Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor on Fyre Festival going up for sale

The Fyre Festival brand has gone up for sale - a matter of weeks after the organisers postponed Fyre Festival 2 with no new date set.

Billy McFarland, the former organiser who served six years in prison after the 2017 event, claimed giving control of the festival to a new group would help build on the global entertainment brand.

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall wonders if anyone will pay for the event.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks, EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Entertainment Time Now and I'm joined by Steve Neil, editor
at Flicksto Code on in Zig. Good morning, good to
see you here, and he's going a microphone on there
we go. Hello, Hello, I'm very excited poker Face is
back for season two. I kinite enjoyed this quirky little number.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, isn't this a treat? This is Ryan Johnson's Mystery
of the Week series starring Natasha Leone. It's had its
first season. It was built off this really nice GiMA
actually plays a character called Charlie Kale who consents when
people are lying, just can't sense what they're lying about
or what the implication for the narrative is, just whether
that's BS or not and basically how it boils down

(00:49):
in the show.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Am I right that Ryan Johnson was behind Knives Out?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yes? Absolutely so, Right back to his very first film, Brick.
He's noir and mystery and those kind of old timey
classics a really big influence on his filmmaking. Yes, ready,
clearly and Knives Out and poker Face sort of draws
from the Colombo style of mystery. Well it steals Columbo's

(01:14):
font for the opening credits one thing, but also in
that structurally it's less of a who done it than
how catch them? We see? Every episode will open with
the new stars, the guest stars of the week, and
we start to sort of see events that will lead
to some death of one kind or another, and then
then it's star will kind of parachute in mid episode

(01:36):
and play catch up on how they're going to trip
up this killer that we already know is unmasked to
the viewers. The thrill of the show, but also thrill
of the show is just a sort of tone of
like balances comedy drama really nicely and has an insane
list of guest stars the season two guest stars Season

(01:57):
two kicks off this Friday on TV and Z Plus
for the first three episodes of the season, and the
guest does this season include Awkward Fena bj Novak, method Man,
Cynthia Arrivo, Gabbie Hoffman, Gean Carlo Esposito, John Ritter, John Cho,
John Mulaney, Justin Thrower, Katie Holmes, Kevin Carrigan, Lily Taylor,

(02:18):
Melanie Lynskey, Patti Sarris, Ria Perlman, Sam Richardson, etc. Not
to be outdone, though, Ron Johnson does have another Knives
Out film on the way this year which will be
coming to Netflix. It's called Wake Up dead Man. I
don't know if there's a commoner thing. I don't know
if it's wake Up dead Man, or if it's wake
Up dead Man, or if it's just wake Up dead Man.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
But find out.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
The ensemble for that includes Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolan,
Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Thomas
Hayden Church among others are and of course Daniel Craig
as Benoir Blanc.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Okay, so Ryan Johnson clearly has some Paul on Hollywood
big time, Yeah, big time. I love these shows where
you just don't know who's gonna sort of appear each
Episode's that's part of the fun of them, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Massively, and the tone will kind of because it's got
this mystery of the week time sort of quality to it,
the tone of the show can sort of differ a
little bit from episode to episode, so that chemistry and
the casting plays such an awesome role. For instance, without
getting too spoiler around, it is great to see Katie
Holmes's opposite gian Carlo Esposito as a couple with some

(03:29):
friction in their marriage. Two actors were kind of contrasting filmographies.
Was of great to see opposite Yah.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
It reminds me of the first episode of the latest
series of Righteous Gemstones when I started watching it, and
I'm like, is that Bradley Cooper?

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Wasn't that just what's going on here? How do they
keep that secret?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
How did they keep that secret? And is it really
am Yes, it is? I love that so sorry, that's
this Friday TVNZ plus that's right.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
And so we get our first three episodes in one chunk,
and having received them about a week ago, I also
watched those three episodes in one chunk. It's a to
revisit this, this awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Show and from the story that just keeps on giving
Fire Festival. We have an update.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
It's an update, but Franchescret's also an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
No, what's he doing now? What's the offerings.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Now by Fire Festival? And and and if you do,
do you want to consider that maybe what we've been
reporting on, reporting on like it's news. For the last
couple of months has been that maybe it's all just
been a big exercise in selling Fire Festival, because we've
had it's almost we've had it's coming back, we've had

(04:45):
it's coming back, but it's in this place. Then we've
had it's coming back, but not in that place because
that wasn't ever actually going to happen. But I promise
it's in this other place. And now it's a new
chapter begins.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
A dollar. I think I pay a dollar for the brand, wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
What it's worth.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
As as someone once said to a business associate of mine,
take out a calculator, mate, put that number in, but
then put a few more zeros in after it, which
I always thought, you don't need a calculator to do.
You can do that in your head. But anyway, you
can buy Fire Festival too if you want to. What
did What does Billy McFarland say for himself. This is

(05:25):
the promoter who's done jail time for the first Fire Festival,
He said, over the past two years, we've poured everything
and to bring Fire back with honesty, transparency, relentless effort
and creativity. We've taken the wrong the wrong load. We've
taken the long road through a building trust, we rebuilt momentum,
We proved one thing without a doubt. Fire is one

(05:46):
of the most powerful attention engines in the world. Listeners,
I apologize because I've contributed to this. I've fed I've
fed this monster by talking about Fire Festival. So I
think after today we might just say, unless a very newsworthy,
new owner comes out of the out of the woodwork,
let's stop talking about Fire.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, it might be done in dusted.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Do you think you I.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Thought you were going to demand more coverage.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
But.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
As I always say, as I say, it is the
gift that keeps on giving. So we'll wait and see
what the next installment is.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.