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      Streaming Companies Are Looking to Britain for Studios to Meet Demand

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      Netflix, Amazon Prime and other studios are snapping up soundstages in Britain and building more, drawn by an experienced labor pool and alluring tax incentives.LIVERPOOL, England — For two decades, the Littlewoods building in Liverpool, a long, low-slung and cavernous space built to house a betting and mail-order company in the 1930s, sat abandoned. No one wanted to take on this crumbling hulk looming on the outskirts of the city.Until Lynn Saunders. She is the driving force to make it the center of Liverpool’s first film and TV studio complex.“It’s a beast of a site,” said Ms. Saunders, the head of the Liverpool Film Office. It had been too intimidating for most prospective buyers. But amid a boom in TV and film production in Britain, Littlewoods Studios is now one of at least two dozen major plans to build or expand studio space across Britain.Streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video are racing to meet insatiable demand for content and have chosen Britain as their location to make it, countering the malaise of overall investment in the nation since it voted to leave the European Union. In 2021, a record 5.6 billion pounds ($7.4 billion) was spent on film and high-end TV productions in Britain, nearly 30 percent more than the previous high in 2019, according to the British Film Institute. More than 80 percent of that money was coming ashore from American studios or other foreign productions.Lynn Saunders, the head of the Liverpool Film Office, hopes that adding studios will keep productions in town and stimulate the local economy.Francesca Jones for The New York TimesAssured that there is no imminent end to the desire for binge-worthy shows and movies, studios, property developers and local authorities are rushing to build more production space. Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity company, and Hudson Pacific Properties, the owner of Sunset Studios, which include the former homes of Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, have said they will invest £700 million to build the first Sunset Studios facility outside Los Angeles, just north of London. With 21 soundstages, it will be larger than any of its Hollywood studios.“There is just such a massive need to produce content in markets that already have infrastructure,” said Victor Coleman, the chairman and chief executive of Hudson Pacific Properties. “And the infrastructure is not necessarily just the facilities but it’s also the talent both in front and behind the camera.”The once-abandoned Littlewoods building in Liverpool. The site is now one of about a dozen major plans to build or expand studio space across Britain.Francesca Jones for The New York TimesThe early “Star Wars” films and 10 years’ worth of Harry Potter movies helped Britain get here. Film productions were attracted by experienced labor and visual effects companies and, critically, generous tax breaks. In 2013, the incentives were extended to TV productions that cost more than £1 million per broadcast hour — so-called high-end TV series, like “The Crown” and “Game of Thrones.” In recent years, productions were offered a 25 percent cash rebate on qualifying expenditures, such as visual effects done in Britain. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, tax breaks for film, TV, video games, children’s television and animation exceeded £1.2 billion.In Britain, film gets a level of government attention that other creative industries, such as live theater, can only dream of.“I would not like to contemplate the loss of the tax incentive,” said Ben Roberts, the chief executive of the British Film Institute. Without it, Britain would become immediately uncompetitive, he added.Most of the growth in production in Britain comes from big-budget TV shows, a staple of streaming channels. Last year, 211 high-end TV productions filmed in Britain, such as “Ted Lasso” and “Good Omens,” and fewer than half of them were produced solely by British companies, according to the British Film Institute. Compared with 2019, the amount spent jumped by 85 percent to £4.1 billion.Buildings and streets in Liverpool were transformed into Gotham City for the filming of “The Batman.”Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros.St. George’s Hall in Liverpool was used in “The Batman.”Francesca Jones for The New York TimesA scene shows Batman jumping off the Liver building, in front of its clock.Francesca Jones for The New York TimesLiverpool already claims to be the second-most-filmed-in city in Britain after London. For a few weeks in late 2020, its streets became Gotham City for “The Batman,” and for years shows, including “Peaky Blinders,” have been shot there. The local authority is courting more TV shows by building four smaller studios.Property developers announced the plan for Littlewoods Studios in early 2018, but the grand ambitions were pushed off course a few months later by a fire in the building. Not wanting to miss out on the rising demand, Ms. Saunders convinced the City Council to spend £3 million building two soundstages adjacent to the site. They opened in October.And then at the end of last year, £8 million in public funding was approved for remedial work on the Littlewoods building to create two more sound stages. Ms. Saunders hopes that adding studios will keep productions in town for longer — occupying hotel rooms, ordering from restaurants and employing local people. The film office has also started investing in productions — so far to the tune of £2 million in six TV shows.Britain is already the largest production location for Netflix outside the United States and Canada. While plenty is filmed on location — such as “Bridgerton,” in Bath, and “Sex Education,” in Wales — Netflix committed to a permanent home in 2019 at the Pinewood Group’s Shepperton Studios in Surrey, just southwest of London, where “Dr. Strangelove” and “Oliver!” were made decades ago. Shepperton is now expanding, aiming to double the number of its soundstages to 31 by 2023, and Netflix plans to occupy much of that new space.“Ted Lasso” was one of 211 high-end TV productions filmed in Britain last year.Colin Hutton/Apple TV+, via Associated PressBut the descent of American streamers on British shores has brought its challenges, too. The industry is rife with stories of production crews leaving jobs for higher-paying gigs, long waits for studios and production costs that outpace inflation.Anna Mallett, Netflix’s vice president of physical production for the U.K., Europe, Middle East and Africa, resists the idea that the streamer’s voracious expansion is squeezing others out of studio space.“I do think there is enough for everyone,” she said. “There’s over six million square feet of production space coming onto the market in the next couple of years.”Amazon plans to move in next door. Last month, Prime Video agreed to lease 450,000 square feet in the new development at Shepperton Studios, including nine soundstages. The streaming service sent a ripple of excitement through Britain last year when it announced that it would film the second season of its “Lord of the Rings” series, “The Rings of Power,” in the country. It will move from New Zealand to the dismay of that country’s officials, who over two decades have offered hundreds of millions of dollars in financial incentives to the franchise.By 2023, Warner Bros. hopes to be underway with its plans to add 50 percent more soundstage space to its studios northwest of London.Warner Bros. was the first major Hollywood studio to set up a permanent location in Britain when it bought in 2010 the Leavesden studios, where it made Harry Potter.“It was a pretty huge leap for Warners to make that investment,” said Emily Stillman, the head of studio operations at Leavesden. After years of piecemeal expansion, the new development, if it gets planning approval, will be the studio’s biggest investment at the site.Away from more renowned studios surrounding London, there is hope that the production boom can bring job opportunities and investment to overlooked areas in Britain. New studios are being constructed out of an old industrial space in Dagenham, in east London, an area once synonymous with the manufacture of Ford cars in the 20th century. In Bristol, the local authority is investing £12 million to add three more soundstages to Bottle Yard Studios in an area that is economically struggling, said Laura Aviles, the head of the Bristol Film Office.A guide leading a tour of filiming areas in Liverpool, which are rapidly expanding as the industry invests in Britain.Francesca Jones for The New York Times“It’s been a struggle” to regenerate the area, she said, “and there are a lot of young people there who could be third-generation unemployed who have struggled to get into work.” The expansion will hopefully entice other businesses to the area.There is a risk that all this demand for studio space could become a blessing and a curse. Despite the skilled work force in the field, there are real concerns about whether Britain can train enough production crew and fill the associated roles to populate all this new studio space. The industry has committed millions of pounds to rapid training programs. Industry leaders hope to bring more people into the field and break the stereotype that the work — most of it freelance — is exclusively for the well off and well connected. This month, Prime Video said it would spend £10 million to fund courses in Britain focused on increasing diversity in the industry and positions in Prime Video-commissioned productions.And there is the fear that smaller independent productions by British filmmakers, who can’t as readily use debt to finance an expansion, will be left behind in this boom. Just 16 percent of the money spent on high-end TV shows in Britain last year went to solely domestic productions.The level of foreign investment “does run the risk of challenging the indigenous, independent sector in terms of its ability to retain talent, crew up, get finance, hire space, use locations,” Mr. Roberts of the British Film Institute said. “We are really alert to that not feeling like a squeeze too far.” More

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      Alan Horn, a top creative executive, is the latest high-ranking Disney departure.

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      One of Hollywood’s senior statesmen announced his retirement on Monday, adding to a startling changing of the guard at the Walt Disney Company.Alan F. Horn, 78, will step down on Dec. 31 as chief creative officer of Disney Studios Content, a division that includes Marvel, Lucasfilm, Searchlight Pictures, Pixar, 20th Century Studios and Disney’s traditional animation and live-action movie operations. His position is not expected to be filled.“It’s never easy to say goodbye to a place you love, which is why I’ve done it slowly,” Mr. Horn said in a statement. “But with Alan Bergman leading the way, I’m confident the incredible Studios team will keep putting magic out there for years to come.” Mr. Bergman, a steady hand at Disney’s movie division since 1996, succeeded Mr. Horn as chairman of Disney Studios Content last year.Mr. Bergman, 55, called Mr. Horn “one of the most important mentors I’ve ever had.”Mr. Horn’s retirement adds to brain drain at the world’s largest entertainment company as a new generation of executives rise to power — led by Bob Chapek, who became chief executive last year. While not unexpected, the parade of retirements has contributed to an unsettled feeling inside the conglomerate, which is still recovering from an almost complete shutdown during the early part of the pandemic.Robert A. Iger, the executive chairman, is decamping in December. Alan N. Braverman, Disney’s top lawyer, and Zenia B. Mucha, its chief communications officer, plan to leave around the same time. Other departures have included Jayne Parker, who led human resources; Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley, who ran Searchlight, Disney’s art film studio; and Gary Marsh, a longtime Disney-branded television executive.Mr. Horn’s entertainment career has spanned nearly 50 years. He joined Disney in 2012 after being squeezed out of a senior role at Warner Bros. to make room for a new generation of managers. At Warner, where he expertly steered the Harry Potter and Batman franchises, he forged a strategy that ultimately swept through Hollywood — focusing on effects-filled franchise pictures, or “tent poles,” that resonate overseas.The growth at Disney’s movie division under his tenure was jaw-dropping. In 2012, Disney-distributed movies collected about $3.3 billion at the global box office. In 2019, the studio generated $9 billion in ticket sales. More

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      “Dune”: quid des Oscars et d'une deuxième partie?

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      Notre critique évalue les chances et les attentes du film à l’approche de la saison des grands prix de cinéma. Aux USA, le film sort le mois prochain à la fois en salle et en streaming.The New York Times traduit en français une sélection de ses meilleurs articles. Retrouvez-les ici.L’épice doit couler. Mais le public sera-t-il au rendez-vous ?Le film très attendu de Denis Villeneuve a été projeté en avant-première à la Mostra de Venise le 3 septembre. C’était un choix de lieu inattendu pour le lancement d’une franchise de science-fiction qui aura coûté près de 160 millions de dollars — mais “Dune” n’a rien d’une locomotive de studio ordinaire.C’est un objet cinématographique plus étrange et onirique, une oeuvre effrontément à cheval entre un film d’auteur et un blockbuster de studio, de telle façon que même après l’avoir vu, je ne peux pas prédire quel succès il rencontrera à sa sortie en salle (aux USA et sur HBO Max le 22 octobre). A l’issue de la projection, le premier critique à qui j’ai parlé était conquis. Un autre a fui la salle comme si Villeneuve y avait posé une bombe.Pourtant, après une décennie de films Marvel réalisés avec moultes prouesses techniques mais sans grand risque formel, c’est stimulant de voir un film de cette envergure prendre de tels risques artistiques. Trois questions me trottent dans la tête depuis cette séance à Venise.‘Dune’ percera-t-il au grand écran?‘Dune’ a beau être fondé sur le grand classique de science-fiction par Frank Herbert, ses adaptations sont loin d’avoir enflammé les foules. Celle de David Lynch en 1984 est un célèbre fiasco que le cinéaste lui-même a désavoué. Quant aux deux adaptations en mini-séries, elles auront plutôt marqué par les lentilles de contact bleues déjantées qu’y porte un jeune James McAvoy que pour avoir inspiré quelque réaction significative dans le monde de la pop-culture.Mais ‘Dune’ a les reins solides, et ils ont supporté beaucoup depuis la publication du roman en 1965. Il a inspiré tant de films que les gfrands traits du récit nous sont désormais familiers : un jeune homme (joué ici par Timothée Chalamet) est envoyé sur une planète exotique où l’on exploite une ressource naturelle précieuse — en l’occurrence la fameuse “épice” hallucinogène — mais décide finalement de prendre le parti des autochtones et de lutter contre leurs oppresseurs archi-militarisés.C’est à peu de choses près l’intrigue d’ “Avatar”, direz-vous… et c’est peut-être tant mieux ! “Avatar” a pulvérisé les records, et si Chalamet est novice dans ce type de rôle, Villeneuve l’a entouré d’un casting de vétérans : Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista et Josh Brolin sont des vétérans de l’univers des super-héros, Oscar Isaac est frais émoulu de la trilogie “Star Wars” et Rebecca Ferguson tient le rôle principal dans l’adaptation de “Mission : Impossible”. Si tant de films à succès ont emprunté à “Dune”, ce n’est que justice que “Dune” leur emprunte en retour.En dépit de son pedigrée, “Dune” fait cependant face à des obstacles de taille. Le tournage s’est terminé il y a plus de deux ans et la sortie programmée d’abord pour novembre 2020 a été reportée d’environ un an par Warner Bros. Ce délai réservait l’espoir que “Dune” voit le jour dans une ère post-Covid; en réalité, les ravage continus du variant Delta font trembler les studios au point de repousser à 2022 la sortie de quelques films majeurs — comme “Top Gun : Maverick”.D’une certaine manière, ce n’est peut-être pas si mal pour “Dune” : avec moins de blockbusters de marque sur le marché, le film a plus de chance de sortir du lot et d’attirer les amateurs de grand spectacle. Mais aux USA, à la consternation de Villeneuve, le film sortira sur HBO en même temps qu’il ouvrira en salles, menaçant ainsi de rogner sur les recettes du box-office et de torpiller les chances qu’une suite du film voit le jour.Cela pourrait aussi affecter le buzz de départ : le public qui verra “Dune” en salle se sentira certainement plus immergé dans le film (avec les sensations sonores et visuelles qu’il dispense), tandis que les non-initiés ou les curieux qui arrivent sur HBO Max au moyen d’un simple clic seront forcément moins sensibles à la mise en scène de Villeneuve. La première séquence d’action de taille — l’attaque d’un ver des sables géant — n’arrive qu’au bout d’une heure. Les spectateurs à domicile seront-il aussi disposés à aller jusqu’au bout du film que ceux qui ont fait l’effort de payer leur place en salle?Timothée Chalamet et Rebecca Ferguson dans “Dune.”Chiabella James/Warner Bros.Comment “Dune” sera-t-il reconnu aux Oscar?Une des choses partciulièrement frappante de “Dune” est le sens de la texture qu’a Denis Villeneuve, à contrario d’autres réalisateurs de films à gros budget. Quand un personnage tombe lors d’une bataille, c’est le battement des cils du mourant qui le fascine. Durant l’assaut donné sur un retranchement, la caméra se détourne de l’action pour nous montrer de magnifiques palmiers en flammes, leurs couronnes de feuilles rayonnant de puissance destructrice.Même si les jurys des Oscars ne sont d’habitude pas très friands de films de science-fiction, je soupçonne que ce regard si particulier de Villeneuve distinguera “Dune”, car le film est indéniablement envoûtant. Il est sûr de s’attirer une tonne de nominations secondaires, dont pour la photographie de Greig Fraser et pour les décors de Patrice Vermette. La musique de Hans Zimmer, le son et le montage sont tous bien plus audacieux que ce que le genre nous offre d’habitude : les effets sonores et les plans en coupe semblent élaborés pour vous mettre en transe comme sous l’emprise de l’épice.Et je n’en suis pas encore aux costumes ! Leur design (par Jacqueline West et Bob Morgan) est étourdissant, surtout pendant la première heure du film. Avec Rebecca Ferguson en nonne de l’espace habillée de fourreaux extravagants, et Charlotte Rampling voilée en Jean-Paul Gaultier telle le Chevalier vert, “Dune” a des airs de défilé de haute-couture où passent à l’occasion des vaisseaux spatiaux — et pour moi c’est une bonne chose.“Blade Runner 2049” , le dernier film de Villeneuve, s’est vu décerner 5 nominations aux Oscars et un Academy Award mérité de longue date à son chef opérateur Roger Deakins. Mais il n’a pas pu percer dans les deux catégories d’excellence des Oscars — meilleur film et meilleur réalisateur. Est-ce que “Dune” a de meilleures chances d’y réussir?Je botte en touche et opte pour le ‘wait-and-see’. Aucun des acteurs de “Dune” ne semble avoir de chance d’être nominé, ce qui aurait accru la légitimité du film auprès des membres du jury. Ajoutons qu’une nomination pour le meilleur scénario adapté n’est pas non plus certaine. En même temps, après une année 2020 relativement confidentielle, je pense que l’Académie souhaitera voir un film de grande envergure sélectionné pour le prix du meilleur film. Et le combat qu’a mené Villeneuve pour que son film passe sur grand écran trouvera écho après des jurés réfractaires au streaming, pour lesquels son obstination est une croisade digne d’être soutenue.Le réalisateur Denis Villeneuve, au centre, à la Mostra de Venise entouré du casting de “Dune”. De gauche à droite: Javier Bardem, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac et Josh Brolin.Yara Nardi/ReutersY aura-t-il un “Dune : 2ème partie” ?Les spectateurs qui s’attendent à l’expérience complète risquent une déconvenue à la lecture du titre : il ne s’agit pas de “Dune”, mais de “Dune : 1ère partie”.Villeneuve a grosso modo coupé le roman d’Herbert en deux, avec pour conséquence que la trajectoire des personnages principaux ne s’esquisse que vers la fin du film. Et si la promotion du film suggère que Zendaya est le premier rôle féminin, c’est plutôt Rebecca Ferguson qui occupe le récit. Exceptées quelques visions d’anticipation de l’avenir, Zendaya ne contribue pas encore de façon déterminante à l’histoire.Denis Villeneuve compte bien livrer “Dune” en deux parties et travaille déjà au scénario de la suite. Mais la Warner Bros n’a toujours pas donné son feu vert. Le studio a déjà tenté l’expérience d’une adaptation en deux parties avec “Ça” de Stephen King, mais les films sont sortis à deux ans d’écart alors qu’un projet de suite pour “Dune” prendrait vraisemblablement bien plus longtemps à monter. (Le studio se soucie peut-être aussi du fait que le “Ça: Chapitre II” a rapporté, au niveau international, quelque 250 000 dollars de moins que le premier film, malgré une pléthore de stars à l’affiche.)Peut-être la Warner opte-t-elle aussi pour le ‘wait and see’, l’œil sur le box-office avant de donner le top de départ d’un second “Dune”. Mais avec la concurrence du streaming accentuée en temps de pandémie, les critères de succès ont pris une tournure nouvelle. Étant donné que HBO Max prépare une série dérivée sur les Bene Gesserit — un ordre clandestin et exclusivement féminin comptant les personnages de Charlotte Rampling et de Rebecca Ferguson — je m’étonne que le studio ne s’engage pas fermement sur une suite, ne serait-ce que pour favoriser une dynamique en amont de la sortie du film.Cela signalerait en outre clairement au public que le récit est encore inachevé à la fin de ce “Dune”, lequel passe par deux pics d’intensité avant d’atterrir en douceur pour un dénouement quelque peu amorti. Villeneuve n’est pas avare de teasing: on entrevoit beaucoup d’événements majeurs à venir, comme si le film était impatient d’entrer dans le vif du sujet. Combien de temps devra durer cette attente ? More

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      A New Podcast Rekindles a Box-Office Bomb

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      Julie Salamon, the author of a 1991 book about the filming of “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” returns to Hollywood history — and her own.One day last December, Julie Salamon was sorting through stacks of old plastic boxes at a storage unit in Lower Manhattan. Salamon, 68, is a journalist, author and self-described pack rat. The boxes were accidental galleries in the museum of a life’s work, filled with relics — notebooks, clippings, photos and tapes — accumulated for the dozen books Salamon has published since 1988.Salamon had come looking for a box that contained material from her second book, “The Devil’s Candy,” published in 1991. She had recently agreed to adapt the book — a celebrated account of the making of the infamous box-office flop “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” based on Tom Wolfe’s sweeping social satire of 1980s New York — for the second season of “The Plot Thickens,” a Hollywood history podcast from Turner Classic Movies.Salamon was hoping to find a trove of mini cassette tapes, recorded on set over the entire course of the film’s production. Audio from the tapes contained unusually candid interviews with the director, Brian De Palma, his crew and the film’s stars — Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith and Morgan Freeman — and would be a crucial component of the podcast.Melanie Griffith and Tom Hanks were two of the big names cast for the film adaption of “Bonfire of the Vanities.”Warner Bros.But when Salamon eventually found the “Devil’s Candy” box, the tapes weren’t there. Distraught, she returned to her apartment in SoHo and resumed searching. It was there, a couple of frantic days later, that she found several zip-lock freezer bags full of mini cassette tapes in the back of a large home office cabinet. The bags hadn’t been opened for 30 years.Making the podcast, which recently ended its seven-episode run, was a late-career twist for Salamon, affording her the rare opportunity to revisit the story of a lifetime three decades later. But, as the author knew better than anyone, adaptations are never simple — at least not when “The Bonfire of the Vanities” is involved.“Putting this podcast together gave me an extra appreciation for Brian’s dilemma,” Salamon said. “At first you don’t have any idea what you’re doing, but then you just start doing it.”When it arrived on bookshelves in 1991, “The Devil’s Candy” stunned Hollywood. It painted a vivid and well-sourced portrait of an industry few outsiders had seen up close. (Or would see today — armies of studio and personal publicists keep journalists from getting too far close.) Salamon, then a film critic for The Wall Street Journal (she later worked for The New York Times), had befriended De Palma, who, by the late 1980s, had made hits like “Carrie,” “Scarface” and “The Untouchables” but was in something of a career slump. With his participation, her book portrayed the world of big-budget studio filmmaking as a high-stakes battle, in which three mercurial factions — the artists, the executives and the audience — are ever at odds with themselves and each other.At the center of the story was what remains one of the most notorious train wrecks in movie history. “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” as written by Wolfe, was a kaleidoscopic account of greed and cynicism in the “Me Decade,” filled with characters who were easy to hate and hard to look away from. The book became an instant best seller and media sensation in 1987, making it all but inevitable that someone would try to turn it into a movie. But its sharp edges didn’t survive in Hollywood. Warner Bros. preemptively defanged the story’s central character, a slithering bond trader and self-proclaimed “Master of the Universe” named Sherman McCoy, by casting Hanks, recently of “Big.” Its memorably pitiless ending also got the ax. In its place was an invented scene, in which Freeman, playing a judge, delivers a discordant moral sermon.Behind the scenes, the project was plagued from the start. Its biggest initial cheerleader, a powerful producer named Peter Guber, left the studio before production began. That set the stage for a showdown between De Palma, a withdrawn and exacting visionary, and executives at Warner Bros., who were anxious to protect a bloated $50 million investment. De Palma, who was uninterested in oversight, shut executives out of key aspects of the production. The executives fired back — at one point, they threatened to hold him personally liable for cost overruns.No one who worked on the film — not even Salamon, who observed the shoot and sat in on meetings — recognized it as a creative failure until it was screened for test audiences. By then it was too late. Critics savaged “Bonfire” — “gross, unfunny” and “wildly uneven,” declared this newspaper — and moviegoers shunned it. It made less than $16 million at the box office.The podcast version of “The Devil’s Candy” maintains the basic narrative of the book but adds new layers. The most potent is the audio, rescued from Salamon’s freezer bags. Throughout the series, retrospective narration gives way to contemporaneous recordings that capture events as they happened. The recordings also transform written characters into living, breathing people. Everything you need to know about the particular breed of difficult movie star Bruce Willis was in 1990 — ever-present bodyguard, rude to assistants — is there in the snotty tone he uses in his interviews with Salamon.“For me, the tapes really add a richness that wasn’t possible otherwise,” Salamon said. “I like to think I’m not a bad writer, but there’s no way that you can write anything that’s as moving as just hearing a person tell their story.”The film version of “Bonfire of the Vanities” bombed at the box office, making less than $16 million.xxxSalamon adapted “The Devil’s Candy” in close partnership with the narrative podcast company Campside Media, which co-produced this season of “The Plot Thickens” with TCM. She needed to break down her 420-page book into seven 40-minute podcast episodes.Natalia Winkelman, 28, a producer at Campside (and a freelance film critic for The Times), was a kind of doula and confidant for Salamon, guiding her through the monthslong process of translating her reporting into podcast scripts. Though Salamon’s career as an author spanned fiction, memoir and children’s literature, she had no experience writing for the ear, a distinct form with unique qualities and constraints.“Clauses don’t work so well in audio, you have to be more direct and conversational,” said Winkelman. “I think there was a bit of a learning curve for Julie at first, but once the two of us got into the recording studio things started to click really fast. If I gave her a note — That’s sounding a little read-y — she would come back with something way better than what I could have come up with.”Salamon also wanted to build on the book by adding new reporting and interviews. Many of the more emotionally compelling moments of the podcast stem from the transitions between then and now, record and memory. One of several indelible figures from the book whom Salamon reinterviews is Eric Schwab, a second-unit director on “Bonfire” and protégé of De Palma’s, who was poised for a breakout career before the movie bombed.“So many people who worked on the film were at a turning point in their careers,” said Angela Carone, the director of podcasts at TCM who edited the season with Salamon. “We get to tell their full stories on the podcast in a way that isn’t in the book.”Not everyone who cooperated with the book returned for the podcast. None of the film’s stars sat for new interviews (TCM said the recordings were legally Salamon’s property and that it notified those whose voices are used in the show). Nor did De Palma, though Salamon said the two remain good friends. (Through a representative, the director and the stars also declined to speak for this story.)The likable Hanks was miscast as Sherman McCoy, a slithering bond trader and self-proclaimed “Master of the Universe.”Warner Bros.In the stars’ absence, the podcast becomes more systemic in its outlook. It shows us the idealistic and overworked strivers — the assistant who dreams of becoming a producer, the location scout guzzling aspirin for breakfast — who collect small victories amid the chaos and terror of the film set.Some of what Salamon documented 30 years ago looks different through a modern lens. The fifth episode zeros in on several women who have invariably more precarious positions on the film than those of their male peers. In that episode, a present-day Aimee Morris — who was a 22-year-old production assistant on “Bonfire” — angrily recalls shooting a scene that doesn’t appear in the novel with the actress Beth Broderick. In the scene, Broderick’s character photocopies her naked crotch; filming it required Broderick, who was then De Palma’s girlfriend, to spend nine hours repeatedly taking off her underwear and climbing up and down a Xerox machine.“It just made me sick to my stomach,” Morris says in the episode. The scene “had nothing to do with anything. It’s just disgusting. It’s just misogynistic.”Salamon, who wrote critically of the Xerox scene in her book, said revisiting it with Morris made her frame the anecdote more pointedly this time around.“It just made me realize how much garbage women just accepted back in the day that we rightfully won’t anymore,” she said.For Salamon, working on the podcast was a strange and emotional experience, forcing her to reflect not only on her characters’ journeys but her own.Working on the podcast was a strange and emotional experience for Salamon, forcing her to reflect not only on her characters’ journeys but her own.Winnie Au for The New York TimesWhen she first considered what would become “The Devil’s Candy,” in 1989, she was a frustrated novelist working full time at The Journal while carrying her first child. The book became an instant classic of its genre (it’s still regularly taught in film schools) and changed the trajectory of her life.“To hear those voices transported me back to that moment,” Salamon said, describing what it was like to listen to the tapes for the first time. “I was starting a new life and becoming a young mother and transitioning into a new profession that I loved. It was overwhelming. I was on an adventure.” More

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      How ‘Candyman’ Star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Became the Next Big Name

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      The actor’s career has surged thanks to projects like “Aquaman” and “Watchmen.” He’s even become a Warner Bros. favorite. Now on the brink of movie stardom, he’s ready to steer.“What time is it?” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II wondered. “I don’t know. I’ve been in this room …” He trailed off. “It could be any time of day right now.”The bright lights and white backdrop of his windowless room conjured a void from which Abdul-Mateen had been videoconferencing for hours. He was doing remote press for “Candyman,” a new spin on the 1992 horror film with the 35-year-old actor playing Anthony, a painter mesmerized by the urban legend of a hook-handed killer. It’s said that Candyman can be summoned by speaking his name five times into a mirror, but as Anthony goes searching for the killer, he begins to see his own haunted face staring back.Though the film is set in Chicago, Abdul-Mateen was beamed to me from London, where he has spent the last few months shooting a sequel to “Aquaman” (he plays the villainous Black Manta). It was a rare day off from the superhero film, carved out so he could spend time promoting another hopeful franchise-starter. Was Abdul-Mateen tired from working so much? Sure, he told me as he shrugged off his black leather jacket. But he was also used to it.“People tell me, ‘Keep it going, man. If it’s hot, ride the wave,’” he said.Abdul-Mateen has been caught up in a significant swell since 2015, when he graduated from drama school at Yale and promptly booked a showy part as a nightclub owner in the Netflix series “The Get Down.” That role served as a signal flare to Hollywood casting directors: Here was a brand-new, 6-foot-3 hunk with formal training, screen charisma and eyes that can lock onto his scene partner like high beams.Men like that don’t come in droves these days, and Abdul-Mateen found himself entering a seller’s market: After “The Get Down” was canceled, he promptly began nabbing roles in high-profile projects like “Aquaman,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Black Mirror.” Last fall, he won an Emmy for the HBO limited series “Watchmen,” in which he played Doctor Manhattan, a blue, frequently nude superhero inhabiting the body of a Black man; months after that win, he made a strong impression as the Black Panther activist Bobby Seale in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”Abdul-Mateen’s rise has become the sort of thing that everyone wants to get in on, and Warner Bros. is particularly enamored with the actor. In addition to the “Aquaman” sequel, Abdul-Mateen will be seen in December starring opposite Keanu Reeves in the studio’s “The Matrix Resurrections,” and next summer, he films “Furiosa,” the highly anticipated “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel from the director George Miller.Abdul-Mateen as Black Manta in “Aquaman.” He’s shooting the sequel now.Jasin Boland/Warner BrosThat is the sort of keys-to-the-kingdom access that Warner Bros. has historically reserved for a handful of stars like Clint Eastwood and Ben Affleck, and Abdul-Mateen doesn’t take the studio’s investment for granted. Still, he has recently discovered a brand-new superpower, something he never dared to employ on his path up the summit: saying no.What has he been turning down lately? “Jobs, appearances, meetings, people,” he said. “It’s like ‘no’ is one of my favorite words.” He mulled it over some more: “Sometimes you’ve got to get to zero in order to get back to one, two, three and beyond. You get so far down the line, it’s like, ‘Wait, where did zero go? Where’s the ground?’”Over the past six years, in addition to earning all those jobs, “I’ve been learning life,” he said. “I’ve been learning bills and debt and burying family members — life and death, heartbreak, location, relocation. And having success coincide with all of those things is interesting, because I’m also missing the birth of babies and weddings and things like that.”Sure, it’s great to become a movie star, especially at a time when new ones have proved so difficult to mint. “But I’m also learning that you have to protect yourself,” Abdul-Mateen said. “You have to have balance with all of this.” He scratched his head and put it more bluntly: “Sometimes it’s like, ‘Look, man, I want to get off the wave and create my own.’”THE YOUNGEST OF six children, Abdul-Mateen was born in New Orleans and initially lived in the city’s Magnolia Projects, where the kids would all play outside and the families took care of each other. “A sense of community was such a strong thread throughout my entire life that now sometimes it’s a bit strange to be out doing this by myself,” he said.His family moved around often, and Abdul-Mateen treated it like an adventure even though it meant he went to 13 different schools before he became a teenager. In each new class, whenever the teacher introduced him as Yahya, the other students would burst out laughing at his unusual name. But within a week, he’d have worked to win them all over, a pattern that taught him adaptability.“A sense of community was such a strong thread throughout my entire life that now sometimes it’s a bit strange to be out doing this by myself,” he said.Danny Kasirye for The New York TimesThat came in handy when Abdul-Mateen took an acting class at University of California, Berkeley, where he had gone to study architecture. He found playing different characters to be so much fun that after a short-lived stint as a city planner, he pursued a major swerve and applied to drama school at Yale.Was he good at acting back then? Well, he was good at commanding attention, and that’s not nothing. But a turning point came during Abdul-Mateen’s first year at Yale, when he found himself stymied by the Stephen Adly Guirgis play “The ___________ With the Hat.” He couldn’t understand why his character would brush off a girlfriend’s infidelity, and he stayed up all night until he finally cracked the man’s motivation: Because he loved her, he was able to tell himself a lie.“That’s when I knew that there was something else behind this that I wanted to figure out,” he said. “If I was going to be successful, I couldn’t just think like myself — I had to learn to be empathetic and understanding of other people’s perspectives and lives and outlooks. It would make me a better person, but it would also make me a better actor.”According to his “Candyman” director, Nia DaCosta, that empathy is key to Abdul-Mateen’s appeal. “He is incredibly skilled at imbuing each character he plays with specificity, humanity and a lived-in individuality,” said DaCosta, who praised “his ability to draw you into the life of a character as though he were a new friend or a stranger at a bar you’re dying to get to know.”That’s part of what made “Candyman” such a natural fit for Abdul-Mateen’s first major leading role: The movie is strewn with details that conjure something from his own lived experience. When Anthony is up all night painting, caught in the grip of an artistic revelation, it’s the sort of mania Abdul-Mateen knew from trying to crack Guirgis’s play. And when Anthony looks down and finds his hands smeared in black paint, Abdul-Mateen might have recalled his construction-worker father, whose hands were often covered in grease and motor oil.Abdul-Mateen in his first major leading role, in “Candyman” opposite Vanessa Williams.Universal PicturesThe first “Candyman” grounded its story in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, a place that has been long-gentrified by the time DaCosta’s film picks up the tale. That, too, hit home for Abdul-Mateen, whose work as a city planner in the highly gentrified Bay Area gave him even more perspective on the projects he grew up in.“One of the first things that I did when I went to Chicago was to go to Cabrini-Green and put on that community planner hat,” he said. “And for a place that has a history of being as Black as that neighborhood was, that was not what I found. One has to wonder what happened to all of those families, all of those spirits? For every household, there’s a story, but when there’s no one there anymore to tell those stories, then that’s a tragedy.”With the clout he’s beginning to accrue, Abdul-Mateen wants to make sure those stories are told right. He also knows that if he can bring even more of himself to bear on these movies, he can start steering the wave instead of surfing it.Maybe it will help, too, once he feels he has a world to return to. Abdul-Mateen has spent the last few hectic years without a home of his own; even when he secured the keys to a New York apartment in January, he left the next day to film a new movie in Los Angeles. “This has been a very isolating experience,” he said. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t have to do that anymore.”In the future, he plans to take more cues from his “Aquaman” co-star Jason Momoa, who keeps his family and close friends around him on set: “It helps him to stay true to who he is, because he’s not always the one having to speak up and support his own values all the time.” Abdul-Mateen hopes that will help the movies he makes feel more like himself, more like the homes he grew up in, more like the community that raised him in New Orleans.In the meantime, he’ll bring that feeling with him. When I asked Abdul-Mateen if he could name the most New Orleans thing about him, he grinned and spread his legs wide.“The way I take up space,” he said. “Somebody from New Orleans, they sit with their legs from east to west, they’re going to gesture big.” He waved his hands, then looked into the camera and fixed me with those high beams. “I don’t necessarily do that in my everyday life. But when I decide to take up space, nobody can take it from me.” More

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      James Gunn Nearly Blew Up His Career. Now He’s Back With ‘The Suicide Squad’

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      The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director talks about the Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel, and his crossover to the DC franchise.One day in July 2018, James Gunn discovered that he was trending on Twitter and not for a good reason. Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” science-fiction series, had tweeted many deliberately crude jokes about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, AIDS, pedophilia and rape. Now they had been resurfaced, steering waves of criticism his way. Gunn was fired from a planned third “Guardians” movie and he believed his career was over. “It seemed like everything was gone,” he said recently.Gunn publicly apologized and his “Guardians” stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, rallied to his defense in an open letter. In March 2019, Gunn was hired back to the film franchise.Gunn had spent the months after his firing reflecting on himself while also working on an unexpected opportunity: Warner Bros. had tapped him to make a movie in its own superhero universe based on DC Comics characters. His entry, “The Suicide Squad,” which he wrote and directed, chronicles a motley team of criminals, including the marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and the saboteur Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), selected by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a seemingly impossible mission.“The Suicide Squad,” which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, follows the 2016 film “Suicide Squad,” written and directed by David Ayer, which was a commercial success but not well received by critics. Gunn’s take preserves the violence while adding further layers of outrageousness and absurd characters like the Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the fish-human hybrid King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and a malevolent alien starfish called Starro.As Gunn explained, “There’s a sort of magical realism that we come into this film with. Yes, it’s weird to see a walking shark. But it’s not as weird as it would be in our universe.”Gunn, whose credits include the low-budget genre satires “Slither” and “Super,” spoke in late June in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on “Peacemaker,” a TV spinoff of “The Suicide Squad” starring that jingoistic adventurer played by John Cena.The 54-year-old Gunn has let his spiky hair go white and grown a tidy accompanying beard, giving him a look that’s more mad scientist than industry upstart. But he remains chastened by his brief exile from Marvel. Speaking of “The Suicide Squad,” he said, “There’s dark humor in it, but the emotional part is there, too. I feel as if I was communicating my whole being.”Gunn discussed his firing and rehiring by Marvel, the making of “The Suicide Squad” for DC and his perspective on the two superhero franchises. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Gunn with Idris Elba among the cast and crew of “The Suicide Squad.”Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.How did you first learn that you had been fired from Marvel?It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, “Is this a big deal?” And he goes, “I don’t know.” That was a moment. I was like, “You don’t know?” I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.Did the experience make you more careful about what you say, whether on social media or in general?Yes and no. I’m more considerate of people’s feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, that’s what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didn’t want to be vulnerable. This attitude — I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am — that’s just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.The term wasn’t as prevalent at the time, but do you think you were a victim of what people now call “cancel culture”?I understand people’s preoccupation with that term. But it’s such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled — most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets — they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.When you see someone else now being punished for things they’ve posted online, are you sympathetic?Even when the person has done something terrible, I still feel sympathy for that person. Because I’m a compassionate person and it’s part of my faith. Sometimes things get taken out of context. And sometimes somebody did something when they were in college — it’s 20 years later, they’ve lived a great life, it’s just too much. And then sometimes you read, oh, well, what he did was pretty awful.When did you start to realize that things weren’t quite as dire? Did the public support of your “Guardians” actors make the difference?You do not understand the immensity of it until you’re in the middle of it. For a guy who feels like he’s done most things by himself and hasn’t had a lot of backing from anyone, ever, and has had to claw my way from B movies to where I am today, you don’t expect people to have your back. As somebody who does have a difficult time taking in the affection or the love of others, to have everybody around me — my girlfriend, my parents, my family, my manager, my publicists, all of the actors I’ve worked with — to have them come to my side and be there for me, that was an eye-opener for me. I felt really fulfilled and loved in a way that I had never felt in my entire life. And when Warner Bros. comes to me on the Monday after it happens and says, we want you, James Gunn, you think, wow, that feels good to hear.Asked about the nihilistic feel of “The Suicide Squad,” Gunn pushed back: “For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections.”Alana Paterson for The New York TimesSo while you’re in the midst of this potential scandal, Warner Bros. comes to you and asks if you might be interested in Superman, their flagship DC character?They proposed that to me. Toby Emmerich [the Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman], he works out with my manager, and every morning he would say, “James Gunn, Superman. James Gunn, Superman.”How did you land on “The Suicide Squad” instead?At that time I said I can’t commit myself to something right now. It was traumatic. I had to deal with myself. I just have to take a step back. So I took the different possibilities of projects I could work on, and for a month, every day I worked on a different project. I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was going to write was going to be a great story, and if it worked out and I felt like directing it, I could. “Suicide Squad” was just the one that came to life immediately.Were you a fan of the comics?I really loved [the writer] John Ostrander’s take, which was taking these Z-grade villains and throwing them into black-ops situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldn’t come out alive. I loved “The Dirty Dozen” as a kid. It’s that same concept, mixed with a DC comic.How much were your choices defined by what you’d seen in the previous “Suicide Squad” film?Not at all. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David’s movie would make it the shadow of David’s movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margot’s in the movie but she doesn’t have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.The previous film had a few big stars who aren’t returning. Did you explore bringing back Jared Leto as Joker or Will Smith as Deadshot?Joker, no. I just don’t know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad. He wouldn’t be helpful in that type of war situation. Will — I really wanted to work with Idris. It is a multi-protagonist film. We go off for a while with Margot, and Daniela [Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2] is the heart of the film in a lot of ways. But if there’s one protagonist, it’s Idris. And I wanted somebody who had that gruff, “Unforgiven”-type feeling about him. This guy who had been reduced from being a bigshot supervillain — he took Superman out of the sky — who is now scraping gum off the floor at the beginning of the movie. He absolutely doesn’t want any part of it — he just has accepted this is his life. And I just think that character is Idris Elba.“The Suicide Squad” features a motley team culled from the DC universe, including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, second from right), all led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center). Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. This will be the third film, after “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey,” to try to find a place for Harley Quinn in DC’s movie universe. How do you see the character?For me, Harley Quinn belongs on the wall next to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk. Most of my career has been writing characters who existed in the comics but weren’t well-defined personalities, and having to create their cinematic personalities, whether it’s Star-Lord or Drax or Groot, who were all very different in the comics. Harley was pretty incredibly written by Paul Dini from the beginning, and so to be able to capture the essence of that character — her chaotic, sweet nature — and give her her due as the trickster and allow her to go wherever she wants, was surprising even to me as a writer.Did you take a certain pleasure in bringing back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and letting her get her hands as dirty as some of the superhero characters?She has no qualms about doing that whatsoever. She’s just the sweetest person in the world and Waller is scary. When she’s on set and that turn happens, I am literally afraid to come in and give her a note because of the look in her eyes. It is incredibly intimidating. She comes up to here [holds hand at height of his neck] on me. But it is. She’s amazing.There’s a built-in dispensability to your concept of “The Suicide Squad” that cuts against a studio’s desire for repeatable franchise films. Was it your goal to make the most nihilistic superhero movie of the modern era?I don’t think it’s nihilistic. For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections. My mission statement was just to make the most fun film I could and not balk at anything. I knew I had a chance that very few filmmakers have ever had, which is to make a huge-budget film with no holds barred in terms of the plot, the effects, the sets. I felt a responsibility to take chances.What if, after a yearlong pandemic, mass audiences aren’t ready for a movie with so much wanton death and destruction?I actually think the emotion and the humor help to even off the harsher aspects of it. I think it’s a perfect movie for now. It’s just a matter of where are we going to be with Covid and being safe. [“F9”] did great, so I’m hopeful there’s a real appetite for it. I was talking to my 80-year-old mother this morning. She wants to come see it. I’m like, Mom, this movie has a lot of sharks ripping people in half in it. [Gentle voice] “I know, I don’t care, Jimmy.” She’ll love it.Does it seem strange that the DC films can encompass movies like “The Suicide Squad,” which unabashedly earns its R rating, and also movies like “Shazam!,” which are more family-oriented?I think it’s great. That is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel. What I do is very different from what [the “Ant-Man” director] Peyton Reed does, it’s very different from what [the “Iron Man” director Jon] Favreau did, it’s different from Taika [Waititi, the director of “Thor: Ragnarok”]. But not as different as “Shazam!” and “Suicide Squad,” however. I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something that’s unique to the filmmakers. We’re in a strange time, so anything can happen.Gunn with Michael Rooker (as the blue-skinned Yondu) on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel/DisneyYou’re the first director who’s made films for both Marvel and DC —[Fake cough] Joss Whedon. I’m the first one to receive a directing credit on the Marvel and DC movies. [Laughs.]Do you see major differences with how Marvel and DC approach their film franchises?Yes, but not as many as people probably think. There’s no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You don’t have to take them and I don’t always take them. Then again, I had more problems. If you saw the first cut of “Guardians” 1, it had more problems, because that was my first time making something so gigantic and there’s some learning to what works and what doesn’t, carving away the excess stuff. The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, he’s more spread out.Are you free to make more films for DC going forward or are you exclusive to Marvel?I have no clue what I’m going to do. For me, “Guardians 3” is probably the last one. I don’t know about doing it again. I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, it’s fun. They’re starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. The fact that they did “Joker,” which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. I’m very excited about Matt’s movie [“The Batman,” from Matt Reeves]. They’re getting some really good filmmakers involved. They’re always going to be hit or miss — I just don’t want them to get boring.You got your start in the world of low-budget cinema. Do you think you might return to something that’s smaller and faster to make?I love toys and the explosions and the cameras, frankly. I love to be able to work on a big playing field. If I had a smaller, more intimate thing that I wanted to do, I would definitely do that. Right now I really just want to nap, but I still have another major motion picture to make before that. I can’t wait to see the Marvel gang again — those people are my family. It’s so much different than people on Twitter. Everybody is significantly nicer. More

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      in Television

      Discovery and AT&T: How a Huge Media Deal Was Done

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      An early-morning meeting at a Greenwich Village townhouse, under the watchful eye of Steve McQueen, was part of a monthslong campaign.In the predawn hours of April 1, David Zaslav, the chief executive of Discovery, arrived at a rented townhouse in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village — decorated with photos of rock stars and one of the actor Steve McQueen in sunglasses holding a gun — to prepare for a meeting that would soon reverberate across the American media industry. More

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      AT&T's WarnerMedia Group to Merge With Discovery

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      AT&T’s WarnerMedia group is merging with the reality programmer Discovery. What does that mean for your favorite shows?It’s as if Logan Roy, the fictional patriarch of the Waystar Royco media empire on HBO’s popular series “Succession,” masterminded the deal himself: AT&T has thrown in the towel on its media business and decided to spin it off into a new company that will merge with Discovery Inc. More