The Playlist Podcast Network

In this episode of The Playlist Podcast, the hosts celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Panic Room” by talking about the film and how Hollywood and filmmaking have changed since the 2002 release. Would “Panic Room” make $200 million worldwide in 2022, as it did 20 years ago? Would it be sent directly to a streamer, and perhaps turned into an event series? And is “Panic Room” an underrated film in the pantheon of David Fincher features? Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dig into Paramount+’s long-gestating sci-fi epic, “Halo.” Based on the video game franchise of the same name, the show takes place in the 26th century amidst a war between humanity and an alien race called The Covenant. At the center of the story is  Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), a genetically enhanced super-soldier who uncovers an artifact that changes the course of his life, and potentially all life as he knows it. At the top of the episode, our hosts discuss the ups and downs of the first two "Halo" episodes that were screened for critics, as well as the epic journey of adapting the popular video game title for a modern television audience. After the conversation, Pablo Schreiber stops by to discuss taking on the role of Master Chief and having to audition after thinking he had the role already. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dig into the rise and trend of tech grifter television which is all the rage at this very moment. Specifically, we discuss Apple TV+’s new series “WeCrashed,” which tells the true story of Adam and Rebecca Neumann (played by Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, respectively), founders of WeWork, which grew from a single co-working space in New York to a global brand worth $47 billion in under a decade — until disaster struck. It's a hilarious, but also genuine and empathetic look at the hubris and greed of the WeWork grifters, their questionable-at-best business practices, and the love story that drives them to great heights (read our review) We also discuss a similar series currently airing on Hulu, “The Dropout,” which stars Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos. In a similar vein to “WeCrashed,” it tracks the rise and fall of the Theranos brand, which touted the development of groundbreaking healthcare technology that would save lives, but oops, forgot what tiny major detail of it all: the technology they assumed they could create quickly, proved to be much more unfeasible and didn't actually exist yet. Talk about the horse before the cart arrogance. (read our review) After the conversation, writer/showrunners Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello stop by to talk about bringing “WeCrashed” to the screen, not only because it was an interesting story, but because there was a love story dynamic in the middle of it that really made it stand out beyond the start-up rise and fall series that were already out there. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

On our latest episode of Bingeworthy, co-hosts Mike DeAngelo & Rodrigo Perez dig into Showtime’s new anthology series, "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber," which tells the story of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful and most destructive unicorns, Uber. The season pivots on Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Uber’s hard-charging CEO who was ultimately ousted in a boardroom coup, and his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his mentor Bill Gurley (Kyle Chandler), the plainspoken, brilliant Texan venture capitalist who bets his sterling reputation on Uber’s success – and then has to live with the consequences. After the initial intro and discussion of the series, writer/showrunners Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Executive Producer Beth Schacter (BILLIONS) stop by to discuss the show and why these stories, like Travis Kalanick of Uber, keep popping up out of Silicon Valley. "All of this comes from Steve Jobs," Koppelman says and Jobs legacy really looms large over all these tech stories. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

Director Shawn Levy and actor/wise-ass extraordinaire Ryan Reynolds have become a bit of a magic pairing. First collaborating on last year’s original sci-fi hit, “Free Guy,” the two have been singing each other’s praises in interview after interview, all usually while talking up what was going to be an even better movie, their next original sci-fi collaboration entitled, “The Adam Project.” The film follows a pilot from the future named Adam (Ryan Reynolds) who jumps back in time and teams up with his younger self (Walker Scobell) and his father (Mark Ruffalo) to save the world from a person who has used time travel for their own nefarious purposes. During a conversation on The Discourse, director Shawn Levy shared how the project came to be, discussed his bff working relationship with Ryan Reynolds (and those "Deadpool 3" rumors), and a little bit about "Stranger Things" season four, the series that he is an executive producer of and sometimes acts as a director too. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

The Bingeworthy buds, Mike DeAngelo and Playlist Editor-in-Chief Rodrigo Perez, are back to talk about all of the TV news and shows that are worth your time. This week finds our hosts digging into one of the new HBO series, “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” After the discussion, writer/showrunner Max Borenstein, writer/executive producer Rodney Barnes, and actor Quincy Isaiah, who plays the charismatic Magic Johnson, stop by to discuss how the show became the prestige show that it is. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

On this episode of the Deep Focus podcast, host and Playlist EIC, Rodrigo Perez talks to Reid Carolin, the co-director and co-writer of "Dog" which he made with co-writer/co-director and star Channing Tatum. Tatum's been absent from the live-action big screen for nearly four years-- the actor needed a break after his divorce and was feeling disillusioned with the industry. But part of the reason he was gone for so long, in addition to his personal life, was trying to write, direct, produce and star in the 20th Century Fox, "X-Men" spin-off "Gambit.' The film was a big passion project to Tatum, but eventually fell apart after Fox was bought by Disney and absorbed into the greater Marvel brand. But all that prep work prepared them for "Dog," a much-much different film, and a two-hander buddy comedy about a man and his... well, not-quite-best-friend yet. Tatum stars as a U.S. Army Ranger, battling PTSD and brain trauma, who is tasked with taking a military dog to the funeral of his handler.  It's also a road trip film, a soulful life-affirming drama as well as the quirky comedy of all the detours it takes. Think Hal Ashby if he listed to Jack Johnson while taking gummies. In this episode, we get to all things "Dog," but we also dive into a lot of "Gambit," since that was the film that lead to dog, and also the "Magic Mike" series. Carolin and Tatum are the architects of the "Magic Mike" franchise and they've brought back original director Steven Soderbergh to helm, "Magic Mike 3: The Last Dance." Carolin talks about Soderbergh's mentorship to the two burgeoning filmmakers and gives us a taste of 'The Last Dance,' suggesting this is the closest Steven Soderbergh has ever gotten to making a full-blown musical.  Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

After years of development, more than a year of delays, and an absolute ton of marketing, “The Batman” is finally upon us. You’ve seen the rave reviews already, but on this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we dive deep into the film to really figure out if Matt Reeves delivered the quintessential ‘Batman’ film or not. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

Academy Award Winner Taika Waititi is no stranger to mixing intimate workplace comedies with genres you wouldn’t necessarily expect like, Vampires, Indigenous Kids, Musicians, etc. Well, now he and writer/showrunner David Jenkins have teamed to bring you a humorous and heartfelt tale of pirates with their new show, “Our Flag Means Death,” which premieres March 3rd on HBO Max. Now, Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby stop by The Discourse to talk about their new series and how they got involved. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett aka Radio Silence made a name for themselves with the excellent 2019 original horror hit, “Ready or Not.” From there, as they say, the horror world was their gory little oyster. So, what did the up-and-coming team decide to take on next? A “Ready or Not” sequel? Hogwash! It turns out that the duo was basically gifted a much more enticing prospect in the form of a “Scream” sequel — the first that wouldn’t involve the late Wes Craven. While at first, they were skeptical—not a huge fan of horror sequels— ultimately they relented when they discovered that the producers wanted to make a thoughtful horror film that avoided the trap of bad horror films. "You never want to be the outlier. And especially because it’s movies that we love and we also just don’t want to ruin that legacy. It just matters too much. Luckily Guy and Jamie are also mega-fans, so we knew it was going to be treated with love and respect.” And the rest, as they say, is history. “Scream” (2022) was a big hit and the sequel was immediately greenlit when critics and fans responded positively. The duo is hard at work on breaking the story of the next “Scream” film and admitted they might even be developing another sequel when asked about their first hit, “Ready or Not.” All this and more on this week's episode of the Discourse brought to you by host Mike DeAngelo and The Playlist Podcast Network. Remember to check out more stories, news, reviews, interviews, and more at ThePlaylist.net, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out more of our Playlist Podcast interviews here.