John and Craig welcome Akela Cooper (M3GAN, Malignant) to help offer guidance to billionaires looking to put their money in the safest place they can: the film and television industry. The trio looks at the upsides of investing in productions, which business models already exist and what we can learn from the independent television studios of the past.
We also chart Akela’s career from USC student through to this year’s hit film M3GAN. We then answer listener questions on planting easter eggs and nameless characters.
In our bonus segment for premium members, Akela tells us about her experience in two different studio training programs and whether they’re useful for new writers.
Links:
- Akela Cooper on IMDb and Instagram
- Paramount Writers Mentoring Program(formerly CBS Writers Mentoring Program)
- Warner Bros. Television Workshop
- M3GAN Dance Scene
- Episode 122: “Young Billionaires Guide to Hollywood”
- Ben Affleck And Matt Damon Launch Production Company With RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale by Bruce Haring for Variety
- Warner Bros. Discovery In Talks To License HBO Original Series To Netflix by Peter White for Deadline
- The Carsey-Werner Company on Wikipedia
- Чёрный Ворон (Black Raven) – Chernobyl OST
- Evolution Keeps Making Crabs, And Nobody Knows Why by Clare Watson for Science Alert
- Welcome to Wrexham on FX and Hulu
- Arnold on Netflix
- The Last Action Heroes by Nick de Semlyen
- Commando: The Musical
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Instagram
- John August on Twitter
- John on Instagram
- John on Mastodon
- Outro by Nora Beyer (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli. Our intern is Halley Lamberson.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 7-26-23: The transcript for this episode can be found here.