as a TV critic, how do you think
this is going to perform for efics? Do you think
their investment will be well placed?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I believe so. I think this has the makings of
a huge hit. I think there is such a core
affection for the Alien franchise that even film entries in
recent years that have been have been of varying quality,
have been embraced by the fandom, and I think this
is of high quality. I think that fans will not
(11:28):
be disappointed. They will get everything they love about the franchise,
plus the secret sauce of Holly's extrapolations and visions of
the future. So I think there is a lot to
appreciate in this and I think that it will go
duly appreciated by people who are looking forward to it.
I think they have a lot to look forward to.
And thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Listeners, Please run, go get a print copy of Variety,
or go find the story on writey dot com. Dan
as ever, thank you for your reporting.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the chance to get
to do this story.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Next up, we'll hear from Adam Baveri on what's happening
and what's not happening this year at ComicCon. He also
shares impressions of his recent sit down with Marvel chief
Kevin Feige. Adam b Veri, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
You are getting ready for your super Bowl, which is
San Diego Comic Con, and you and Angelique Jackson sat
down for Variety with Kevin Figi, the main man of Marvel,
who has been steering the MCU to great heights for
nearly a decade, but there have been some stumbles in
recent years. Adam, what did you find? What did Figy
want to get across to you?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, he met with.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
A group of journalists at Marvel headquarters in Burbank, and
it's a first of all, it was just a rare
thing that you know, basically, any syllable that Kevin Figee
utters makes news. So he's become more and more careful
about when and how he gives interviews. But privately, Marvel
executives have been talking for a while now about how
(13:01):
much they've needed to change course, and this was the
first time Figie had really gone on the record in
a real robust way to address all of the difficulties
they've been having and you know, make his assessment of
what has been going wrong and how they're going to
be sort of riding the ship as it were, and
(13:23):
looking to their future.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
What was Figi's diagnosis for kind of what set them
off track?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
He basically confirmed in a way what Disney's CEO Bob
Iger has been saying multiple times for a while noo actually,
which is that they made too much. You know, he
cited that the what's called the Infinity Saga, the series
of movies that came out between two thousand and eight
and twenty nineteen, that was about fifty hours worth of content.
(13:54):
But since then, because of the advent of Disney plus
they've made including animation, I think over one hundred and
twenty hours of content in half the time. And fig,
he said, flatley, that's too much. And you know, he
said that after the enormous triumph that was Avengers Endgame,
(14:15):
they wanted to enter a period and the way he
phrased it was a experimentation and evolution. That's how you
get movies like Eternals with Khoijao or Shang Chi and
the Legend of Ted and Rings. Whereas they were making
at most three movies a year at all, like and
that was it. They're you know, sometimes they had upwards
of nine to ten titles on film and television coming
(14:38):
out in a calendar year, and that just massive increase
in volume. Really, you know, diluted the brand, diluted their quality.
It's one point, he said, you know, for the first time,
quantity trumped quality. And you know, that's a pretty blunt
assessment for what went wrong. I think the crux of
what had been going wrong for.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Them, Disney, as we know, has shifted a lot of
gears to put so much into Disney. Plus, we know
that the increase came because of the real need to
feed Disney Plus, so very interesting. Business school students will
no doubt be parsing, be parsing these words. What did
he say in terms of here's what we're going to
do to kind of get back into that sort of
(15:19):
that sweet spot of fans love it.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
A lot of it is just sort of turning the
hose down, as it were. You know, he said, at most,
you know, they'll be making three movies a year, sometimes
only two or one. And on the live action television front,
he said they'll be years where they'll only have one show,
and I think in fact, next year that will likely
be the case. They'll have a show based on the
(15:44):
character of Vision, headed by Paul Bettany. I don't think
they have anything else on the docket for them, but
I think more than that, they also have the benefit
of being able to start making X Men movies. The
X Men I think are next to you know, Spider Man,
just sort of like across the board, separate from anything
(16:05):
that else Marvel's most popular characters, but those characters belonged
to twenty century Fox for a long time. Once Disney
acquired twenty Century Fox in twenty nineteen, those characters came
over to Marvel.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So segueing into comic Con, now that starts Thursday, runs
through Sunday, what are you expecting this year?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Well, as I said, you know, Marvel's not going, and
Marvel is always the sort of eight hundred pound gorilla
comic Con, so their absence makes it a quieter festival.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
DC is also not going to have a large presence there.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
They're only going to bring one of their shows, Peacemaker
season two, which James Gunn is a major architect for
James Gunn being the co chief of the new DC Studios,
so he'll be there to show that off. But they
may take a bit of a victory lap about Superman
at that panel, but.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I would bet on it.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
I would bet on it. But you won't see.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I don't think we should anticipate seeing preview of Supergirl,
which is their movie coming out next year. They're going
to have a sort of a very quiet presence too,
so it's just generally going to be a little bit
of a quieter comic Con. There's a Ryan Gossling movie
called Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.
They're going to have a big preview there. And then
(17:18):
I think the thing that's going to be big for
the kind of geeks is there's a remake of a
movie called The Toxic Avenger. If you're a big sort
of like you know, grade Z genre fan, you'll know
that property. It's by a company called Troma, and Peter
Dinklic is playing The Toxic Avenger. And on the TV front,
(17:40):
Alien Earth is going to have a big presence. They're
going to premiere the first episode and then have a panel.
The Star Trek two Star Trek shows are going to
be there, Star Trek Strange New Worlds and the new
show Star Trek's Starfleet Academy, and that people get their
first look at that. There'll be the second season of
gen V, the spinoff of the Boys. There'll be fun
things here in but overall, I think you won't expect
(18:02):
the kind of sort of titanic news that usually comes
out of Comic Con.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
You can have a little more contemplative time as you
walk around hallh and everything else, Adam, thank you as
ever for keeping all of this mythology and characters and
brands and capes and tights, keeping all that straight. We
really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for the Netflix documentary The Truth About Jesse
Smolla is generating a lot of advance buzz. The doc
from the documentary Shop Raw revisits the twenty nineteen incident
involving the Empire Star. It's set to bow August twenty second.
Buckingham Nicks returns. The legendary nineteen seventy three album released
(18:48):
by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham shortly before they joined Fleetwood.
Mac has been out of print for more than forty years.
It'll be re released by Rhino Records on September nineteenth. Woohoo,
before we go, congrats to Anaka Jones. She's joined Maxine
Productions as Executive VP of Development and Current. She was
previously Chief Content Officer for Left Right Productions. Maxine Productions
(19:12):
is part of the Unscripted group at Sony Pictures TV.
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Dan Didario and Adam Baveri. It was
edited by Aaron Greenwald Stix Nix hick Picks. Thanks for listening,
Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of
your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode
(19:34):
of Daily Variety
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com