The Business

When documentarians Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens started working on Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, they could not have imagined it would end up being a posthumous tribute to both women. Originally set to air in March, HBO has moved up the film’s premiere to January 7. 

Veteran director Richard Donner talks about the adventures and behind the scenes antics that went into making the original comic book blockbuster, Superman, in 1978. Plus, an all new banter looking ahead to the big stories of 2017.

Banter buddies Matthew Belloni of The Hollywood Reporter and Michael Schneider of IndieWire and Variety join Kim Masters to mega-banter the year that was 2016. There were major mergers in play while others went away, Disney ruled the box office, Megyn Kelly took down Roger Ailes, and traditional TV ratings declined while thanks to Netflix, the number of shows continued to rise.

Filmmaker Garth Davis spent years making commercials in Australia before co-directing Top of the Lake with Jane Campion. For his feature film debut, Lion, he's taken on the true story of a boy in India who accidentally gets separated from his family and ends up in Tasmania. He tells us how he came to be at the helm of the film and about casting a five-year old in India and teaching him English along the way.

When ESPN approached Ezra Edelman about doing a massive documentary on O.J. Simpson, he had little interest in following the beats of the so-called trial of the century. Instead, he saw the project as a lens through which to examine race in America. He tells us about seeking out tough interviews and how his opus grew from five hours to nearly eight.

Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein won one of his several Tonys for his performance as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Now, he's reprising the role for NBC's live version of the musical, which airs December 7. He tells us about the weighty task of transforming into Edna and changes he made to the script when adapting it for television.

Noah Oppenheim spent his 20s working on NBC news shows. Then he left, hoping to make it as a writer in Hollywood. After a stint as an executive in reality TV, his first-ever script, Jackie landed on The Black List. Six years later, the film is finally premiering. Oppenheim tells us about watching Darren Aronofsky hand the project over to Chilean director Pablo Larrain, and his unusual career path, which has now taken him back to NBC, as a senior vice president in charge of Today.

Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie is Scottish, but he was instantly drawn to the Texas tale of two brothers turned bank robbers in the drought-stricken, post-recession American West. He tells us about his efficient, stripped-down approach to making one of the best-reviewed films of the year.

Director Barry Jenkins and producer Adele Romanski tell us about making their awards-contender Moonlight, about a gay African American boy growing up surrounded by poverty and drugs in Miami.

Telenovela star Pablo Azar often plays characters who live in a world of wealth. But Azar's reality is not so glamorous. Acting jobs with Telemundo come without union protections that are standard in English-language productions. Azar says even the stars of Spanish-language productions shot in the US are often forced to work other jobs. For him, it was driving for Uber. Then, writer-director Jonas Cuarón and actor Gael García Bernal tell us about their "political horror film" Desierto.