The Town with Matthew Belloni

Matt is joined by Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw to go inside Netflix’s announcement that cofounder and co-CEO Reed Hastings will be stepping down, with COO Greg Peters joining Ted Sarandos as co-CEOs moving forward. They discuss why Reed chose to leave right now, other C-suite restructuring within the company, and what this means for the future of Netflix.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by VFX executive Matt Panousis to discuss Hollywood’s open secret of de-aging actors, a new tool called Vanity AI, and when we’ll see dead stars resurrected convincingly on our screens.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Matt PanousisProducer: Devon ManzeTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss Disney’s proxy battle against activist shareholder Nelson Peltz, his plan (or lack thereof) to “restore the magic” at the company, and where other shareholders might fall between Peltz, Marvel’s Ike Perlmutter, and CEO Bob Iger.Email us your thoughts at thetown@spotify.com.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducer: Devon ManzeTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Rachel Syme to talk about her latest ‘New Yorker’ profile on Bela Bejaria, the global head of television at Netflix. Rachel talks about her months spent with Bela traveling to Netflix offices all over the world. She talks about Netflix’s evolved identity as a tastemaker, how quantity seems to be prioritized over quality, their strategy to globalize content, and more.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Rachel SymeProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Michael Moses, the chief marketing officer at Universal Pictures, to discuss their latest hit, the horror film ‘M3GAN,’ and why it brought so many young people to the theater. Matt and Michael discuss how the viral marketing campaign led to nearly half of the movie's audience coming from people under 25 years old, why Universal’s batting average is so high with horror films, and how marketing can completely change the success of a film.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Michael MosesProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss Vince McMahon’s unceremonious return to the WWE, his plan to help facilitate a sale before agreeing to a new TV rights deal, and the front-runners most likely to make a bid to acquire the live wrestling juggernaut.Email us your thoughts at thetown@spotify.comHost: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt is joined by Franklin Leonard, a film executive and the founder of the Black List, a yearly publication featuring Hollywood's most popular unproduced screenplays, to discuss the market for original screenwriting, the value a good script still holds in Hollywood, why comedies have disappeared, how the Black List helps anoint the next generation of writers, the potential writers strike this spring, and how AI could affect the careers of screenwriters.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Franklin LeonardProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Awards season is in full swing, and besides 'Avatar,' the critically acclaimed movies are more or less tanking. Today Matt is joined by Kevin Goetz—founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, a leader in content research in the entertainment industry—to discuss the holiday box office slump, the disappearance of the adult drama target audience, and what the data says about the ongoing moviegoing crisis.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Kevin GoetzProducer: Craig HorlbeckTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s Part 2 of podcasting’s most exclusive event of the year, the first-annual Townie Awards. In Part 2, Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw give out the Mea Culpa Award, the Suck Haters I Was Right Award, the Most Annoying Media Narrative Award, the Best and Worst Actor Career Move Awards, and the Winner of the Year.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s podcasting’s most exclusive event of the year, the first annual Townie Awards. This is a show made up of awards created by us, based on our own interpretations of the weirdest year in Hollywood. In Part 1, Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to give out the Most Baffling Success Award, the Publicist Fail of the Year Award, the Jeff “Albanian Army” Bewkes Award for Quote I’ll Probably Regret, and much more.Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices