Happy Monday, folks — and surely, there’s no one happier than fans of the New York Knicks, who pulled off the most improbable comeback the NBA may ever see, ultimately winning their first NBA championship in more than 50 years on the strength of an overlooked, undersized shooting guard — Jalen Brunson — and on the road, no less.

16-1 in the playoffs is mighty impressive, and in the end, New York simply had more heart than all the other teams. They wanted it more, and they didn’t make stupid mistakes, which the young Spurs most certainly did during crunch time of these four losses.

I still don’t understand the violent impulse to destroy your own city when your team wins a major championship, but who am I to deny the people their small pleasures?

This weekend was a real rollercoaster, but I had a two-hour conversation with a beautiful actress, and I found time to read, so it’s hard to complain. I read Book 2 of The Beauty, which remains one of the best TV shows I’ve seen all year.

I also finished reading Jordan Harper’s new novel A Violent Masterpiece, which was a vivid, compelling slice of the dark side of L.A. life. The title, if you’re curious, refers to America, a beautiful nation that was nonetheless built on bloodshed. And yes, two of the characters are thinly veiled takes on Max Landis and Armie Hammer.

I’ve got a whole lot of stuff coming this week, but I’ve also got a busy day ahead of me, so I wanted to get this Twisted Metal scoop out while I still can. It seems that following a pair of Stephen King adaptations, the Force is once again strong with Mark Hamill…

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Happy Friday, folks!

Today is Disclosure Day… for The Batman Part II. Because everything you thought you knew about the movie… is wrong.

Also, here’s a QR code to my new merch store, created by my fabulously talented brother, Jon Sneider. You can order high-quality merch for The InSneider or my podcast, The Hot Mic, where my co-host John Rocha and I did an Alien Movie Draft yesterday in honor of Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. Let me know who you think wound up with the better crop of alien movies…

Buy a freakin’ shirt or a hat for cryin’ out loud!

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Happy Thursday, folks!

Last night, I watched the new Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, which I believe is under embargo until tomorrow, so I can’t tell you what I thought… but I can say, don’t read anything about this one. Just trust me and watch it blind. Don’t even watch the trailer linked above. Just thank me later.

Last night, I received a juicy document that I’m going to be sharing with you over the course of next week, so if you’re a writer or producer and you aren’t a premium subscriber for some reason, you may want to consider joining the club, as I plan to deliver a(nother) premium product soon enough.

For now, you’ll have to settle for this scoop about what the producers of Obsession are currently up to while basking in the warm glow of that film’s box office receipts.

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Happy Wednesday, folks!

This weekend, I rewatched Ang Lee’s 1997 drama The Ice Storm, which moved me to tears, as it so often does. It’s easy to forget how packed that movie is with talent — the kids and the adults — and not only does it remain one of Lee’s best films, but it’s nuts that we haven’t gotten one from him since 2019’s Gemini Man. I don’t care how badly that movie flopped, we need Ang Lee making movies again, god dammit!

Meanwhile, I’m going to out myself here as a big old softie, but I also cried watching Office Romance, the new Netflix movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Ted Lasso breakout Brett Goldstein. Office Romance is surprisingly good, and if we’re talking about the best performances of the year, don’t sleep on Betty Gilpin in this movie, as she really brings it and goes for broke. Goldstein is a very charming presence, and with that thatch of chest hair, I really think Marvel should be looking at him for the new Wolverine. As for J-Lo, she’s still got it, honey. Expect huge viewing numbers, as usual…

Elsewhere, there’s a rumor going around that Emma Stone is in talks to star in the Daniels’ new movie featuring Matt Damon. Now, I’ve heard the same rumor, I must admit, but I didn’t think there was much to it, given that Stone is about to start shooting Universal’s romantic comedy The Catch with Chris Pine and… Druski, sigh. Plus, if Stone is in talks, then why was it so important for Universal to find a movie star like Ryan Gosling or Damon to justify the film’s budget? Wouldn’t she justify it on her own?

We’ll see whether that one pans out, but I’m doubtful. I love SNL’s Ashley Padilla as Stone’s sister in The Catch, though!

Finally, there’s been an awful lot of chatter about who made what on Obsession, and TheWrap’s Umberto Gonzalez breaks down the numbers. He reports that Focus will walk away with $125 million, Capstone will take home $45-50 million, and producer Jason Blum made himself a cool $17 million by adding his name to the movie after it was already shot — more than director Curry Barker and the film’s actual producer, Haley Nicole Johnson.

Now, I’ve seen Blum catch shit for this online, but I have to give him credit — he did a hell of a job of helping to sell this movie and turn it into a bona fide event. The Blumhouse imprimatur means something to horror fans, and I think it helped legitimize this low-budget film in their eyes. It may be the easiest $17 million that Blum ever makes, but he made a smart deal for himself, and he certainly earned the money by elevating this film’s profile.

In fact, he may want to give the film’s embattled art director, Sally Choi, a raise, given how she helped keep the chatter going by fanning the flames on social media about her salary — $6700 after taxes for a month’s work, which isn’t bad at all, by the way.

I’ve talked to a bunch of industry folks about this, and we all pretty much settled on the same take.

I’m not sure what Choi was expecting. She took no risk whatsoever. If the movie had tanked or performed as expected, she wouldn’t have said a peep. But it becomes a juggernaut, and suddenly, the rate she agreed to two years ago is bullshit?

99 times out of 100, I’ll side with labor, but in this instance, Choi did a job and got paid for that job. She’s complaining about a bonus in the name of fairness, but since when did fairness have a place in Hollywood?

The biggest bonus I’ve ever received was a $100 Visa gift card from Variety. Maybe a $300 traffic bonus from TheWrap. A lot of people work on indie movies — or run websites, ahem — and never get paid at all.

Choi should be thanking her lucky stars that she has Obsession on her resume, as no one will ever be able to take that credit away from her, even though I do think she shot herself in the foot with her outburst on social media, as that movie might’ve opened a ton of doors for her, many of which may slam shut in the wake of her public tantrum.

Take it from me, Twitter’s not the place to make your stand. These matters are always better dealt with behind closed doors…

By the way, Capstone has said it’s going to spread the wealth among “the creative team,” though in industry speak, that typically means above-the-line players, not below-the-line. However, it’s possible that department heads may receive bonuses. Stay tuned…

Speaking of Obsession, CAA and WME may have passed on Barker back in the day, allowing him to sign with UTA, but believe me, there are war rooms of agents at CAA and WME strategizing how they can poach Barker from their crosstown rival. And if there aren’t, well, there probably should be, as he’s going to be booked for the foreseeable future.

As for the past, there was once an earlier version of Obsession where, like many A24 movies that Barker grew up watching, the writer-director kept us guessing whether everything was in Bear’s head or not — that’s what the director sets up with the pills early on. Ultimately, he was convinced to lean into the horrifying reality of the situation, and that decision appears to have paid off at the box office, where the film’s worldwide gross is at $230 million and headed toward $300 million. Incredible.

Today, I’ve got reviews of Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi movie Disclosure Day, Apple’s new Cape Fear series, and Season 3 of Euphoria, which, to its credit, went out with a bang, not a whimper.

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Happy Tuesday, folks!

While all the Hollywood hotshots were trying to score selfies with Taylor Swift at the premiere of Toy Story 5, DGA president Christopher Nolan was hammering out a four-year deal with the studios and streamers, aka the AMPTP. The news should have folks across the industry breathing a sigh of relief, as this town has suffered enough. The last thing it needed was the possibility of another strike looming…

I should have another newsletter coming tonight that’s full of reviews and hot takes about who got paid what on Obsession, but I wanted to give this Jerrod Carmichael rumor its own headline.

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Happy Sunday, folks!

Last night, I visited the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, where an all-female four-string quartet played Metallica’s greatest hits for an hour — and it was fucking awesome. I highly recommend checking out Candlelight Concerts, as they play all over the world.

This morning, I hit Barry’s Bootcamp, where I ran into fellow Movie Trivia Schmoedown alum Abby Freel, who is now an editor for New Rockstars. I hit Barry’s because I needed my ass whupped into shape, as it’s almost beach season here in Los Angeles, where it should start to get pretty hot pretty soon.

Speaking of which, there’s been a lot of chatter about Heat 2 lately, but the only chatter I’ve heard has concerned whether Leonardo DiCaprio will actually sign on for the sequel, which strikes some as a bad idea — especially since the book was a mixed bag.

DiCaprio is well known for engaging with various projects, only to walk away — he literally just did it with Damien Chazelle’s planned Evel Knievel movie — so while I do think he wants to work with the great Michael Mann, who is 83 years old, and I do think this pairing will ultimately come to fruition, I won’t exactly be shocked if it doesn’t.

But Mann needs a major star like DiCaprio to justify the budget here, so I still think Leo does the maestro a solid and winds up playing Older Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer’s character in the original 1995 classic). But I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that the simple fact that Leo is still “in talks” for the sequel and hasn’t decided what role he wants to play has to be cause for concern. To be fair, reps for both Amazon MGM and DiCaprio have denied that the actor has gotten cold feet, despite industry chatter.

Elsewhere, it was another big weekend at the box office, where Backrooms surpassed Marty Supreme to become A24’s highest-grossing movie of all time; Obsession became the highest-grossing feature in the history of Focus Features, in addition to posting the biggest 4th weekend ever for a horror movie, topping The Blair Witch Project; and Michael became the highest-grossing movie in Lionsgate’s history as it approaches $900 million worldwide. Oh, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie became the first movie of the year to pass the billion-dollar mark at the global box office. Yahoo!

Meanwhile, Paramount’s R-rated comedy Scary Movie posted the biggest opening weekend in franchise history with $55 million at the domestic box office, where He-Man’s Power Sword failed, as Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe failed to crack the $30 million mark. Surely, The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act took some of the wind out of its sails, as it opened above expectations with $21 million — another YouTube hit. The revolution is upon us, folks…

Tonight, I’ve got a hot scoop involving the NBA Finals — sort of.

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Happy Friday, folks!

It was a tough day for the “Henry Cavill for James Bond!” crowd, as hot off Guy Ritchie’s action movie In the Grey (yeesh), Cavill has signed on to star opposite Kevin Hart in a new spy-themed action-comedy that McG will direct for Netflix. So, yeah… if you think Cavill could still be Denis Villeneuve’s 007, think again!

In other news, the New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan believes that the mystery IP project that Kane Parsons mentioned on Matt Belloni’s The Town podcast is none other than Portal, based on the popular puzzle game. How appropriate for the creator of Backrooms, whose entire movie is one giant yellow puzzle!

At the box office, Scary Movie is off to a hot start for Paramount, which is looking at a domestic opening of $52 million, while Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe movie is looking soft with $31 million, but no surprise there.

No, the real “surprise” this weekend is the performance of The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, which is looking at a $20 million opening over four days. Of course, if you read my piece on Backrooms and Obsession earlier this week, you wouldn’t be all that surprised, as I called this one almost exactly.

I’m still working on a few different reviews that I’ll do my best to publish ASAP, and waiting to hear back about a couple of scoops, too, but in the meantime, since it’s a sleepy Friday, let’s shake things up with a little Jason Bateman scoopage.

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Happy Thursday, folks!

It’s Pride Month, so I’m currently watching one of my favorite LGBTQ movies, The Birdcage. Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Hank Azaria are all fantastic in this classic 1996 comedy from director Mike Nichols and Elaine May. If you’ve never seen it, check it out this month, as it still holds up.

A quick kudos to Netflix for “pausing pre-production” on Antoine Fuqua’s $200 million Hannibal movie starring Denzel Washington, which strikes me as a bad bet. Who is the audience for this movie? Men want to see Denzel do Training Day-type shit, and women, who love Denzel, certainly don’t give a shit about him crossing the Alps.

This project never made any sense to me, and if Netflix is really smart, the streamer will simply pull the plug on this whole endeavor. Then, the question becomes whether Fuqua returns to direct the Michael sequel for Lionsgate, as he won’t be able to use Hannibal as an excuse. At this point, his best move may be running it back with Jaafar Jackson. Don’t stop ‘til you get enough, Antoine! Just keep the keys to the van handy…

I’m working on a few scoops and several different reviews for tomorrow, but in the meantime, I wanted to check in on Zorro, one of Hollywood’s oldest heroes, who has been entertaining audiences since Guy Williams starred in the TV series of the late 1950s.

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Happy Tuesday, folks!

On Sunday night, I watched the Euphoria finale, which had me on the edge of my couch. I plan to give the HBO series a proper eulogy later in the week, so hang tight.

Last night, I attended an AMC Screen Unseen screening of Lionsgate’s high-octane martial arts movie The Furious, which featured some pretty jaw-dropping action sequences, I must admit. The film lacks the style and brevity of The Raid, but it’s a fantastic fight film on its own, so if you’re looking to see lightning-fast fists of fury in action, check out The Furious when it hits theaters on June 12. Hopefully, the movie will open doors for veteran Japanese director/action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki.

I also watched Over Your Dead Body, a remake of The Trip from director Jorma Taccone and starring Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, and Juliette Lewis. I had a lot of fun with the gory movie, which is the best of the three films Weaving has led in the first half of this year. She also has Carolina Caroline hitting theaters this Friday, but sadly, the film isn’t quite on the level of writer-director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s earlier work.

Finally, a couple of buddies and I ventured out to theaters on Thursday night to see Kane Parsons’ A24 movie Backrooms, which opened to more than $80 million at the domestic box office this weekend. Its performance, coupled with the success of Curry Barker’s thriller Obsession, has led to a veritable tidal wave of headlines about the ascendance of YouTube directors in Hollywood, which is the subject of today’s newsletter.

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Happy Wednesday, folks!

This morning, I woke up early and started watching Spider-Noir, the new Spider-Man series starring Nicolas Cage, who has never done TV before. Hopefully, he sticks with it, as Cage is still in talks to star in the next season of HBO’s True Detective, though he admits that the project has gone quiet in recent months. Don’t worry, I’m told that showrunner Issa Lopez is still fine-tuning the script — with Cage in mind, no doubt.

As for Spider-Noir, it’s okay — a little uneven, but about what I expected. Cage has an undeniable magnetism that holds the screen (I chose to watch in black & white, but there’s a color option available), but going from The Boys finale to this hard-boiled, old-school throwback sure is jarring. In other words, I’m glad Amazon made Spider-Noir, but I’m not sure it’s entirely successful.

Speaking of not entirely successful, today, I caught up with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and I know that the animated movie is for kids, but where are the storytelling standards these days? I liked the Bowser-Bowser Jr. dynamic even though the sequel literally minimizes Jack Black’s role, and I loved Glen Powell’s introduction as Star Fox, but I simply wasn’t into the Peach-Rosalina storyline, as I felt it really distracted from the relationship between Mario and Luigi, who get lost in their own overstuffed movie. The Italian siblings have to compete with a zillion other characters for limited screentime, including Donald Glover’s adorable Yoshi, and the script treats them like an afterthought.

I also watched Tyler Atkins’ MMA movie Beast, starring Daniel MacPherson and Russell Crowe, and it met my modest expectations, though it never quite rose above them despite a committed turn from MacPherson. The trailer leads you to believe that Crowe is gonna be the trainer in his corner, but that’s not quite the case. Still, this one will scratch an itch if you’re a fight junkie, considering that the “big” fights we get these days are PR stunts lasting 17 seconds.

Then again, sometimes, that’s all it takes to turn a chump into a champion, or to turn an unknown actor into a star. And that’s the theme of tonight’s newsletter, in which I identify the 66 breakout stars of 2026 across film and television.

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Happy Tuesday, folks!

This weekend, I rewatched Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, which features a really wonderful performance from Tom Cruise that doesn’t get talked about enough. Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz are fantastic as well, but Cruise simply delivers a go-for-broke movie star turn, and in some ways, Vanilla Sky feels like a precursor to his daring work in Digger.

Meanwhile, I sure hope that Crowe gets to make his Joni Mitchell movie. Sure, Crowe has been in something of a slump, but he’s a great observer and chronicler of people, and he deserves an opportunity to make his passion project. His friendship with Mitchell goes way back, as her artwork is displayed in Vanilla Sky, in which Crowe uses Cruz’s lips to call her a genius.

I also checked out magician/mentalist Siegfried Tieber at the W Hotel in Hollywood and caught a screening of The Mandalorian & Grogu in between binge-watching Season 2 screeners for The Agency.

I’ve got some hot irons in the fire, so stick with me next month. As for tonight, I’ve got an interesting scoop about what Cooper Hoffman is up to next, since his schedule is wide open from what I can tell on IMDb Pro…

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Good morning, folks! It’s Tuesday, and it’s a lovely day here in sunny Santa Monica.

I’ve been sizing up the Cannes Film Festival from afar, and from what I gather, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, and James Gray’s Paper Tiger seem to be the standouts so far. Leave it to The New Yorker’s Justin Chang to hit the “middling” nail on the head.

Meanwhile, I hate to say it, as I’m a huge fan of Drive and Too Old to Die Young, but I’m not surprised at the vitriol surrounding Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, which Neon will release in July. I will see it, of course, but I’ll lower my expectations accordingly.

Apparently, I should do the same for The Mandalorian & Grogu, which is earning decidedly mixed reviews that I’d liken to a giant shoulder shrug from critics. That’s a bummer, but again, I’ve been preparing myself for this reaction because Star Wars fans are a tough bunch, and I think this movie appeals to a more casual fan like myself.

I’m not worried about having missed the most recent season of The Mandalorian, as I’m told that The Mandalorian & Grogu remains accessible without that, and I’m looking forward to seeing — or at least, hearing — Martin Scorsese in a Star Wars movie, and learning more about the Hutt family, which includes Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt.

I’m also seeing mixed reviews for Amazon’s Masters of the Universe movie, but that’s another story for another day…

Frankly, I’m still recovering from the magnificence of that Wildwood trailer, which absolutely blew me away. It sure looks like Laika has gone and done it again.

And so have I, mwahaha, as this morning, I’ve got a hot scoop about Season 2 of DC’s Lanterns. You know, if there is one. I mean, who’s to say?

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Happy Monday, folks!

This weekend, I saw Curry Barker’s hit horror movie Obsession, binged the Duffer brothers’ new Netflix series The Boroughs, watched Marvel’s special presentation of The Punisher: One Last Kill, and this morning I saw Boots Riley’s new comedy I Love Boosters.

Obsession was a very promising feature from Barker, driven by two standout performances from Michael Johnston and Inde Navarette, the latter of whom is about to blow up, though I’m not buying the awards buzz around her performance, as the Academy has long had a bias against horror movies — this year’s Oscar winners notwithstanding.

I really liked Obsession, but I didn’t love it, as there were too many holes for me, and the tone was a little uneven, as Barker presents the story with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. At times, it plays like a fucked up dark comedy, which makes sense given Barker’s roots in sketch comedy… I just wish the movie were a little scarier.

To me, there’s nothing in Obsession that’s remotely as scary as Sterling K. Brown’s absolutely terrifying turn in Is God Is, which didn’t perform nearly as well as Obsession this weekend ($2.2 million vs. $17.2 million), though it’s arguably every bit as impressive. Naturally, media outlets are tripping over themselves to praise Barker, and while that praise is deserved, it’d be nice to see outlets give Is God Is director Aleshea Harris a similarly warm welcome, as she’s one to watch, too. There are enough column inches to go around, people!

I wouldn’t be shocked to see Blumhouse announce an Obsession sequel, given the way the film overperformed this weekend and how strong word-of-mouth is, but I think I’d prefer Barker’s idea for an Obsession anthology series that would explore a different wish-gone-wrong each episode. That’s a cool idea, and the possibilities are endless…

Elsewhere, The Boroughs remains under embargo for another day or two, while The Punisher special was especially violent, featuring Jon Bernthal as a one-man killing machine. There’s really not much more substance to it than that, though I loved Judith Light as Ma Gnucci.

As for I Love Boosters, I loved the opening scene, and there are a lot of clever, creative touches here, like a giant ball of anxiety that keeps chasing Keke Palmer’s character, the leader of a group of sophisticated shoplifters. However, once this movie introduces teleportation and characters who literally shed their skin, the whole endeavor quickly goes off the rails. It’s safe to say this movie wasn’t for me…

Tonight, I’ve got a hot scoop that would indicate forward movement on Rick and Morty: The Movie. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another cool scoop, so come back soon!

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Happy Friday, folks!

Last night, I saw Is God Is, the new revenge movie from Aleshea Harris, who has announced herself as an especially promising filmmaker to watch. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are excellent as the film’s two leads — twin sisters who were badly burned in a fire that nearly killed their mother, and are on a mission to kill the man responsible — their abusive father.

Sterling K. Brown plays dear old Dad, and he’s absolutely terrifying. Seriously, this is a chilling performance that’s every bit as evil as Leonardo DiCaprio’s turn in Django Unchained, if far less theatrical.

I know everyone is checking out Obsession this weekend, myself included, or they’re seeing the new Guy Ritchie movie starring Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal, but try and make some time for Is God Is, which is worth a look, even if the stomach-churning domestic violence may make you want to look away.

But hey, you’re not reading this newsletter to hear about the movie I saw last night. You want to know about my Wednesday night, which I spent dining next to Britney Spears.

Maybe you’ve already seen me on TMZ Live, Entertainment Tonight, or Inside Edition, but I still haven’t seen how any of those news segments turned out, or what info made the cut. I just saw how the news was packaged, which I’m not sure I loved.

So now, it’s my turn to package the news and tell you the wild story first-hand… if you’re a premium subscriber, of course! Everyone else will have to stop reading here.

Without further ado, here’s the straight tea about my night with Britney — bitch.

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Happy Wednesday, folks!

In recent days, I’ve watched a pair of documentaries about Lorne Michaels and Martin Short, and while I enjoyed both, I found Lawrence Kasdan’s Netflix doc, Marty, Life Is Short, to be far superior to Morgan Neville’s Lorne, which inexplicably received a theatrical release when it probably should’ve debuted on Peacock.

There’s even a brief but revealing shot of Lorne in the Martin Short doc that’s almost more personal than anything in Neville’s doc, which could’ve dug a bit deeper… if its subject actually wanted to open up about his personal life. Whereas the Short family opens up, Lorne’s family is largely kept off-camera, to the detriment of the film.

Speaking of Hollywood legends, I caught up with Dustin Hoffman’s new heist movie Tuner on Monday night as part of AMC’s Screen Unseen series, and I liked it, but I didn’t love it. For starters, Hoffman isn’t in the movie enough, and when he is in the movie, he’s bedridden for most of the running time.

The lead is English actor Leo Woodall, who reminds me of a young Michael Pitt. He’s talented, and this is a solid performance that impressed me. I just felt like the script leaves Woodall stranded, as his character is far too passive, to the point where he’s kind of boring. Believe me, the movie comes to life every second that the menacing Israeli actor Lior Raz is onscreen.

Director Daniel Roher is certainly worth keeping an eye on, and I’m curious to see what he does next, but with a 108-minute running time, give or take, I’m afraid that Tuner drags, and there’s far too much time spent on Havana Rose Liu’s piano playing.

The film needed to be a little bit edgier to have the impact of, say, Emily the Criminal, but it’s too mild to leave a truly lasting impression. I give it 2.5 stars out of 4, as I think it could’ve been better — a frustrating feeling.

Tonight, I have a fascinating interview with Adi Shankar, the creator of the Devil May Cry series on Netflix, who is also responsible for the Castlevania series and the Bootleg Universe featuring Power/Rangers and Mr. Rogers: A War Hero, among other viral shorts.

As with all interviews here at The InSneider, this one is free to read — no paywall tonight. But if you like what I’m doing here, feel free to do the right thing and subscribe for a month or two. Thanks in advance! And now, on with the show…

Adi Shankar on S2 of Devil May Cry, His Beef With Joe Russo, and Why Hollywood Should Vote for Spencer Pratt

Adi Shankar is an original thinker in a town where original thinking is in short supply.

The anime series Devil May Cry returned to Netflix this week for its second season, which critics are liking even more than the first, and I was lucky enough to spend roughly an hour chatting with the show’s creator/showrunner, Adi Shankar, about the hot topics being discussed in Hollywood.

Devil May Cry is based on the popular Capcom video game of the same name, and it follows a demon hunter named Dante (Johnny Yong Bosch) as he attempts to foil a demonic invasion of Earth orchestrated by the White Rabbit (Hoon Lee), a demon-obsessed terrorist who seeks revenge on the human race, all while being hunted by human soldier Mary Ann Arkham (Scout Taylor-Compton), who works for the government organization DARKCOM, aka Dark Realm Command.

The first season of Devil May Cry premiered in April 2025, and the show was quickly renewed for a second season, for which Shankar was given more resources — in large part due to the growing popularity of anime around the world.

I’ve known Shankar since my early reporting days at Variety, back when he made a name for himself as the executive producer of films such as Dredd, The Grey, Lone Survivor, and Killing Them Softly.

While I won’t pretend to have watched Devil May Cry, which I made Adi fully aware of before our interview, I wanted to chat with him because he’s an original thinker in a town where original thinking is in short supply.

He’s one of the smartest guys I know, and even though we don’t agree on everything, I have to give him credit for being a straight shooter, as there aren’t many of those in this business.

In any case, I knew Adi would be a fascinating interview, and he didn’t disappoint, especially once he got comfortable.

Below, submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, is my full interview with Shankar, which has been edited only for clarity. Buckle up, especially if your last name is Russo…

How are you doing, man?

Adi Shankar: I’m good. I'm also a little nauseous. I don't know why. I think I'm nervous to talk to you, Jeff.

You shouldn’t be. We go way back. 

Shankar: We go way fucking back. It's crazy. We go so far back that Netflix barely existed then. 

Exactly. That said, forgive me, but I don't watch Devil May Cry, so tell me… why should I watch the show, and what can fans expect from Season 2? 

Shankar: I think you’d like it because it’s very much an auteur-driven, dark fantasy epic that has real authorship. It's the opposite of art-by-committee, by which I mean, the committee-driven, committee-approved, sanitized content that we often get.

Okay, I can dig that. So what can fans of the show expect from Season 2 of Devil May Cry? What are some of the big developments they should keep an eye out for? 

Shankar: It’s hard to explain it if you haven't watched the show…

Well, there will be people who read this because they do watch the show and they’re eager to dive into Season 2. Ideally, that's who we're getting to subscribe — fans of you and the show.

Shankar: This is true. Well, in that case, I think there's just more this time around. I was given more resources, more run time, and obviously, I put that all on the screen — both in terms of visual storytelling, but also in terms of the music. I produce all the music and the show’s soundtrack, and it's a real symphony. Season 1 was a symphony, too, but Season 2 is a symphony that was able to take bigger swings because of the success of Season 1, if that makes sense.

It seems like Season 2 is getting even better reviews than the first season. I'm curious what you think it is that critics are responding to this season.

Shankar: In Season 1, I was leaning into plot, and in Season 2, I'm leaning more into emotion, and I think that makes it more surprising.

Can you tell me about the show's origins, particularly in dealing with Capcom? I know some of these video game companies can be very precious about their IP, so was it you who approached them, or did they approach you after seeing what you'd done with Castlevania? 

Shankar: I can break that down for you. So, we had a meeting years ago, and I happened to be dressed like a character from Devil May Cry, because if you recall, that's how I used to dress. I’m from Hong Kong, and I used to dress very flamboyantly.

So, we were talking about several of their properties, and they were like, ‘Hey, we're very interested in working with you. We like what you do.’ 

The conversation was driven by the series of fan films I made that were unauthorized creative reimaginings and reinterpretations of popular IP. And what happened was that the rights holders, especially in the gaming space, thought these fan films were really cool. 

So, I start all of these conversations with the understanding that I’m looking to creatively reinterpret stuff, just to address this notion of preciousness that you brought up.

Yes, they're very precious, usually, but even if you look at my last show, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, I did that in partnership with Ubisoft. It's basically my shared universe with Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, Rayman, and the Raving Rabbids. Prince of Persia’s even in there. Basically, all of Ubisoft’s IP is in there, and I flipped it on its head. 

Like, Rayman is the company's mascot, and I made him a cokehead propaganda artist of a fascist empire that is secretly the villains from Assassin's Creed. All of this was approved by the CEO of Ubisoft, right? And one of the brothers who runs Ubisoft went to every meeting with me to explain to the networks that, ‘Yes, we’re allowing him to do this.’ They normally enter these conversations very precious [about the IP], but with me, they’re actually interested in seeing my spin on it. 

Yeah, you've got some street cred at this point. 

Shankar: I've got street cred, and the street cred is, ‘Adi will creatively reinterpret the thing in an imaginative way.’ I honestly think if I just went in and tried to play it straight, people would be a little confused and shocked at this point.

So, back to Capcom, they actually recommended the property. They were like, ‘Just based on how you're dressed, are you a fan of Devil May Cry?’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’

They said, ‘Well, we would love for you to do Devil May Cry,’ and they were hinting that a new game was coming out, but I’m a little thick, so I didn't pick up on those hints.

But we made the deal — I made the deal directly with Capcom, and then brought in Netflix after I developed all of the material for Season 1. The meeting I’m talking about happened in 2017, and then I closed the deal in 2018.

I announced it on IGN in October or November of that year. I wore a bunch of face paint, and I cut a WWE-style promo on IGN, because, as you know, I have a flair for theatrics.

You're a showman. 

Shankar: I'm a showman, yes. I've got this inner Sacha Baron Cohen running around in me.

Well, between your show and the Resident Evil and Street Fighter movies, it certainly seems like a big year for Capcom. 

Shankar: Yeah, it’s a massive year for Capcom. They've got a really cool team over there. 

Obviously, it's a big company. They’re a big gaming corporation in Japan, and they've been around for decades and decades, so their IP roster runs super deep. 

I think there’s a lot of comfort there, and a lot of love, because I’m familiar with not just their greatest hits, but also their deep cuts, so I really respect the IP. At the end of the day, I respect any IP I work on, including Power Rangers. I did Power/Rangers because I was a fan, you know what I mean? 

I remember being a big fan of Capcom’s Mega Man games. Those were my jam.

Shankar: There's a Mega Man easter egg in Season 1, Episode 3 of Devil May Cry. Mega Man is literally in it.

Shankar believes his experience producing movies helped prepare him to be a TV showrunner.

I saw that you're a co-writer on six of the eight episodes this season, so I'm curious, when you first entered this business, did you fancy yourself a writer? How did you work on that skill and improve on that front? 

Shankar: That's a great question. The truth is that no, I didn’t — I was just trying to find a slot, and I didn't really care what the slot was. But I would always write treatments and pitches and whatnot. I just got more involved in the writing process as time went on. That probably started 10 or 11 years ago.

I consider Alex Larsen my writing partner. He wrote Season 1 of Devil May Cry, and we co-wrote Season 2. He also worked on Captain Laserhawk.

I guess you’re asking me if I consider myself a writer, and I suppose I consider myself a generalist who can conduct any part of the process now, having been doing this at a fairly high level for 15 years.

For example, my history as a producer really helped keep costs down on Devil May Cry. And sure, Netflix is footing the bill, but I want to make this cost-effective for them, and profitable for them, so that there gets to be more of this, and other people get the opportunity.

As far as the showmanship stuff goes, I feel like I've gotten better at that and reined that in more, but the truth is that it helps on the marketing side of things.

But I definitely think I got better at writing as time went on. I think it went from being a thing that I do to something that I'm very, very good at now. Not to sound super cocky. I mean, I'm not Jeff Sneider or anything…

Shut the fuck up. Are you in the WGA?

Shankar: No. But I’ve been thinking about the writer thing a lot lately, because it’s not just my writing that’s driving the show. This anime series requires me to wear so many different hats. 

As the showrunner, I’m dealing with action-based shot design and shot selection, and my company, Adi Shankar Animation, will re-edit certain shots and send the animatics back. 

So, as a showrunner in anime, you have to conduct a bigger orchestra. There’s plenty of other stuff to keep in mind besides the writing.

I know anime's been performing really well in movie theaters lately. Have there been any conversations about doing anything with Devil May Cry on the big screen? 

Shankar: No. Or rather, not that I can reveal without [the plug] getting pulled as punishment for revealing something that I… shouldn't be revealing. 

But if the question is, ‘Do I think it could work?’ Yes, I do, because the audience is hyper-engaged. And I think part of the reason that anime is eating Hollywood’s lunch is that anime believes in authorship. It's an auteur-driven industry. It's driven by IP, yeah, like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, One Piece, and so on. So it is IP, but auteurs run all of that IP, right? 

Anime is made by obsessed people. And that obsession then translates to the fans being obsessed, right? So when you look at, like, why are people showing up to theaters for this? Well, because they're obsessed. And they're going to put their phone down and go through the friction of making it to a movie theater because of that obsession.

Is there any AI involved in the making of Devil May Cry? 

Shankar: No. 

Where do you stand on AI? Is it a tool for good or a tool for evil, or does it just depend on who's using it and for what purpose? 

Shankar: The conversations around it are very funny to me. Because people are either naively utopian, hysterically apocalyptic, or, like, so obviously, blatantly self-interested.

I don't think AI exists yet. We're calling a pattern recognition tool artificial intelligence, but it's not The Terminator, you know? I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet…

And full disclosure, I have an AI company that I co-founded with the head of AI at Dartmouth. And the company is designed to protect artists.

Well, that’s a good thing.

Shankar: Yeah. I don’t think AI is all good or all bad. Artists need a way to fight back against infringement, right? Infringement is infringement. It's not like, ‘Oh, AI is doing it.’ It’s the AI companies that are infringing, and that’s not an AI thing — that's a corporate overreach thing.

And look, I know it's ironic that it's me saying this when I basically started my creative career as a dude bootlegging IP. 

In a way, I think that makes your criticism even more notable.

Shankar: Sure, absolutely.

Adi Shankar has a vision — the trick is getting rights holders to buy into it.

The Cannes Film Festival gets underway this week, and there's been a lot of talk this year about how Hollywood in general is kind of sitting out the festival, which doesn’t have a lot of Hollywood offerings. Sundance is moving from Utah to Colorado. What do you think is the single biggest problem plaguing film festivals these days? 

Shankar: I think this is just kind of a general problem, not necessarily a film festival problem, but I think the era of the brand manager is ending. Today’s audiences can smell committee-built entertainment now. And there are so many other offerings now, so why would someone engage with something that is run by a brand manager? 

We've both been in the business for a long time, right? My perception of how it works is that during every period or era of Hollywood, the business basically congregates around a certain individual or a certain group of individuals, and says, ‘These will be our stars. This is who the system is going to get behind this go-round.’ Right? And then that person magically turns into a movie star or an A-list director or some visionary auteur or something. But that's how we mint stars in this town, right? Would you agree with that? 

Sure…. 

Shankar: Okay. But then they’re left in the hands of the world's most generic man, Joe Russo [of the Russo brothers], who makes premium mediocre content with a capital fucking C. That’s who was minted by the town and given resources. Joe Russo makes premium mediocre content with a capital fucking C, and that's the problem.

What do you see happening in this industry that makes you go, I wish I'd thought of that? And what do you see happening that just needs to end? 

Shankar: Jesus, that's a great question. Well, first of all, I think in this premium mediocre business model, where billions of dollars were pulled out of the system, creative decision-making just became risk management. And the broader filmmaking ecosystem pays the price because everything that is being produced is an expensive pastiche with zero soul.

That needs to end, but it's already ending, or ended, right? We're kind of in the echo of that right now. But I think that plug just needs to get pulled. I'm not trying to be mean here, but I think my issue here is when I drive around L.A., and I see all these people without a job or without a role, and I see the industry is suffering, it's like, ‘Okay, part of the suffering is because you have individuals who are literally raising billions of dollars to produce shit.’

There's a lot of damage that gets left behind in its wake, and those individuals don't suffer because they get to flex and do whatever the hell it is that they do. It's the next generation and the generation after that suffer, right? 

The massive contraction is a response to the individuals who were given the baton and told, ‘Hey, we believe in you. Go hit a fucking home run.’ And instead they sat at home and put the money in their pocket. 

We're seeing the fallout hit now, and where it always hits hardest is the creative middle class. The working people who built this business start losing their fucking homes, and that's not cool.

So yeah, the string of $200 million committee-written, committee-directed slop projects was a problem, and now, the problem is that we’re living in the aftershock of that, and it’s fucked up. Just look at all the people now who won't get opportunities because of that [greed]. 

But maybe I'm just jealous. Maybe I'm mad that I didn't get on that gravy train. I should’ve made a deal with AGBO and gotten on that fucking gravy train and tried to make a Pac-Man Cinematic Universe, only to lose the rights to fucking Justin Baldoni. Which is dark, man. 

Adi Shankar thinks Spencer Pratt has what it takes to be Mayor. Agree to disagree, I say!

I don’t know how much time you spend in L.A. these days or if you’re paying attention to the Mayoral election, but is there a candidate you feel would be best for the industry? 

Shankar: For the industry? Spencer Pratt, no doubt about it. Because he's from the industry.

That is true, technically.

Shankar: Literally, I don't see any other candidates being from the industry. He's from a different version of the industry, right? One where the industry was... a thriving ecosystem with various types of productions being made on various scales. But he's very much from the industry.

I don't think the current mayor knows very much about how our industry operates, or operated, and could operate again in the future, if we're in alignment. And that's not a knock against anyone. It's just that our business has a very specific history, and it has very specific cycles. 

Have you personally found it difficult to shoot in Los Angeles? 

Shankar: Well, yeah. So, I basically have only done anime, with the rare exception of a couple of things. I've only done anime, and for that, we've essentially developed a global pipeline, right? So, in a lot of ways, you could argue that I'm part of the problem of production leaving. It’s because of the global pipeline that's been created. 

But back in the day, I remember it being hard to shoot in L.A. and there being a lot of roadblocks and difficulties. L.A. is a rough place infrastructurally, right? Like, I live in Dubai some of the time, and that’s where you start to see how much L.A. has fallen.

I think there are a lot of people who really love LA, so they don't want to admit that it's fallen. But they also haven't really left the United States to see how other places have progressed so quickly. I don't want to say L.A. has turned into a third-world city because that's not accurate, but it feels very much like a city on the decline. But I feel like that can be course corrected, because even if you take the weather out of the equation, it’s such a beautiful place and there's so much history here. But step one is admitting that there's a problem, which I think is now happening. 

There’s just a lot of red tape in L.A. Or at least, I remember there being a lot of red tape. Which I know is part of the process, and that process — that red tape — gets romanticized. Like, ‘Oh, we had to negotiate for a permit to shoot here, and it took forever, but we pulled it off.’ And hey, that’s great. That’s part of the learning process. But if you're the city of L.A. and you’re creating more friction, you’re creating the marketplace for people to go elsewhere. The business has become so global, just in the last 10 years alone, right? 

It's funny, there’s this whole narrative about the Streaming Wars, which is surely a term you’ve heard of. But what was the war, exactly? I don’t understand. It was more like a streaming curbstomp, or a streaming bitch slap. A war implies some back and forth. All I saw was Netflix decisively winning, largely because it understood the world as it actually is. The other studios were programming for Brentwood. To them, the center of gravity was Brentwood.

And it felt like Netflix understood that there's a whole planet out there, and that’s where the center of gravity has shifted, because we’re now interconnected in such a way. And that's kind of a microcosm of what's been happening to L.A. in a lot of places.

Speaking of your close creative relationship with Netflix, is it fair to say you were rooting for them to buy Warner Bros. so they could have access to more IP? What are your thoughts on the Paramount merger and all that kind of stuff? 

Shankar: I focus on what I can control. I mean, sure, I have thoughts on it, but at the end of the day, I can only control the controllable. Everything else is out of my control, so I try not to spend any energy on it. If Netflix bought WB, then great, I get access to more IP.

If they don't, then it’s also great, you know what I mean? I've just been so locked in on the work. I’ve been dropping a [new season of television] or some other cool project every year for most of this decade, with my point being that it's so easy for creatives to get caught up in the architecture of the business. 

For me, I just try to control the controllable because I want to make the best anime I can so that I can grow the marketplace and the anime ecosystem in the U.S. and create more opportunities. It just so happens that anime is growing rapidly worldwide, so I’m hustling to keep that train going and really deliver there. I've cut out anything else that can distract me from that mission.

When you do get some free time these days, what are you watching, reading, or playing? 

Shankar: Well, you know, I started production on a video game. So I've really just been playing that. And then I’ve also started production on a manga. I’ve always read manga, but I’ve been trying to read more manga, so I’ve basically stopped reading American comics, because I don't want to be influenced by that structure. 

So, I've been exclusively going back and rereading all the old manga I love, like Mob Psycho 100, Demon Slayer, Bleach, Sun-Ken Rock, and others.

Interesting. I don’t read much manga, but I’m a big Death Note guy. 

Shankar: Yeah, Death Note's sick, dude. 

They may have only worked together once, but Adi thought of James as a big brother.

So listen, I wanted to ask you about James Van Der Beek. I know he was a close personal friend of yours, so how has his death impacted you? 

Shankar: Oh, wow, yeah. So, you know, Episode 1 of Devil May Cry this season is actually dedicated to him. Literally, the episode ends, and it says, ‘For my older brother.’ Because James wasn't just a friend. He was literally my older brother. 

It’s so fucked up. I nearly just kind of rage-quit everything. You know, I'll tell you this story…

We thought James was going to pass in October. There was a Dawson's Creek reunion that Kevin Williamson put on, and he was really excited to go, but he was in the hospital. Like, he was literally skin and bones, and he couldn't make it. So, Kimberly and the kids went out. 

And it was just me and him in the hospital, and I was holding his hand. The doctor was like, ‘He may not make it to tomorrow.’

And I'm just holding his hand and losing my shit, right? Because I live in this kind of fantasy cartoon world, where there's always another adventure, and we all live forever, like in superhero stuff, where people never really go away, and they can be resurrected. But now I'm dealing with a real-world crisis, and I was just so shell-shocked.

Obviously, he made it through. But that was the first time I ever truly processed [death]. And I was just filled with regret, right? 

The thing is, we only really worked together once. And that was on the Power/Rangers short. But there were so many things we wanted to do. You know what I mean? He would always be like, ‘Hey, man, why don't you just create a show for me, and I'll star in it?’

That night, I went down to the hospital cafeteria to hang out with James' brother, Jared, who looks like James and has James' mannerisms. All the micro-expressions are the same. So, you're basically talking to James. And I was telling Jared, ‘It’s not about the projects, man. It's about the memories you make with people and the fun you have when you're making them.’

So, I almost just rage-quit after that experience in October, where I thought he was going to pass, because I was just sitting there being like, ‘I don't know what the fucking point of any of this is, if you can just go at any moment.’ It just felt super unfair. James was such a good dude.

Thankfully, Netflix really rallied around me. Word got around that I was in a dark spot, and it’s hard to be a leader when you're going through an existential crisis like that. But Netflix really understood. 

I don’t mean to make James’ death all about myself, but it has definitely forced me to confront some stuff.

The other thing about James is, he knew a different side of me — and we go way back, so you know this side of me, too. But people who don't really know me, they just see this Twitter troll guy in makeup. To them, I’m just a guy with face paint who's basically upset that he never got to be a WWE performer. But James said something to me in October that I carry with me to this day.

He said, ‘Look, I need to say something to you before this ends. Don't let your need to be a WWE villain impact your spiritual growth. You're a very sweet guy. I wish you would let everyone see that.’

That's beautiful. And again, I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I know how much he meant to you. 

Shankar: Thanks, man.

I guess my final question relates to that, in a way. I’m not sure exactly how long you’ve been in the business, but looking back after nearly 20 years or so, is there anything you'd do differently? Do you have any regrets? 

Shankar: Well, I wish I hadn't just pivoted without maintaining what I had going.

Are you talking about the pivot from EP’ing movies into producing television? 

Shankar: Yeah. I mean, I could have just kept all that machinery going. But I don't really have regrets. 15 years ago, the Bootleg Universe looked completely illegal. People were going, ‘Wow, this is so clever, but what you're doing is fucking illegal.’

Right. You had to feel like you were getting away with something, on some level.

Shankar: You're doing guerrilla filmmaking, but you're getting movie and TV stars to do it, and you're not distributing it properly, you're putting it on this fucking thing called YouTube, and on top of everything, you don't control the IP. 

I know that shit looked illegal, but today, every studio is trying to manufacture what the Bootleg Universe did organically. So I don't really have regrets. I think doing that opened the door to what I'm doing now.

And look, I don't approach IP like a fucking librarian protecting a sacred museum. I approach it like a musician covering a really dope old song live in front of a big modern audience.

I don't think I would’ve arrived here without all of the past stops on the train. I had to learn how the business works, and all the training I got was so fucking valuable. I mean, how many creatives do you run into who are great, but they don't have the framework?  I can sit in the room with a suit and talk to a suit, and they're like, ‘Wow, so the makeup is just a performance?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, it's just a performance.’ Because I have a suit inside me, too.

To that point, I co-founded an AI company called DAMLA, which stands for Defense Against the Machine Learning Arts. I co-founded it with Adam Breuer, the head of AI at Dartmouth. He has a double Ph.D. from Harvard in machine learning, and he’s one of the top minds in cybersecurity and AI cybersecurity.

I think that understanding all of the business mechanisms and even just knowing how to do the deal to acquire the IP was key to me being a showrunner, because it was like conducting an orchestra on Devil May Cry. You have to know how every part of the orchestra, or the machine, works, and where the pitfalls are, and when to push that machine, and where that machine tends to collapse on itself. 

You have to know how to work with Netflix. When I started working with them, in their old office near UTA, the company was, like, 20 dudes. They were a small company. They were like, ‘Hey, you make crazy short films, right?’ 

I showed up to that first meeting for Castlevania an hour late and dressed as a cowboy with full face paint on, because I had been playing myself, or playing that character, in a music video.

I was in Ojai, and I realized I was late, so I had to speed to get to the meeting, and I was still super late, dressed as a cowboy, with makeup on. That shit would not fly today. You know what I mean? It's a very different company now. It’s a global corporation, and everyone's very serious — a real pivot from when they were a startup that appreciated the wildness.

I had a chat with my executive at the time, Larry Tanz, about this, and he said, ‘The business is shifting from the Wild West, and now it's getting more structured.’ And I'm, like, ‘Okay, I know what that means. I’ve got to show up differently.’ Right? 

What I'm saying is, I don't really look at the past with any regrets, because I know that all of these stops on the train brought me to where I am now, as an auteur showrunner who can work with IP and make it my own, and land that plane. I can be given the keys to the kingdom, or to the franchise, from Capcom and Netflix, and they trust me to conduct the orchestra — not just because I’ve delivered before, but because I know how to show up as a leader. 

I understand how all these different aspects of the business work together. So whether I’m talking to the marketing department or business affairs on the dealmaking side, or the production folks, or various vendors, I can speak all these different languages, and that just takes time to learn.

And this AI company doesn’t come about unless I built my name on copyright infringement. I'm like, ‘Oh, fuck, I kicked open the door for copyright infringement on YouTube by making these unauthorized shorts. Shit.’ But what that also did was broaden the umbrella of fair use. 

I don't know if you saw the Mr. Rogers: A War Hero short I did back in the day, but the whole thing plays like a tall tale. It’s a stupid joke, and the Mister Rogers estate was not happy. They were like, ‘Hey, you need to take this down. It’s not cool.’ And I’m like, ‘Did you watch it?’ And they’re like, ‘No, but we’ve seen your other things.’ I'm like, ‘What? It's not really like the other things.’ I mean, I like Mister Rogers. I like all the IPs that I do creative reinterpretations of. 

They're loving homages.

Shankar: Exactly. And I got an email from Google in 2018 saying, ’Hey, there's been a copyright claim over this short. We've set aside this amount of money in legal fees that you can use, and we'll support you, and we'll feel like you'll win this case.’

And I went, ‘Hold up. Google is not doing this to protect artistic freedom. Google's not like, ‘Adi, you're such a dope creator. We can't wait for you to have Robocop shoot My Little Pony next.’

No, Google was trying to expand the umbrella of what fair use means because then it feeds their fucking wood chipper, right?  I could see that even back then.

And that's why, if you look back, I basically stopped doing those unauthorized short films. I did a Pokémon short after, and then I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I thought I was fighting the “establishment,” but I was actually, like, helping the fucking cyberpunk dystopian machine empire take over the planet. I was like, ‘Fuck that shit. I don't want to participate in that shit.’ 

So, that’s why I have this anti-AI company, DAMLA, because it offers tools that help artists protect themselves against AI ingestion/infringement and fight back in the upcoming AI war.

Not just artists, but people. Artists are people, too. Because with consent, AI becomes a tool. Without it, that shit is a threat. 

Right. It's a weapon.

Shankar: I don't want to call it “rape,” but it's kind of like [intellectual] rape, and that's fucked up. And again, it's not AI, because AI doesn't really exist yet. There's something else called machine learning, and it may be a precursor to AI, but to me, this is a story of corporate overreach. It's a tale as old as time, right? I don't arrive here without experience and knowing how the pieces work together. 

Hopefully, this “War on AI” will actually be a war and not another curbstomp, because animation would probably be the first domino to drop. This is why I've been getting so many AI bros trying to court me. Because they know animation's the first domino to drop, right? And I'm doing anime, so to them, it's close enough. But I’m the only one in the West who is creating anime right now.

Was there anything that you wanted to talk about today that I didn't get a chance to ask you about? 

Shankar: Yes. Fuck Joe Russo and fuck AGBO. I’m sure the committee that's directing Avengers: Doomsday will do a good job.

Hey now! Did Joe do something to you personally?

Shankar: Maybe. Maybe not. I just think that when you look at the problem that has really destroyed our business, it's genericism. To me, he is the world's most generic man. He represents genericism in Hollywood. I'm sure he's a fine dude, but he should be doing episodes of Tracker on CBS or The Rookie on ABC. That’s a job that would be great for him. He should do that. Between him and his brother, it’s like Waldo from Where's Waldo and the Penguin got together and convinced everyone to give them $2 billion, and they basically burned the town down so that the next generation has to suffer.

You can relieve some of that suffering by watching Season 2 of Devil May Cry, which is now streaming on Netflix.

Follow TheInSneider on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Got a hot tip or an interesting pitch? Want to buy an ad? Email me at theinsneider@gmail.com.

Happy Tuesday, folks!

I’ve got a hot rumor for you today about the world’s biggest movie star, Tom Cruise, who has somehow never sent me a coconut cake or responded to any of my fan letters!

Premium subscribers may now enter the Sneider-Verse to read more…

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Happy Thursday, folks!

Last night, I made a last-minute decision to see Anthony Jeselnik perform at the Saban Theatre with a few buddies who already had tickets, and while it was an expensive decision, I don’t regret it whatsoever, as it’s hard to put a price on an evening that ends with your cheeks hurting from laughing so hard.

Megan Gailey and Sarah Tiana did a great job opening for Jeselnik, who spent roughly an hour delivering 65 killer jokes, which he said he chose from nearly 1300 options. Jeselnik remains the undisputed king of the dark joke, and if you guys had read last night’s post about Netflix Is a Joke Fest, you could’ve joined the raucous party, where nothing was off limits, from jokes about incest and molestation to racism and misogyny. Each one of them absolutely slayed and brought the house down, trust me.

Tonight, I’m off to see Sam Morril and Joe List — frankly, Netflix should be throwing tickets at me — so wish me luck, as that show will end around midnight in downtown L.A., which is always a fun place to be after dark, ha!

Tonight, I’ve got a scoop about a new live-action YA series in the works at Disney, and a casting scoop about Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo series. I also offer up my hopes, dreams, and predictions for this year’s Emmys race, and a look at the trailer for Tatiana Maslany’s new Apple TV series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which is poised to surprise later this month.

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Happy Tuesday, folks!

Theaters were absolutely packed this weekend thanks to The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael, while I went to see Hokum and lived to regret it. I mean, if you want to spend two hours with an asshole writer, just watch my podcast every week!

Who knew I would feel even worse 48 hours later when my beloved Boston Celtics dropped their first playoff series of my lifetime to the Philadelphia 76ers, who deserved the victory, quite frankly. We just didn’t have the stuff this year.

Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions hasn’t had the stuff either lately, as the company doesn’t have much to show for its high-priced deal on the Universal lot besides Peele's Nope and Justin Tipping’s incoherent sports thriller Him.

Monkeypaw’s first-look deal expires in a few months, and the company let go of several staffers on Tuesday in an effort to refocus its development efforts. It’s unclear whether Peele was forced to downsize in the hopes of getting Universal to re-up his deal, or whether he wanted to make Monkeypaw a smaller, more nimble operation should he choose to set up shop elsewhere.

Personally, I don’t think Peele is going anywhere, but the only thing I know is that Peele has settled on his next movie, and while he’s still writing it, a well-placed source says that in terms of scale, it’s the director’s biggest movie to date. Nope had a reported production budget of $68 million, so Peele’s new budget may be more in line with the $90 million that Warner Bros. gave Ryan Coogler and Maggie Gyllenhaal for Sinners and The Bride, respectively.

Universal has been very patient with Peele, and the studio is hoping his next effort will be worth the wait.

I also watched the 1980 cult classic Night of the Juggler this weekend, and that movie proved to be worth the wait. I had to sign up for a Los Angeles Public Library card so I could watch the movie on an app called Hoopla, but I didn’t mind jumping through hoops to do so.

The film stars James Brolin as an ex-cop and father willing to do anything to recover his kidnapped daughter, played by veteran Innovative Artists agent Abby Bluestone. It’s one of those gritty crime movies where New York plays a co-starring role, only this time, that hackneyed description is fully earned. For the most part, I had a blast with the chaotic tale, which lends itself well to a remake.

I also binged the entirety of Tatiana Maslany’s new Apple TV series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, which I’ll be able to write about closer its release in a couple of weeks.

Tonight, a look at the 26 hottest tickets of the 2026 Netflix Is a Joke Festival, which is taking over Los Angeles this week, including a sneak preview of the Roast of Kevin Hart courtesy of host Shane Gillis, who tested some highly offensive (and hilarious) material at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Plus, a look at the trailer for Netflix’s new romantic comedy Office Romance starring Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein, who is also performing at Netflix’s comedy festival this week.

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Happy Thursday, folks!

This week, I watched a ton of new stuff, including Anya Taylor-Joy’s upcoming Apple TV series Lucky, which remains under embargo until its July debut; Season 2 of Jon Hamm’s series Your Friends & Neighbors, which feels more and more like Sex and the City for men; and David Wain’s comedy Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which features Hamm as the titular Celebrity.

I also went on a bit of a Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio kick, watching James Cameron’s The Abyss, Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money, and the Kevin Kline cop movie The January Man all in a row. I can’t say the latter was very good, but I’m glad I watched the other two in their entirety for the first time, having only seen bits and pieces of them on cable TV growing up. I wouldn’t call either film their director’s best, but there’s a lot to like about both of them.

This weekend, I plan to check out The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Hokum. I also plan to catch up with Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, which has been low on my priority list at the expense of other TV shows, and finish watching Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, which I’ve somehow never seen before.

I’m working on my first list of Emmy predictions, and I’m still waiting for the Michael news cycle to settle down before weighing in on that film and the hoopla surrounding it on multiple levels — from the divide between the response from critics and audiences, to what it means for the musical biopic genre, the film’s awards chances, and what Lionsgate may have planned for the forthcoming sequel.

Instead, tonight’s newsletter focuses on Top Gun 3, and who may be in line to direct the Tom Cruise-led sequel now that it seems clear Joseph Kosinski has no plans to return.

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Happy Monday, folks!

This morning brings my final dispatch from CinemaCon, but if you’re tired of reading about it and you’d prefer to just listen to my thoughts in the car or on the treadmill, then check out my discussion with Max Sloth on the latest episode of his podcast, Anticipation Blvd.

I also discussed CinemaCon with John Rocha on our podcast, The Hot Mic, and I’ll talk about it further this week with Edward Douglas on an upcoming episode of The Weekend Warrior podcast, so stay tuned for that one.

By the way, at the end of last week’s Hot Mic podcast, I shared the rumor I’ve heard that Paramount’s new genre label — the one that Weapons producers J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules are building out — will be called Paramount Primal. Thoughts? Alternate suggestions before the studio makes an official announcement?

It’s been quiet on the news front beyond Cannes packages — Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal are joining Matthew McConaughey in Park Chan-wook’s ultraviolent western The Brigands of Rattlecreek — though it does sound like Jonathan Bailey (Wicked’s Prince Fiyero) is replacing Glen Powell in John Lee Hancock’s indie movie Monsanto, which will co-star Laura Dern.

Powell signed on to that project two years ago, and I didn’t expect the producers to wait much longer for his busy schedule to clear. I know Powell was recently rumored to star in Michael Giacchino’s remake of Them! at Warner Bros., and I have no inside info on that one, so I’m unable to confirm, but I have heard that Powell is going to produce an adaptation of Emma Brodie’s bestselling book Into the Blue via his Barnstorm banner.

Hailed by Reese Witherspoon’s influential book club, the book is described as “an epic, decades-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy and charts a connection unlike any other.” Stay tuned for more…

I wish I could’ve written more last week, but I was knocked for a loop thanks to a mysterious illness. Thankfully, I’m on the mend and feeling a bit better, and I plan to return soon to write about two of my disgraced childhood heroes, Michael Jackson and Hulk Hogan, whose stories are told — sort of — in new projects.

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