What I’m Hearing: Disney Hot Seats, Chalamet’s Burden, Open Roles and A.I. Fears

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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, and cheers to 2023! I hope this email can take your mind off the very sad Damar Hamlin injury on Monday Night Football. Here’s wishing him all the best.

I’m at C.E.S. this week, moderating a SAG-AFTRA panel called “A.I. Goes to Hollywood” on Thursday with some great guests. If you’re in Vegas, stop by and say hi, or maybe we can go see Wayne Newton together.

As always, if this email was forwarded to you, join the WIH community by clicking here. Start the year by taking care of yourself!

Discussed in this issue: Bob Iger, Brian Robbins, Hope Hicks, Miguel Sapochnik, David Zaslav, Timothée Chalamet, James Mangold, Lorene Scafaria, James Cameron, and the behind-the-scenes blowup of the year.

But first…

Quote of the Year

“Right now, in the media and entertainment space, is the age of great anxiety.”
–Bob Iger, speaking at the Code conference in September, months before he re-joined Disney.

Runner up: “You’re off...

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23 Semi-Surefire Hollywood Predictions, Predicaments and Preoccupations for 2023

For the second year in a row, I polled sources for offbeat observations and areas of preoccupation that you might not be thinking about, both big picture and small, regarding what to expect in this year of likely pain and anxiety.

MATTHEW BELLONI

At this point, would anyone be surprised to see Elon Musk or Kanye West offer predictions for the year in Hollywood? The Writers Guild will (or won’t!) strike. Apple will (or won’t!) buy a studio. Yadda yadda… everyone’s got a take on this stuff, and most are wrong… until maybe they’re right, and then the victory lap ensues.

The bottom line: This year’s gonna be bad. The ad market hasn’t yet hit its low, inflation and interest rates have stunted dealflow, the movie business is expected to improve but there aren’t enough releases planned to match pre-pandemic box office, it’s unclear if the advertising tiers will reverse the fortunes of the streamers, and...

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