"Jason Blum"

Mr. Jason Blum finally attains the golden chalice. A babbling brook, a flash of brilliance, and a commercial/residential electrician. “You can swallow saliva, you know. It’s built for that.” Welcome to SmartLess.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sean Hayes?

  This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Google Book. So this may not surprise you, I have a lot of thoughts in my head. And my dream is to just blurt them out and somehow get them down on paper, because my brain works way faster than my hands. That's where Google Book comes in. It's a whole new kind of laptop. No more typing, you just talk, and the Rambler feature cleans up your ums and uhs and all the times you change your mind. Basically, it turns messy thoughts into tidy text. Visit googlebook.com for details. Available in select countries and languages to 18-plus users. Check the responses for accuracy.

• 0:43Sean Hayes?

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• 1:19Sean Hayes?

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• 1:59Sean Hayes?

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• 2:40Jason Bateman?

  So hello.

• 2:41Sean Hayes?

  Hello.

• 2:42Jason Bateman?

  This is not gonna be a cold open. This is gonna be a hot open.

• 2:46Sean Hayes?

  This is hot.

• 2:46Will Arnett?

  Oh, I love it.

• 2:47Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, let's make it hot. Let's give it a little bit of a summer theme on this hot open.

• 2:53Sean Hayes?

  Oh, a summer.

• 2:54Jason Bateman?

  So here we are, so we're on the beach. And, oh, look at those waves. Beautiful, huh? Is that a surfer out there? That looks like Will Arnett. Will, get on in here. We're doing a hot open. Paddling in, he's paddling in.

• 3:06Will Arnett?

  Hey, you guys cool with the G-string?

• 3:11Will Arnett?

  It has no front.

• 3:12Jason Bateman?

  No, Will, don't turn around. Don't turn around. Welcome to Smartless.

• 3:32Sean Hayes?

  Jay, did you sleep OK?

• 3:34Jason Bateman?

  I slept like a log.

• 3:36Sean Hayes?

  That's great. Willie, you were missed last night.

• 3:38Jason Bateman?

  Lemon bundt cake and Rice Krispies really put me down.

• 3:41Sean Hayes?

  I know, I love that.

• 3:42Will Arnett?

  We went back to the bundt cake, huh?

• 3:43Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. Who's was that? Was that yours, honey?

• 3:46Sean Hayes?

  No, that was a gift. That somebody else brought in.

• 3:49Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you were missed, Will.

• 3:50Will Arnett?

  I missed it, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't come. I had a, I had a dinner with the boys.

• 3:56Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 3:56Will Arnett?

  By, by boys, I mean my sons, um, not with my golf buddies or something. Um, yeah, we had a nice, uh, just my boys and me, which was really nice.

• 4:06Sean Hayes?

  That's nice, isn't that nice? Did you watch a movie?

• 4:09Will Arnett?

  No, we watched a little Sunday night football and, uh, which was fun.

• 4:12Jason Bateman?

  All the snow.

• 4:13Will Arnett?

  And then we did, sorry, so then we did do, we do movie night at night, uh, before bed, the, the little is like to watch. Little movie, they call it movie night, usually ends up being, put a movie on in my room, on the bed, and then it turns into fight, everybody gets weapons.

• 4:27Jason Bateman?

  Oh, you don't fall asleep right away?

• 4:30Will Arnett?

  So, last night, uh, Denny hasn't, hadn't seen Star Wars, and he kept saying,

• 4:35Jason Bateman?

  What are you talking about?

• 4:35Will Arnett?

  This is the real movie. We're like, I know, from moment one, he's like, what's he doing? What's this guy doing? They're in a desert, he literally at one point goes, this is a great hu- totally human, pure moment, he goes, as, as C3PO and R2D2 are walking on Tatooine. Sean, hold your boner. He goes, that's a desert? And we go, yeah, and he goes, there's no sea there. He go, no, he goes, I'm thirsty.

• 5:04Will Arnett?

  It was so, it was so funny, just right in that moment to say that, so.

• 5:09Sean Hayes?

  Wait, but back to football, yesterday I was watching football too, and I, I don't understand why they, the guy, when they know they have a camera on them, they just hold one nostril and they blow it out the other way.

• 5:19Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 5:19Sean Hayes?

  And it's so, they're always on camera, just blowing their nose out, it's like, just get a Kleenex.

• 5:24Will Arnett?

  Oh, you're right, they should go get Kleenexes on the side of them.

• 5:28Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, they hand them everything else.

• 5:29Will Arnett?

  Excuse me, can I get a Kleenex?

• 5:32Jason Bateman?

  But why do they all spit in baseball too? I get that the, the chewing tobacco and stuff, but, you know, the, only half the guys are chewing tobacco now, it's just, it's, but it's like, it's,

• 5:42Will Arnett?

  It's a tick.

• 5:43Jason Bateman?

  This weird like ma- I'm a male, check it out, I can spit. I, it's, people on the street too, that just like, spit when they're like, uh, kind of uncomfortable, or they know eyes are on them, it's like, yeah, I'm a dude. But it's, it's, people on a fucking golf course do it. Guys are like, you're not, you're not a real man, guy, you know? We're just out here playing golf.

• 6:04Sean Hayes?

  I was in Germany with Scotty on a vacation and I spit in public. He didn't talk to me the rest of the day.

• 6:09Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 6:10Sean Hayes?

  He's like, what's the matter with you? Yeah, we got a huge fight.

• 6:12Will Arnett?

  Well, at least now you've got an escape valve. You know what I mean? If you think about it.

• 6:16Jason Bateman?

  But like, why would like, you know, you can, you can swallow saliva. Like it's built for that.

• 6:21Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but if you have like, if you have to get it out, what do you do?

• 6:23Jason Bateman?

  But exactly. But what, what saliva is so bad that you've got to get it out, spit, put it on the ground?

• 6:31Will Arnett?

  Here's, here's an interesting thing.

• 6:32Jason Bateman?

  I was chewing tobacco, I get it.

• 6:33Will Arnett?

  Here's, here's the irony, is that knowing JB as well as I do, and the, Sean, you and I know him almost as well as anybody, he could go either way with that. He could see somebody work up, like have some spit and swallow it and go, gross, why don't you just get rid of it? Why would you, am I right about that JB?

• 6:50Jason Bateman?

  Yes. I could argue both sides.

• 6:52Will Arnett?

  I know, it's so true, right?

• 6:54Jason Bateman?

  Do you think if I was a lawyer, would I have been a defensive attorney or a prosecutor?

• 6:59Will Arnett?

  You would have been both.

• 7:02Will Arnett?

  You would have come in, you're on or I'm representing both sides.

• 7:05Jason Bateman?

  Because I don't want anyone's involvement?

• 7:07Will Arnett?

  No, and you don't want to be caught out being wrong in either way. So you're just like, I'm going to cover both. You're like, my dad does that. My dad goes, he'll say, he'll make a point and go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're about, you go, intake, you're about to make a point. And he'll go, having said that. And you're like, oh, you're going to argue the other side?

• 7:22Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to get to our guest right now, but Jay, Jason told, I've never heard that story unless you told it and I don't remember. And we don't have to tell it right now. But Jason was doing a play and he bought the cast.

• 7:36Jason Bateman?

  Oh my God, that story. I was trying to remember what story I told you last night.

• 7:40Sean Hayes?

  God, it was so funny. He, as a gift.

• 7:42Jason Bateman?

  I think I've said that on this before.

• 7:43Sean Hayes?

  Really? I don't remember. Anyway.

• 7:45Jason Bateman?

  Just some horrible example of what a fucking monster I was in my early twenties.

• 7:49Will Arnett?

  Did we talk about last time, the thing that we're not going to talk about yet? We did, right?

• 7:53Jason Bateman?

  What's that? Yes. No, yeah. And please don't even think about it.

• 7:56Will Arnett?

  We did, right?

• 7:57Sean Hayes?

  What is that?

• 7:58Jason Bateman?

  I don't know. I'm just going along with it.

• 7:59Will Arnett?

  The stuff that we're looking into doing with, with, did we?

• 8:02Jason Bateman?

  Oh, I don't know. You guys are in control of all those things.

• 8:06Sean Hayes?

  No, we're, that, that we're, we've decided to.

• 8:09Will Arnett?

  That we're planning on doing something. We're really excited. We, we don't want to say yet, but we are excited about something because we've had.

• 8:16Will Arnett?

  We've had, the three of us have talked to, people have said to us like, hey, you should do something with the brand, as gross as that sounds.

• 8:24Sean Hayes?

  Very gross.

• 8:25Will Arnett?

  And then, right for a while, we've sort of, and kind of like when we were thinking about going on tour, we're like, hey, should we do that, blah, blah, blah. So then, we were like, should we do something? And then, we've sort of zeroed in on something that we are gonna do with, within the Smartless world that we're really excited about.

• 8:41Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 8:42Will Arnett?

  We can't really say it yet, and sorry, we're not sort of teasing it on purpose to not make you guess, but it is something that we are excited about, and when it finally comes to fruition, so kind of bear with us, but it's something pretty cool and it feels really organic to what we do.

• 8:57Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 8:58Will Arnett?

  Right?

• 8:58Sean Hayes?

  But first, we're gonna say hello.

• 9:00Will Arnett?

  Yes.

• 9:01Sean Hayes?

  Ah, how about that?

• 9:02Will Arnett?

  Uh huh. Yep.

• 9:03Sean Hayes?

  We're huge fans of our guest today, not just his prolific work, but the man behind the empire is a dear friend to all of us, a self-proclaimed weird kid, his favorite holiday was Halloween. After graduating from Vassar, his career started as a real estate agent in Manhattan, before working his way up at a major movie studio. Today, he's a three-time Academy Award nominated, two-time prime time, prime time Emmy Award winning, and a three-time Peabody Award winning producer. His company, for which he is CEO and founder, is considered the driving force in one of the last genres to get people into the theaters. He's our brilliant friend, Jason Blum. Jason Blum, Blumhouse.

• 9:40Will Arnett?

  Oh, Blumhouse, hello there.

• 9:42Sean Hayes?

  Always got his little warm jacket on. Look at him go.

• 9:46Will Arnett?

  We're doing it, we're finally doing it.

• 9:48Speaker 03

  This is a, this is a very, very important day for me.

• 9:52Sean Hayes?

  This is, everybody just take it easy right now.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  So, well, it's not probably the listeners who are as excited as I am, because, you know, what I'd like to share, you know, with all your fans, by the way, I have, I guess like all your guests have been listening, like, the way not to sell your product is literally the last five minutes is exactly, you, you, you basically said, we're doing something, someday we're gonna tell you about it. I mean, I've never, I mean, that was,

• 10:19Sean Hayes?

  we're stupid.

• 10:19Speaker 03

  It was, it was, it was, which is why, which is why, which is why I'm very happy to be here to kind of help you with your chocolate bars, you know.

• 10:29Sean Hayes?

  Well, it's just like, if you were like selling one of your movies, it's like, like buying a billboard and just having it just be black.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  We might make a scary movie, it might come out someday, and I'm not telling you what it's called.

• 10:40Sean Hayes?

  By the way, effective. Yeah, but for my, my sister, who, who may not know you, but knows the name of your company, Blumhouse, Blumhouse makes all the hit horror films you've ever seen, and it's all because of you. Every horror film out there is basically, every hit horror film is basically a Blumhouse.

• 10:57Will Arnett?

  You're saying horror, right?

• 10:58Sean Hayes?

  Horror, yeah. Horror, scary.

• 11:01Will Arnett?

  Okay.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just, I just gotta get something off my mind first, though, before we start talking about horror. I just, because you guys are being really, you know, polite, which I, which I appreciate, but I think it's important for, for all your, your gazillions of listeners to know that. I know all of you individually.

• 11:17Will Arnett?

  Yes.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  I've known Jason the longest, but you know, I, we have, we, we have relationships and I just, I think it's important for everyone to know that individually, over the last, since, well, how's this, how long has Smartless been, two or three years?

• 11:30Sean Hayes?

  Five years.

• 11:31Will Arnett?

  Four, four and a half.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  Four and a half years. I've probably, over the last four years, sent a total of 15 emails, five to each of you, every three or four months, timed separately. Begging to be on the show. Begging. Now, the harsh, the harshest responses, Jason just doesn't reply. Love to promote the new movie on Smartless, ghosting me.

• 11:54Will Arnett?

  No, not only that.

• 11:56Sean Hayes?

  I don't think so. I changed my email address.

• 12:00Will Arnett?

  Which one? Not only, not only emails and texts, you also have done individual lunches, dinners, and collective dinners.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  And a collective dinner, yes, yes, yes. Lunches, collective dinners, and, and everyone in my family and everyone at my company knows this has been the, the, the golden chalice. So for me, I just need a moment to let this wash over me. Like, this is a pinnacle. Forget those dumb awards. This is, this is a mountain. I've been trying to climb for four and a half years. The Ted Sarandos, if you remember, when he went on, I said, you gotta, they're gonna put me on now. It's been two years since Ted.

• 12:38Will Arnett?

  I love that Blum said, forget the dumb awards. He didn't say, forget the money. Cause you never forget the money.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  No, no, no, don't forget the money.

• 12:44Will Arnett?

  Blum, let me say this, let me say this.

• 12:45Speaker 03

  Don't forget the money.

• 12:46Will Arnett?

  Tooth, never forget the money. Two things. One is this, you've, you've known Jason the longest, but we met longer ago than any of us.

• 12:55Jason Bateman?

  Oh no, that's true.

• 12:56Will Arnett?

  In the mid nineties, we had a dinner in which you spent ninety percent of it on the phone outside in the East Village with your former boss.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 13:03Will Arnett?

  Uh.

• 13:03Speaker 03

  Being, being berated.

• 13:05Will Arnett?

  Being, being berated. The other thing is, I noticed, you're wearing your jacket. And one of the reasons is because you've been sleeping outside.

• 13:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 13:14Sean Hayes?

  Let's talk about that.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Still not in profit.

• 13:16Will Arnett?

  It's my favorite. I am still, since the moment you showed me your sleeping situation, Blum, I am obsessed with it. And people use obsessed, but I'm literally obsessed. Walk us through it.

• 13:28Sean Hayes?

  I never, yeah.

• 13:29Will Arnett?

  Walk us through it, please, if you can.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  Uh, I, my grandmother, uh, lived in Northern California, in Petaluma, where we still, we still, actually, I still have, I, I still have that little, this little house. And it was, you know, I don't know if it was before air conditioning, but she didn't have air conditioning. And they had these things, I guess in the thirties and forties, really, is when it started, called sleeping decks. And you would just kind of put a mattress and sleep outside in the summer to stay cool. And when I went to go visit my grandmother, I used to always sleep outside on a little mattress in a sleeping bag on the sleeping deck.

• 14:01Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 14:02Speaker 03

  And ever since that time, I've always wanted a house where I could sleep outside. And about five years ago, we got a, we got this house in Rustic Canyon, and I built a deck outside the bedroom. And we have a completely screened in porch. We have, there's no heat. And my wife and I sleep there every night, and it feels great.

• 14:17Sean Hayes?

  And now people don't realize, California, it actually really does get really, really cold.

• 14:21Will Arnett?

  Well, it gets cool at night.

• 14:23Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Forty-eight, forty-six is about the coldest that it gets. I sleep with, with a hat. See my hat? I sleep with a hat on. And I sleep with, uh, I have, you know, sweats and sweatpants and I, I, I don't wear gloves.

• 14:36Will Arnett?

  And, and, and, and, and you don't need a sound machine because right next to the sleeping deck is a...

• 14:42Speaker 03

  A creek. There's a little creek. So we have a little creek, have water. And it's right in the mid, in the middle of, uh, Santa Monica. I mean, it's amazing.

• 14:50Will Arnett?

  I said to Blum, I go, and we were in there and he was showing me, and I was just blown away. And I go, especially as a Canadian, I was really impressed. And I said, I said, how do you sleep out here? And he goes, incredibly.

• 15:00Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. Incredibly. Yeah.

• 15:03Jason Bateman?

  But then it doubles down, because what happens as soon as you wake up from that freezing night?

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Then I walk down, it's a balcony with an outdoor stairway and I do a jump in my cold plunge very quickly, which is very trendy and pathetic, but I do it.

• 15:17Sean Hayes?

  It's at what, 37 degrees?

• 15:20Speaker 03

  It's at 37, but I don't, I used to stay in for a minute every morning. And Vivi Nevo stays in for a minute or something and I used to stay in for a minute every morning. And then I started getting sick, like every two weeks I was getting a different sickness. And I'm convinced it was because I was doing that. So now I just go in for like five seconds, wakes me up and then I jump into a warm shower and I'm on my way to school.

• 15:43Sean Hayes?

  Now, couldn't all of this be solved by just opening the windows in your main bedroom?

• 15:47Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, just open the windows.

• 15:48Speaker 03

  Doesn't, not the same at all. Oh, not at all, not at all, not at all. Because every so often we sleep in the bedroom with all the windows open, it's not the same.

• 15:57Jason Bateman?

  And Lauren's on board with all this, does she do the cold plunge too?

• 16:00Speaker 03

  She does not do the cold plunge, but she loves sleeping outside and we sleep outside together every night. She doesn't do the cold plunge, but uh.

• 16:06Will Arnett?

  Sean, you used to sleep outside, right? Sorry, a Five Guys, every time they open a new Five Guys, you'd sleep outside.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I got so excited, I'd starve myself.

• 16:27Jason Bateman?

  Now, Jason, the eccentricities don't stop there. Let's talk to, let's explain to Tracy about the traffic situation and the parking situation in Los Angeles and how you've managed to circumvent that problem.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 16:40Sean Hayes?

  Right, but before that, and yes, I want to hear that. I just want to tell Tracy, like, you know, Insidious, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Get Out. It goes on and on and on, I just want to let, get people off the steam.

• 16:55Will Arnett?

  These are films that Jason has produced, is what you're trying to say.

• 16:58Sean Hayes?

  That's right, that's right.

• 16:59Jason Bateman?

  He's responsible for all of these.

• 17:01Speaker 03

  Split, Halloween, you left on a couple of big, Five Nights at Freddy's, Megan.

• 17:05Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  You left on a couple of big ones.

• 17:07Sean Hayes?

  The gift, which Jason was in, right?

• 17:09Speaker 03

  Most importantly, the gift.

• 17:11Sean Hayes?

  So, but I say all that because you can accomplish all this because, to Jason's question, you have.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  A van. A van. Is that what you're talking about? That you'd drive around in. I'm obsessed with efficiency. I'm obsessed with. Yes. And, and one of the, um, one of the things I was very fixated on is I'm, I've always kind of struggled with, um, life in LA. And, uh, whether, you know, whether, you know, I always, I'm always, I was very hot and cold in LA. But one of the things I really don't like is, um, driving and traffic and valet parking and parking and all of that stuff. Losing the time. I really much prefer public transportation. There was a while when I lived downtown that I took the subway in LA. Yeah. I would take an Uber. This is in LA. You take an Uber, well, went right downtown. So you take an Uber to the stop in Santa Monica and then take the train and then I could walk to my house.

• 18:03Speaker 03

  Wow. That's a very LA way to take the subway. But anyway, the, the best, the best thing. This van. And I'm in my second generation of van, but when I, I always said, if I made a hit movie, I was going to do this for myself. And the first hit I had was Paranormal Activity and I went right out. I bought myself a used Chevy Astro for 10,000 bucks. Now, at that time, this is about 12 years ago, there were very few minivans with a flat bottom, like a handyman. All of the minivans had a. Nobody likes a flat bottom. For the back axle. I understand. Yeah. So this had, this was completely flat. And so we took a minivan and I took it to a guy who did car stereos and gave him, I think 20 grand or 20, I think the whole thing was 30,000 bucks.

• 18:47Speaker 03

  And he built an office in the back. So I had a computer, I had a keyboard, I had a printer. That's crazy. And a screen went up and down, all the windows closed. So I would make it impossible for myself to backseat drive. So I would never say like, I wish you'd take, I would never think about, I wish you were going this route or this route or the traffic here, the traffic there. Because if you're in your thing and you're working, it doesn't matter if it takes 20 minutes, if it takes 30 minutes. It's like a Waymo now. You're, it's like, it's like a Waymo. Exactly. So you're rolling calls, you're watching cuts, you're, you're receiving faxes. I'm doing my email, I'm printing out my boarding pass. You know, you could print out your little speech, I'm printing out my speech.

• 19:25Jason Bateman?

  And then if you need to park somewhere and there's no parking, what you did was you painted on the side of this van what?

• 19:33Speaker 03

  Oh, I did. I painted. It was a, and it said, uh, it said, uh, electric. It was an electrician van, but it said electric. Oh, commercial residential electrician. Yeah. So it looked like an electrician.

• 19:44Jason Bateman?

  Blum power or something like that.

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Blum power. Yeah, exactly.

• 19:46Will Arnett?

  It looked like a commercial vehicle.

• 19:48Speaker 03

  It looked like a commercial little handyman. It looked like a handyman.

• 19:50Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, one cone and you're good.

• 19:52Will Arnett?

  You know, you know who used to do that? You know who used to do that a lot and was really effective for Grant was the Stasi, the secret police in East Germany. And they would drive around and it would look like a bread truck and they would nab people off the street and stuff them in the back and then take them to the Stasi headquarters to torture them. You know what I mean? So this is.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  The second part is a movie. We don't do that for real.

• 20:13Jason Bateman?

  I actually bought speakers out of the back of some guy's van at a gas station. I did.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  That could have been the guy who redid my van.

• 20:19Jason Bateman?

  Did he have a flap bottom?

• 20:20Will Arnett?

  And they were not real. They were.

• 20:23Jason Bateman?

  No, otherwise it wouldn't have been.

• 20:24Will Arnett?

  And they weren't real, right? They were, they were fake. They were empty, right?

• 20:26Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, they were empty. Totally. Now, Jason, you say your struggles with LA, um, that, that implies you came from somewhere. Where is that place?

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Well, I was born in LA. I lived here till I was five and then I grew up in New York. Uh, I grew up, uh, until eighth grade, I went to public school in Dobbs Ferry in Westchester. And then, uh, I went to boarding school in Connecticut, which was very traumatic. And then, uh, I went to Vassar in Poughkeepsie. And then I lived in New York. I, for my first 10 years of, uh, motion picture shenanigans, I lived in New York from, in the nineties. I graduated in 1991, so I was there from 91 to 2000. And then I moved to LA in 2000 and I've always thought about moving back, but I never really have.

• 21:05Will Arnett?

  But you didn't, but when you moved, first moved to LA and you alluded to the fact you lived downtown. For a while you lived in a hotel. You, you never wanted to commit.

• 21:12Speaker 03

  I lived at the Ritz. Yeah, it was great. I love, I still own the apartment if anyone wants to buy. I cannot sell that thing for the life of me.

• 21:18Jason Bateman?

  What about the traffic about Laker games and stuff though? Like when they were building crypto and, or Staples or whatever.

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Oh, Laker games was amazing because I had a me, I had great parking. I could just park at my house. Like you could, well, I didn't really, I'm not really go to the Lakers, but, but you can go, I could go to Staples. To see shows.

• 21:35Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, but you couldn't get in and out.

• 21:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I loved it. I love it's a great it was great. It was rare.

• 21:39Jason Bateman?

  Know what you mean if he was going out.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  I know what you mean. Like if I was coming back and there was a Lakers game. Yeah, sometimes it was a pain in the ass. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad.

• 21:46Jason Bateman?

  Now, do you not miss like the idea? It just sounds so ideal. First of all, I've seen the Vassar campus. I've and it's incredibly beautiful. I can only imagine the boarding school in Connecticut was also gorgeous. Like when you moved out here to Los Angeles, did you not miss? Cause like we're we're recording this in the in the wintertime here in LA. And it's just, you know, the the the leaves are finally turning and but it's like that most of the year in back east. Do you not miss all of that?

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Yes, I miss. That's what I'm saying. I struggle with living in LA. I miss it terribly. We go. We were in. We're in Connecticut for the summer. I made a a deal with my wife. My wife kind of prefers LA, but we're we made a deal that when school holidays, we go to the East Coast. So for all summer, I get to be on the East Coast, which I love.

• 22:30Sean Hayes?

  But where you live in LA is like feels like the East Coast.

• 22:33Jason Bateman?

  Very wooded.

• 22:34Sean Hayes?

  Wooded, yeah.

• 22:35Jason Bateman?

  Forestry.

• 22:36Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 22:37Speaker 03

  That's true. That's true.

• 22:39Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 22:43Sean Hayes?

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• 23:23Sean Hayes?

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• 23:51Sean Hayes?

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• 24:35Sean Hayes?

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• 24:54Sean Hayes?

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• 25:39Sean Hayes?

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• 26:06Sean Hayes?

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• 26:50Sean Hayes?

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• 27:11Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 27:14Sean Hayes?

  You know what? Because you're a real estate agent... That's so funny, by the way, I didn't know that. Wait, what? He was a real estate agent.

• 27:20Speaker 03

  I was a licensed real estate agent.

• 27:22Sean Hayes?

  When? In New York.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  I did it for Croman Real Estate, 1992, 1993. Yeah, it was an amazing job.

• 27:29Sean Hayes?

  In New York City?

• 27:31Speaker 03

  In New York City. That was after I sold cable TV. First, I sold cable TV door-to-door, commission-only, and made 29 bucks a sale, that's it. You only made money if you sold someone cable TV.

• 27:40Sean Hayes?

  For Time Warner?

• 27:40Speaker 03

  In Chicago. No, prime cable of Chicago.

• 27:43Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  Prime cable of Chicago. I loved commission-only jobs. And that's why... And the movies are the same thing. I don't get paid on our movies. I only get paid if the movies work. And that started... When I was really young, you know, you doing shoveling driveways or actually shoveling driveways is a good example of it is is if I had to work for a landscaper and you get like, you know, five bucks an hour, or you could go shovel driveways and say, well, do your whole driveway, give me 10 bucks or 15 bucks. And I always, I hated getting paid always like a salary work for hire. I always liked getting paid for the exact work that I did.

• 28:20Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 28:20Speaker 03

  So when everyone else was a waiter, I sold cable because I'm like, I can make more money if just pay me for the sales. And the same thing with the real estate. When everyone else was a rail, I was a real estate agent because you only got paid if you rent to people apartments. And I always liked, I was loved sales.

• 28:36Jason Bateman?

  That's cool. That's wild.

• 28:37Speaker 03

  I still love sales.

• 28:38Jason Bateman?

  Because you have the person, you have that, you're such an amazing personality that I wondered if you, how did that kind of aid you in what, when you crossed over to producing? Because you're such, you're so personable, everybody loves you.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Yeah. Thank you, thank you. The best, I always say that think the best training I ever got for being a producer was, was real estate. Because you, you get, it's the same as being an actor, you get rejected all the time. So most people don't rent the apartment, right? Most, most movies you don't get, most movies you don't get made. So it got you very, it gets you very used to being rejected and just keep, you just got to keep trying. Very, very similar to acting, you got to keep trying and keep trying.

• 29:18Jason Bateman?

  It is sales, isn't it?

• 29:19Speaker 03

  And then it works, it's sales.

• 29:20Jason Bateman?

  Every part of this business is sales unless you, unless you, you'll save a studio job and you're on the buying side.

• 29:25Speaker 03

  But even them, they're, they're selling, they're selling a direct, they're trying to, studio people are salespeople too. They're selling, they're, they want directors directing they don't necessarily want to do. They want actors to do things they don't necessarily want to act in, right? They want their boss to make a movie their boss doesn't necessarily want to make.

• 29:43Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 29:44Speaker 03

  So it's, it's, everyone's selling, everyone's selling to a certain degree.

• 29:47Jason Bateman?

  And your company's so big now, you're doing both sales and you're buying and selling at the same time, right?

• 29:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:53Jason Bateman?

  You have people coming in all the time trying to sort of sell you a pitch on something and you've got to make a decision. Do you like toggling back and forth between that?

• 30:00Speaker 03

  I do, I do, I like toggling back and forth, buying, I.

• 30:04Jason Bateman?

  Would you get a bumper sticker that says, I like to toggle? Or I'd rather, I'd rather be togg, I'd rather be toggling?

• 30:10Speaker 03

  I actually paint that on my van. I like to be toggled. I'm like Jason, I like to do both sides.

• 30:16Will Arnett?

  Toggling electric.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  Toggling electric. Toggling electric.

• 30:20Will Arnett?

  The long lost switch. Let me ask you, let me ask you this. Okay, I want to get into this. What, what is the current? You and I have talked about this before. I said, well, can we do a comedy? I remember about a year and a half ago or something, we had lunch and I said, can we do, make a comedy? You said, there's no money in it. And I said, really? Basically, I mean, in effect, you said that. The state of movies.

• 30:41Speaker 03

  There's no money for me in it.

• 30:42Will Arnett?

  There's no money for you in it. Right, yeah. No, no, I got it. You're not getting paid. You're not getting paid until you look. I got it.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  I'm not getting, I'm not the comedian.

• 30:50Will Arnett?

  Yeah, no, no, I got it. I read that. But, but what is? What is the state of theatrical films on this planet right now from your perspective? Can people still make them? Can they make money? Do people want to go and see them?

• 31:07Speaker 03

  Okay, let's, let's just, let's just clear the record. On the comedy, my response was not, I can't make money in it, although that is true. But the reason that we don't do comedy is because you, I don't, I think horror really works. You don't need a, you don't need massive, massive stars.

• 31:26Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  For theatrical horror.

• 31:28Will Arnett?

  Yeah, because it's about the idea.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  TV, different thing. TV comedy, different thing. But for comedy, for a comedy to work, comedy is just very hard to work in movie theaters. There's so much great comedy. All of you guys have been part of a lot of it on television. Horror doesn't really work on TV. There's a lot of great comedy on TV. So to make and for, for comedy to work theatrically, I still think it's very hard anyway. And you need a huge star so that then it becomes, it becomes expensive.

• 31:51Will Arnett?

  And there was a time as you, as you.

• 31:53Speaker 03

  I don't like making expensive movies.

• 31:54Will Arnett?

  As we know, there was a time, especially in the early aughts, where there was, there were a ton of big comedy films, driven by big stars.

• 32:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:03Will Arnett?

  But as we know, especially if we go back and look at a lot of them, it's hard. I've always maintained it's hard to make a good comedy film because of, because of the nature of making film does not lend itself to that element of surprise, et cetera. In television, you have to make it quickly. Have to keep moving and so it works for comedy in that way. Making movies can be often tedious and quite boring, A. That's but so it's funny that that the comedy works on TV and horror does not and vice versa.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:35Will Arnett?

  But but what about the state of theatrical uh uh movies of film?

• 32:41Speaker 03

  Well, this is constantly on my mind and I actually texted uh I texted Aaron this morning, you know, who runs all the AMC um theaters because they had their biggest their biggest weekend ever.

• 32:52Will Arnett?

  Right.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  And I keep try I've been asking everyone um I I trust on that like is this like an anomaly? Or do you think?

• 33:00Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but but look at what but look at what worked. It's it's wicked, which was a an IP already established for 20 years. This Gladiator two, which was a massive movie, Moana, which was an institution in and of itself.

• 33:12Will Arnett?

  Two sequels.

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Well, that's different. If you're saying or people don't want original movies.

• 33:16Will Arnett?

  They don't.

• 33:17Speaker 03

  Like they say.

• 33:18Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  That they want them, but actions speak louder than words.

• 33:21Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 33:21Speaker 03

  People want.

• 33:23Sean Hayes?

  Familiarity.

• 33:24Speaker 03

  Reason they're all sequels and remakes, that's what they want. That's what that's what the audience is. The audience is showing up to that consistently, consistently, consistently. And even more so now, if you look at horror this year, one horror movie in 12 months really hit. Original. There were a six or seven sequels that worked, but one original horror. I don't think I should have to go long legs.

• 33:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 33:47Speaker 03

  I want to see. I don't think I think I don't I think you'd have to go back 10 years for uh for uh. For to to to see where only one original horror movie worked. I mean, it's it's a.

• 33:59Will Arnett?

  Have have there been any outliers in terms of films that horror and or otherwise that have done well in the last? Let's say since the pandemic, since 2020, in the last four and a half years? Anything?

• 34:12Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, we've our high Five Nights at Freddy's was last year's our highest grossing movie of all time.

• 34:16Will Arnett?

  Wow. And that was the so that that was the original.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  No, but it's based on a game.

• 34:20Sean Hayes?

  On an IP, yeah.

• 34:21Will Arnett?

  But based on game.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  Game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that did that did 300 million bucks.

• 34:25Will Arnett?

  I'm trying to think.

• 34:26Speaker 03

  We had our best of Megan. Megan was one Megan was a huge movie. Black Phone was a huge movie. Quiet Place is not our movie, huge movie, Conjuring. Those those were post, you know, Quiet Place was this year. Those were those were all post pandemic. Horror franchises. Like I said, we had our Insidious 5 last year. It was the highest grossing Insidious movie of all five of them.

• 34:48Will Arnett?

  And it was the most insidious.

• 34:51Speaker 03

  Most. Of the five. I'm sure, I'm sure you've seen all five.

• 34:55Will Arnett?

  Of the five, it was the most insidious.

• 34:58Jason Bateman?

  So, hey, so Jason, without getting too much into the weeds for, for folks like Tracy, can you speak, what do you think the current appetite is in the business for these sort of these trick deals where instead of an actor getting paid a bunch of money upfront, like when you're talking about this scenario with comedy where by having a big star in there, it becomes sort of cost prohibitive. But I think some, some actors, Cameron Diaz is one of the famous ones that did it for Teacher.

• 35:28Will Arnett?

  Bad Teacher.

• 35:28Jason Bateman?

  Bad Teacher, where she basically didn't take a lot of money upfront, but then had this definition for the back end of a profit participant where if the film did really well, she got paid a lot of money, and she did. Because I know your model, without getting into stuff you may or may not want to talk about, you are, you seem to be open to this type of structure in the interest of trying to get as many at bats as possible in the hopes of finding a great movie.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  Well, no, it's more than that. Like, that's our main tenet of our, of our entire business is no one gets paid upfront, including us, just like my real estate and just like my, just like my cable TV. Like, no one gets paid, or you get paid minimum scale, and if the movie works okay, you get paid okay, and if the movie works really well, you should get paid more than you've ever made before. That's our whole.

• 36:16Sean Hayes?

  What about your toggle business?

• 36:18Speaker 03

  The toggle business is also a, an if come business, by the way. It's a fantastic if come business. Yes.

• 36:25Will Arnett?

  But I remember you saying that, I remember you, Blum, talking about it, who I won't name, but an actor that you, who was in one of your films in the last five, 10 years, who's a well-known actor, who you said, they made more money doing this, they took nothing upfront, they made more money doing this than they'd made on anything.

• 36:42Speaker 03

  They'd ever done. Yeah, that's true, that's true. And that, that's how, that's how we keep getting people to work for us and take a gamble.

• 36:49Jason Bateman?

  And you didn't mind doing that, right? You didn't mind writing. Those checks to that.

• 36:53Speaker 03

  The greatest thing I can ever do is if I write the biggest check to anyone's ever made on my.

• 36:57Jason Bateman?

  That means you've done well.

• 36:58Speaker 03

  It's like complaining. It's like complaining. It's like complaining about paying a lot of taxes. Like if you're paying a lot of taxes, things are going well.

• 37:03Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. So then why do you think that's not more universally embraced?

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Well, it is. So I wrote an article in the New York Times. Uh, it was an op ed. I was very proud of it and you can go back and read it.

• 37:14Jason Bateman?

  Oh, I don't read.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  Of Tracy. No, Tracy can go back and read it.

• 37:17Jason Bateman?

  I'll read it to me.

• 37:18Speaker 03

  And, uh, or I'll read it to you. For New York Times subscription. And it was all about the fact that I believe in my, in my, if there's one, there are no rules to making movies and TV shows in my mind, except one, which is if, if people have equity in what they're making as opposed to being paid upfront, what they're making is better. It just is.

• 37:37Jason Bateman?

  I totally agree.

• 37:38Speaker 03

  And that, and that has view has been very not, um, has been very out of fashion until the streaming correction, which happened about 18 months ago, but, but, but.

• 37:51Jason Bateman?

  Explain that.

• 37:52Speaker 03

  To put it in very broad terms, starting in about 2010, there was an enormous amount of money. Wall Street gave not just Netflix, but all the streamers money, not based on their profit, but based on subscriber numbers. And the way to get subscriber numbers was to spend more and more and more and more. And so the industry as a whole spent more money than it was making because it wasn't using profit as a metric.

• 38:22Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 38:22Speaker 03

  You with me?

• 38:23Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 38:24Speaker 03

  18 months ago, when Netflix stock dropped, it's now back to beyond what it was before, which is going to tie into what I'm saying, but 18 months ago, Wall Street decided that's dumb. Streaming companies and media companies need to be like every other company, which means they need to take in more money than they spend. So we're no longer going to reward you for streaming numbers or anything else or what you might eventually make in streaming. We're going to make you reward you for what actually makes money. So that the, all the people who make content had to take a much closer look at their budgets. And the budgets are now all coming down a lot. And the quickest, most effective way to bring a budget down is to pay the people who make the most money, which are the actors, the writers, the directors and the producers,

• 39:07Speaker 03

  people who make the most money, much less unless the thing that they make makes money. And that's what's, and that's, that's, that's now.

• 39:16Jason Bateman?

  But the trick with streaming is that the ability to calculate what, what a profit is, becomes vague, yes?

• 39:22Speaker 03

  Yes, but it's not, it's, that's, that's such gobbledygook. It's the easiest thing in the world to create. You just, they, they have the data of everything. You just have to decide. A penny a minute, a penny an hour. What, it doesn't, it's so.

• 39:35Will Arnett?

  Whatever, whatever everybody universally decides on.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  It's way easier to, to, to, to make up a profit definition, yes.

• 39:42Will Arnett?

  Here's the other thing that's, that's interesting about it.

• 39:45Speaker 03

  I got carried away.

• 39:45Will Arnett?

  No, no, no, I think this is, I think this is a great area. This is the other thing. Cause it's, I, I, and, and I think that, you know, it's pretty cynical in, in the sense that,

• 39:55Will Arnett?

  that the streamers, like you said, were, were given, you know, exorbitant amounts of cash to try to do that, to grow their business and to get subs. Well, it turns out that they figured out within that time, and this is probably five years ago, they realized when they started to offer things, uh, uh, they started to offer, uh, ad, uh, uh, customers.

• 40:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, ad-supported, yeah.

• 40:17Will Arnett?

  Ad-supported customers. They realized that their ad-supported customer was worth more of it to them than a subscriber, um, that, that they would get more return on. And so eventually what the consumer doesn't understand, that eventually we are going to be going back to the old formula from before.

• 40:36Speaker 03

  Network television, yeah.

• 40:37Will Arnett?

  So we're just, we're just coming to the tail end of this huge fucking cycle that was virtually meaningless. And now we're back to ad-supported viewing is going to be the thing that they are going after, et cetera. Am I right?

• 40:52Speaker 03

  Streaming is just basically, it's basically an electrified VCR. That's all it is.

• 40:56Will Arnett?

  Exactly.

• 40:56Speaker 03

  You can watch anything whenever you want, but otherwise it's going to be like it was before. I don't know if I totally agree with that, but it, but a, but a, but a, it, it's, it's, it's changed, it's changed a lot and it's changed not very much. I, I do, I do agree with, I do agree with most of what you're saying.

• 41:10Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, because all the people that work at the streamers worked at the networks.

• 41:14Will Arnett?

  Well, that's true.

• 41:14Sean Hayes?

  They're almost all the same people.

• 41:15Will Arnett?

  Well, that's true. That culture, that culture has shifted and all that stuff that they said that separated them and made them different and all the streamers now does not separate them or make them different. And it's very, very difficult.

• 41:29Jason Bateman?

  Well, but hang on. I mean, we're talking about something that for the most part is subscriber-supported. The ad-supported viewer is a small fraction of that.

• 41:41Will Arnett?

  They want it to be bigger.

• 41:43Speaker 03

  Not as a part of the general population because people still watch a lot of network TV, but as for streaming, ad-supported streaming is a smaller piece than subscription for sure.

• 41:52Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, and it's still hard to argue with, you know, having 250 million people spending $15 a month is a pretty yummy business if you can retain those people month after month after month after month. And it really is, it's a retention business. It's not an ad-selling business.

• 42:10Speaker 03

  Well, you know, it'll be, it'll be both. You'll have, and by the way, movies are different than, in a different category than what you guys are talking about, studios, it's different, but there will be a bunch of people, a bunch of subscribers paying a premium for no ads, and then there'll be a bunch of people watching, watching programming with ads for either less or no money.

• 42:29Will Arnett?

  JB, I don't disagree with you. What I'm saying is that that is what they have decided that they want to move towards because it is more profitable. And I guarantee you, all of them are gonna do, gonna tend towards the thing that is more profitable. It's what they want.

• 42:45Jason Bateman?

  But if it was more profitable, then why wouldn't linear television be in better health?

• 42:50Will Arnett?

  Well, there are, because there are things that are showing up to be, that are proving that, which are things like Tubi and all these sort of fast channels types of things. These are proving to be really effective ways that people are watching stuff who don't want to have to pay the subscriber a monthly fee and who are willing to, to watch ads. And that kind of stuff, that stuff is growing. It's all about what's available.

• 43:14Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what is Tubi? Do I have Tubi?

• 43:16Will Arnett?

  [laughing]

• 43:18Will Arnett?

  That's a long callback. That is a, that's like a three year.

• 43:22Sean Hayes?

  Your callback.

• 43:26Sean Hayes?

  I'm Jason Blum. Uh, I want to talk about your stuff because I'm a fan. And so first of all, I wanted to.

• 43:34Will Arnett?

  Well, then start.

• 43:34Speaker 03

  Your guest.

• 43:35Sean Hayes?

  So.

• 43:36Will Arnett?

  He's got 17 million questions for you.

• 43:38Sean Hayes?

  I do, I do. Paranormal Activity is one of my favorite movies. I watched it a year ago with my nieces. Yep, quote it. Well, just, I could talk about it all day long.

• 43:48Will Arnett?

  Then start.

• 43:48Sean Hayes?

  Okay.

• 43:50Will Arnett?

  You keep saying you're like a rapper who goes, I'm going to rock the microphone. Wait till I get on the mic. And you're like, okay, you've got the microphone. Fucking do it. The fuck? And when I get on the microphone, I'm really going to, then fucking do it.

• 44:04Speaker 03

  That's how I felt about this mystery product coming out.

• 44:06Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 44:07Will Arnett?

  I know, that's true, that's true. Fair enough, fair enough.

• 44:11Will Arnett?

  Oh, I'm, oh, by the way, I'm a hypocrite in my core.

• 44:16Sean Hayes?

  What, but Jay, Jason, tell me about it because wasn't it true that the studio wanted you to remake it? Or they didn't like it or whatever? And how did you convince them that they had gold and all that kind of stuff? Tell me this.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  Paranormal Activity, um, yeah, I'll, I'll make, I'll do the.

• 44:29Sean Hayes?

  And that, isn't that the one that kind of launched you?

• 44:30Speaker 03

  Quicker version of it. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that was what launched the, launched the company. But, uh, I, I, I had a guy, uh, this, this very sweet fellow who I'm still friends with and a very good producer, guy named Steven Schneider. And, uh, he was a horror expert. I had a deal at Paramount and he had a deal with us and we had a deal with them. And Paramount, uh, you know, whatever, was ignoring me. And this guy Steven showed me this movie, uh, uh, showed me Paranormal Activity. And I saw it like, you know, on a DVD at my house. Wait, and it'd been, it'd been, you know, at a couple of festivals and whatever. And, uh.

• 45:06Will Arnett?

  You were living in New York at the time?

• 45:07Speaker 03

  I was, no, I was living on Sunset Plaza in my, in my bachelor pad on Sunset Plaza. But before I moved downtown. And, uh, and, uh, exactly. And, uh, and I had passed on Blair Witch Project like.

• 45:20Sean Hayes?

  I can't believe that. And now you're remaking it.

• 45:21Speaker 03

  Yes. I, we're trying, we're trying, we'll see.

• 45:24Sean Hayes?

  Ah, I know, crazy.

• 45:25Will Arnett?

  No.

• 45:27Speaker 03

  But yeah, I passed on it and I was never like my boss just was like you idiot for a year. You know, a year I had to listen to that. But when I saw Paranormal, I had this like, oh my God, what if this is Blair Witch? And I didn't, I didn't say like this movie's gonna be, I didn't think the movie's gonna be anything of what it turned out to be, but I definitely thought there was something to it and I thought it was worth screening in front of an audience. That's what, that's what I learned from Blair Witch is if you see anything somewhat that might be good, throw it in front of an audience.

• 45:56Sean Hayes?

  Yes, cuz you love testing.

• 45:58Speaker 03

  I love testing.

• 45:59Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  So, um, so anyway, I-

• 46:03Will Arnett?

  The smile, the smile on his face when you said that.

• 46:05Sean Hayes?

  No, but you, it's true. I've heard you talk about that.

• 46:08Speaker 03

  Testing is my dream, yeah.

• 46:09Sean Hayes?

  Yes.

• 46:09Speaker 03

  I, I don't like friends and family testing. I like testing with, you know, real, objective people.

• 46:14Will Arnett?

  Testing the, testing the film in front of a, in front of a random audience.

• 46:18Speaker 03

  Regular audience.

• 46:18Will Arnett?

  And then they all fill out what they like, what they didn't like and you get a number.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I'm not such a big fan of that, but I like watching the movie with a regular crowd.

• 46:26Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, it's the best feedback ever, yeah.

• 46:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, I, I, I have an, I have an, you know, this, this itch I wanna scratch on this movie and I met the director and he had basically sold it to a, he sold it for a hundred grand to direct to DVD, to IFC, by the way, who, who never forgave, guy named Jonathan Sering was there at the time, he never forgave me for this. Cuz like, you know, I said, it's a deal done. He said, no, it's not done, but I think I'm gonna just sell it for a hundred grand. I said, I think the movie should be in theaters. I told him the Blair Witch story. I said, give me a cut of, of whatever you make after you make five hundred thousand dollars. So I'm not gonna cost you anything unless I make five times the money you've already made. Then I want a piece, but until then, nothing. And let me come on and partner, see if I can get it made with you.

• 47:10Speaker 03

  Anyway, three years goes by, no one wants the movie. I do the movie with the audience like I wanna do. It's very clear, if you see the movie with an audience, it's gonna be a crazy hit. It's very clear.

• 47:22Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 47:22Speaker 03

  But I'm the, you know, schmuck producer. I call everyone and say, you gotta watch this movie with an audience. They say, well, we've already seen it. We had got the DVD here. It's sitting on my assistant's desk and the movie sucks. And, and-

• 47:33Sean Hayes?

  It's so good.

• 47:35Jason Bateman?

  That's the way a lot of conversations go in Hollywood.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 47:39Will Arnett?

  Wow.

• 47:41Sean Hayes?

  We'll be right back.

• 47:45Sean Hayes?

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• 48:29Sean Hayes?

  So whether you're trying to wind down, get some energy going, have people over, whatever it is, Sonos helps set the mood. Love the sound, feel the system. Visit sonos.com to build your system.

• 48:45Sean Hayes?

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• 49:29Sean Hayes?

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• 50:00Jason Bateman?

  This episode of Smartless is brought to you in part by Skinny Pop popcorn. So I think one of the great journeys in life is finding the snack that's right for you. You know, and it's constantly changing, but what is constant is the love of popcorn. I think that we all have. So finding a snack that tastes great and feels like a solid choice should not be more complicated than solving a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Skinny Pop popcorn made with simple quality ingredients always satisfies. No overthinking required. No jigsaw puzzle assembly required. It's a no-brainer.

• 50:44Jason Bateman?

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• 51:25Jason Bateman?

  Skinny Pop, popular for a reason. All right, back to the show.

• 51:34Speaker 03

  So three years into this, I get, I get, you know, Paramount won't return my calls. And it's, and you know, and I get, it still drives me crazy that the movie wound up with them because they hated the movie forever. But I get DreamWorks, this guy, Adam Goodman and-

• 51:50Will Arnett?

  I know Adam.

• 51:51Speaker 03

  You know Adam, you remember Adam, right?

• 51:53Will Arnett?

  Yeah, of course. Great guy, made a couple of movies with him.

• 51:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, Adam and Ashley Brooks, and they're working at DreamWorks. And they, they really into the movie. I give them credit for that. And they said, but we're going to remake the movie. You know, we'll put famous people in the movie. Movies have found footage movies, so I don't know how it could work with famous people. Right. But I say, this is my, my, my, my flash of brilliance, of which I've, I've had, you know, two in my career, but this was one of them. And, uh, and I said, I said, I will, first of all, you gotta pay me a hundred fifty grand, because I need more than a hundred for Orin, so I gotta get him an extra fifty grand. Second, you gotta put the original movie on the DVD. When we remake the new movie, you gotta put the original movie on that DVD, because I want it out there somewhere. Oh, wow. Third, you have to test the, the original parental activity.

• 52:40Speaker 03

  You have to test screen the film in Burbank with three hundred people. And you, Adam, and it was Stacy Snyder, his boss, and Stacy Snyder, you guys have to be there, and not because I want to release the movie, because if I said that, they would have said, you're an idiot. I said, because when we remake the movie, I want to invite the writers, who are gonna write the remake, and I want all you executives to be there with the writers, so we can decide which parts we're gonna redo and which parts we're gonna leave, right? I love that, I love that. And then, I said to the director, Orin, who, I, I give Orin so much credit for sticking with me all this time, you know, three years into this, he had a hundred fifty grand three years ago, he's still, he's sleeping in my guesthouse for half the time, he was in San Diego, but he used to sleep in my guesthouse all the time for all these dumb meetings we

• 53:24Speaker 03

  would have, where people would say the movie doesn't work. And, and I said to Orin, Orin, I will bet you, you know, a nickel, that if Adam and Stacy watch this movie with a recruited audience, which was impossible to do, if they watch this movie with a recruited audience, they're never gonna talk about the remake again. Just trust me. And by the way, worst case scenario, if they do, you're gonna get a buck fifty instead of a hundred, so it's no lose. And I still remember, Orin, Stephen and I went to this screening, it was in Burbank, and Stacy was there, and fucking people went insane, and like, three people left the theater because they were too scared. Right, right. And the movie ends and everyone goes nuts, and Stacy, I will never forget, Stacy Snyder

• 54:09Speaker 03

  is at the bottom of the, and she's literally, the, the, the writers were there for the remake, they disappear, and Stacy has the three of us pitching us the thirty second TV spots of how she's gonna sell the movie, the theatrical release. Right.

• 54:24Jason Bateman?

  The movie as is.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  As is.

• 54:26Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 54:27Speaker 03

  The remakes off the table and they and then Steven gets Spielberg gets Spielberg gets the results of the test. He sees it like two days later. He loves it. And DreamWorks is releasing our movie. And then in another thing, I'm not, I won't go into it now, but but DreamWorks then and Paramount split up and DreamWorks went to Disney and Disney DreamWorks could not have their first release be Paranormal Activity.

• 54:52Jason Bateman?

  Right, right, right.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  So we were saddled with Paramount and another year of shenanigans, which is how it wound up with them.

• 54:58Will Arnett?

  No way, another year from that moment?

• 55:00Speaker 03

  It was a year. They they said they weren't going to release it. They blackmailed us. They blackmailed us into releasing the movie. I've never really been this straightforward about it, but I will. I will be now. We had, based off that test screening, we were able to sell five million bucks of international sales. So based off the fact that it was going to get a domestic release by a studio, we so we so we had five million dollars in sales. All the France and Germany, we sold territory by territory, right?

• 55:33Jason Bateman?

  You're already in profit.

• 55:35Speaker 03

  We had.

• 55:35Jason Bateman?

  By a lot.

• 55:35Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, in profit, but the movie cost 15 grand. So, so, so, so we had 18 months to get the release, which, by the way, no problem. Stacy and Steven Spielberg loved the movie. DreamWorks is releasing the movie. Boom. Disney were at Paramount. Paramount's like, we're not releasing the movie.

• 55:54Will Arnett?

  Wow.

• 55:54Speaker 03

  And it went on and they.

• 55:56Jason Bateman?

  Why were they opposed to releasing it?

• 55:58Speaker 03

  They thought it was a piece of shit, like everybody else.

• 56:01Will Arnett?

  No, but what about this?

• 56:02Speaker 03

  And the only, the only savior was that when Disney and DreamWorks broke up, Adam Goodman and Ashley Ashley Brooks moved from DreamWorks to Paramount. So internally, they were doing what I was doing on the outside. So on the outside, I was and internally, they were saying, guys, you got to, but everyone was saying to them, you guys are insane. Don't do this movie.

• 56:24Jason Bateman?

  Uh huh.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  And basically, what happened, in retrospect, history is rewritten like they did this strategic smart release. No, Adam and Ashley got them to agree to pay a million bucks to. In P and A to do this tiny release of the movie.

• 56:37Sean Hayes?

  Print and advertise.

• 56:38Speaker 03

  And we contributed like I think five or six hundred. They came to us and say, we'll only put in a million. If you take five hundred of the five million you have from international, which we know you're gonna lose in four months. And you put five hundred up and we'll put five hundred up. And we'll put it in in thirteen theaters. Demand it, which was only. That was that. The whole marketing thing was just like, how can we spend as little money as possible to get this movie out there?

• 57:01Sean Hayes?

  I mean, isn't it amazing?

• 57:02Speaker 03

  Wow, that is actually, I've never really, really told.

• 57:05Sean Hayes?

  It's incredible.

• 57:06Speaker 03

  That that part of the story, but it's incredible.

• 57:09Sean Hayes?

  But but but it's isn't it amazing that you have this thing and what it takes to get people to believe in it? And you just didn't stop. And isn't it fascinating that you can see it, but the people in charge can never see it? Why is that?

• 57:22Speaker 03

  Well, no, it's, you know, that those stories, though, I mean, you guys know these stories, too. It's it. I have a little like, it's always annoying the story. There's so many stories of I believed in it and no one, nobody didn't.

• 57:34Sean Hayes?

  Right, sure.

• 57:34Speaker 03

  The the the it's it favors the the producer so much. Because executives, they they they their job is to look at four hundred things and pick ten. So it's an they have to not believe in three hundred and ninety things.

• 57:48Sean Hayes?

  Right, right, right.

• 57:48Speaker 03

  So it's not really fair. Producer's job is to pick twenty things, believe in all of them, and ten go, you know, whatever it is. So I always think those stories are kind of dopey and including this story like.

• 57:59Sean Hayes?

  Well, it's fascinating, though. It's.

• 58:01Speaker 03

  No, I don't. But it's fascinating, except that it's not like. I give myself credit for that one thing of of, um, you know, putting that language in the test screening. But anyone, any of you or anyone, if you saw the movie with an audience. Before it came out, you would know it was a hit.

• 58:21Sean Hayes?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 58:21Speaker 03

  Couldn't get anyone into the theater.

• 58:23Sean Hayes?

  Right, right, you did.

• 58:24Speaker 03

  But there's no, there was no genius of knowing that.

• 58:27Sean Hayes?

  But you did, and it still took all of that work to get it, you know.

• 58:31Speaker 03

  Well, I had no clout. I had no clout, you know, it's like this little, you know, this guy with no, like, I had no track record. I produced six independent movies. They were all terrible. One was okay, and five were horrible. So it was like, why am I gonna, why am? Am I gonna waste my night and be away from my kids by this schmuck? Whenever one of my team has seen the movie and they think it's not good. Which, by the way, which I get too.

• 58:54Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. How under the hood do you like to get creatively? Uh, as far as like script notes and edit notes and all that?

• 59:00Speaker 03

  I, I, I hate being on set. I like running my production company.

• 59:05Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 59:05Speaker 03

  I give usually a couple of notes on a script, a few notes on a, on a cut, depending on the cut. Sometimes, sometimes I give more notes on the finished movie than the script. But Cooper Samuelson, who you know well, he's the, he's the-

• 59:17Jason Bateman?

  The great Cooper Samuelson.

• 59:18Speaker 03

  He's the great, we've been together 10 years and he, he really runs the movie. He, no, he does run the movie company and he is very, he and his team are extremely involved.

• 59:28Jason Bateman?

  What would you say is your fastball then? Um, like identifying a filmmaker, a concept, a script? Um, where do you think your, your greatest talent lies? If it's, if it's not getting in there under the hood, day to day, quality control, et cetera, et cetera?

• 59:44Speaker 03

  Well, I'm a great picker, I'm a good picker. I'm a very good picker, I am a good picker. Um, so that is quality control. And I'm a good seller. You know, and I'm, I'm not talking about, it's easy to raise money for the movies now, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm good at talking people into working for me. You know, working for us, you know, I'm good at it. But I have, it's a good, it's an easy thing for me, it's an easy thing to sell because I believe it. I really believe in our model and I believe in the company. And I believe the model led, leads to better movies and shows.

• 1:00:11Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:12Speaker 03

  And the only thing that I was gonna say is there's, there really no other companies that just do one thing. And that's been a huge advantage to us. And now, you know, the, the second, the, the, the second, the only other company that really does just do one thing like we do at scale is James Wan's Atomic Monster. And now Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, you know, we put the companies together.

• 1:00:35Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:36Speaker 03

  16 months ago. And, um, and it's a huge advantage to not do horror as like a side hustle.

• 1:00:44Jason Bateman?

  Uh huh.

• 1:00:44Speaker 03

  You know, which, which that's what the studios do, obviously, but also most production company, most other production companies, they do all the thing. And we do the occasional horror movie. And that's all we do. I see every horror movie.

• 1:00:55Jason Bateman?

  Well, Blum, that's, of course you're good at it because that is what you do. Your specialty, you understand it. And now you have, you're doing it with James Wan. Talk a little bit about your, your relationship with James Wan and, and how that came to be.

• 1:01:08Speaker 03

  Well, I'm interested in growing the company and I really felt like this is actually kind of, it kind of ties together a lot of the stuff that we've been talking about. It's that I don't believe you can make, let's just talk about movies and not TV for a second. I don't believe you can make movies, you can make more movies that are good by just hiring more people, right? And remember, we only get paid if our movies are good or if they work. If they don't work, we don't get paid. So for us to go from four or five movies a year to seven or eight movies a year, we have to keep the quality the same. If the quality goes down, it's a disaster. So the only way for us to grow is to go from four or five to six or seven.

• 1:01:53Speaker 03

  And it was my view that the only way to get to six or seven was to bring in a partner, not just to hire four more executives, but to bring in a partner who was a visionary, who was doing this on his own. And if you take Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, and if those two companies just continue to do what we have, what the companies have done on their own the last 10 years, you know, it's like 60% of theatrically released horror movies have been done by those two companies.

• 1:02:25Will Arnett?

  Yeah, talking about James Wan, some of the things that he's done.

• 1:02:28Speaker 03

  So James Wan, first of all, he's a massive director, separate business, Aquaman, Fast and Furious, right? But he birthed Insidious with us, which is how I met him. But he's, Atomic Monster is best known as the production company behind The Conjuring universe. So all the Conjuring movies, Annabelle, La Llorona.

• 1:02:48Will Arnett?

  Huge.

• 1:02:49Speaker 03

  It's a, yeah, The Nun, The Nun 2. Nun 2, you know, no one ever talks about, Nun 2 was the second highest grossing horror movie of all time last year. Did 270 million dollars. The Nun 2. No one talks about it in Hollywood. So anyway, so we're, next year, 25 is our first year where our release date slate will be, we're up to our eight movies. We have Wolfman. We have two original movies. We have a Chris Landon movie called Drop, and then we have Megan, then we have Black Phone, then we have Five Nights at Freddy's Two, and then we, and then these guys have a Mortal Kombat movie and a Conjuring Five movie. So next year is our big year.

• 1:03:34Will Arnett?

  What percentage of box office does horror make up now domestically?

• 1:03:38Speaker 03

  It's like a billion dollars a year.

• 1:03:39Will Arnett?

  Billion dollars a year.

• 1:03:40Speaker 03

  Which is what percentage? It's about eight, nine, about, about, a little, right, about 10%.

• 1:03:45Jason Bateman?

  Good lord.

• 1:03:46Will Arnett?

  So every, every award show where we're lauding all these other people, they should do, the first five minutes should just be a standing O for you and Juan, just to say thank you for keeping us all at work, and now let's get to the Oscars.

• 1:04:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure.

• 1:04:02Will Arnett?

  Five minutes standing O, Blum.

• 1:04:05Jason Bateman?

  Right, and they are, they, starting a long time ago, they've got really cinematic and less sort of like, you know, the rap they used to get with slasher and exploitative and whatnot. They're, they're like beautifully made films now.

• 1:04:18Will Arnett?

  Yeah, there's less TNA, I will say that. Not to knock it, not to knock it.

• 1:04:23Speaker 03

  Now, do you know, I heard, maybe I'm gonna sort of talk to you about this on the show, but do you know I heard that kids don't want TNA in movies now because there's so much of it on the internet that they're not, they don't want TNA in movies anymore.

• 1:04:35Will Arnett?

  Wow, no kidding?

• 1:04:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, real progress. Yeah, and they don't want their driver's license either because there's Uber. You know, if you can get it somewhere else, I don't want it here.

• 1:04:44Sean Hayes?

  Jason Blum, I'm a big fan of Get Out, and I, you know, we don't have time to go through it because we gotta let you go, but I didn't know there was.

• 1:04:51Jason Bateman?

  Oh god, you're already over time, Jason, you're very compelling guy.

• 1:04:54Will Arnett?

  This might be, this might be the quickest we've ever gotten to it and feel like we're just starting.

• 1:04:59Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, we really are. I got so much more to go into.

• 1:05:03Will Arnett?

  God, I thought you were gonna be a disappointing guest.

• 1:05:04Speaker 03

  I know, in four years.

• 1:05:07Will Arnett?

  Bateman, Bateman kept saying, "I'm not gonna respond to this guy's emails."

• 1:05:11Jason Bateman?

  Can't respond to him, can't make a deal.

• 1:05:12Speaker 03

  No, I can imagine before the show saying, "Did Blum email you the other week?" Oh, this guy won't stop.

• 1:05:17Will Arnett?

  Who's gonna break first, and then Sean, oh my god, Sean broke first. Wait, Sean, wait, Sean had a question though, do, do ask it.

• 1:05:23Sean Hayes?

  Caller? Uh, no, well, it's too long to get into, and I can probably just Google it, but I did not know there was a different ending to Get Out.

• 1:05:31Speaker 03

  There was. That was a note I had, that was a note I had. There was an end date to Get Out where Daniel died. And or did it wind up in jail, wind up in jail, something terrible.

• 1:05:40Jason Bateman?

  Did they write it, did they shoot it?

• 1:05:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, we shot it. It was at the test screening and we tested it and me and my very like, you know, not, not, not thoughtful self, I come bounding down the aisle and I'm like, Jordan, the movie's great. You cannot leave this end. I like, I didn't, I didn't hedge, I didn't, I was like, you have to change the end. I said, Daniel is too good. Everyone is in love with him. The movie's amazing and you cannot end him with him in jail. Like it's, it's horrible.

• 1:06:07Jason Bateman?

  And did Jordan say, yeah, but that was your idea?

• 1:06:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, he said, yeah, he said, but that was your note. No.

• 1:06:13Will Arnett?

  You sent me that note from the back of your van. You said you were on Kowenga.

• 1:06:17Speaker 03

  You idiot, you idiot. No, he was a man. No, I pitched him some horrible idea of what it should be.

• 1:06:23Sean Hayes?

  So in the original, she, she, I forget the name of the character, the, the girl in it, the lead girl.

• 1:06:29Speaker 03

  Allison Williams.

• 1:06:30Sean Hayes?

  Allison, she, she, I haven't seen it in a long time, but she, she, um, she ends up getting him in jail. Is that what it is?

• 1:06:37Speaker 03

  I think in the, I think now I'm forgetting, but I think the end, he's in jail. He winds up in jail. Like there's a scene of him like in, in jail.

• 1:06:44Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, it's so good how it is.

• 1:06:44Speaker 03

  So sad. And, uh, and, and Jordan, you know, a month later, he had a new idea for the end. He reshotted and, uh,

• 1:06:51Jason Bateman?

  What a filmmaker he is. Guy's so good.

• 1:06:53Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:54Sean Hayes?

  Um, tell me your favorite horror film.

• 1:06:57Jason Bateman?

  Oh, just a softball right here at the end.

• 1:06:59Will Arnett?

  Yeah, just so he can alienate everybody he works with, other than the person he names.

• 1:07:04Jason Bateman?

  Any funny stories of you going up on a line on stage?

• 1:07:08Speaker 03

  I like Hitchcock movies. Those are my favorite, you know, in terms of like those, that's, those are my, those are my inspiration movies. Yeah.

• 1:07:16Sean Hayes?

  Um, okay. So listen, you gotta get out of here. We gotta get out of here.

• 1:07:20Will Arnett?

  What movies, what Blumhouse movies are we gonna go to, are people gonna come and see in 2025? Tell us right now.

• 1:07:25Sean Hayes?

  He just did.

• 1:07:26Speaker 03

  Well, I did. Wolfman is, Wolfman, Wolfman is January. It's great. It's Lee Wonell who did The Invisible Man. It's amazing.

• 1:07:32Jason Bateman?

  Is that Julia Garner?

• 1:07:34Speaker 03

  Julia Garner and Chris Abbott.

• 1:07:35Will Arnett?

  Okay, so Wolfman is January, okay.

• 1:07:37Speaker 03

  Wolfman is January. This original movie by Chris Landon, who did Happy Death Day.

• 1:07:42Jason Bateman?

  Michael Landon's son.

• 1:07:43Speaker 03

  Michael Landon's son, called Drop, with Megan Fahey, which is great.

• 1:07:47Will Arnett?

  Drop.

• 1:07:48Speaker 03

  And then we have Megan 2.

• 1:07:50Will Arnett?

  Megan 2.

• 1:07:51Jason Bateman?

  It's a summer release?

• 1:07:52Speaker 03

  Summer release. Then we have, uh, Black Phone 2.

• 1:07:56Will Arnett?

  Black Phone 2.

• 1:07:58Speaker 03

  That's Scott Derrickson with the great Ethan Hawke.

• 1:08:00Will Arnett?

  With the great Ethan Hawke.

• 1:08:01Speaker 03

  Back as the grabber, okay?

• 1:08:03Sean Hayes?

  I thought they caught him.

• 1:08:04Speaker 03

  Uh, then we have, uh, Five Nights at Freddy's 2. Now, clearly you guys missed the first one, but you've got 12 months to see the first and then see the second.

• 1:08:14Will Arnett?

  10 nights at Freddy's.

• 1:08:16Jason Bateman?

  Christmas release?

• 1:08:17Speaker 03

  Christmas release.

• 1:08:18Will Arnett?

  If you're doing the math.

• 1:08:19Speaker 03

  December release, and our friends at Atomic Monster have, uh, the next Conjuring movie, have Mortal Kombat. Um, so it's, uh...

• 1:08:28Will Arnett?

  It's a full slate of great movies.

• 1:08:31Speaker 03

  It's a monster year.

• 1:08:32Will Arnett?

  You should consider doing, you should consider doing the year after for Five Nights at Freddy's, do it as a Christmas movie. 12 Nights at Freddy's, tie it into Christmas. It's a great idea, that's a freebie.

• 1:08:42Jason Bateman?

  You're welcome, it's a free one, it's a free one from us to you.

• 1:08:45Will Arnett?

  Blumhouse is bringing you all the movies you want to see, go and, go and see them. We urge you, we urge you to go and see them, and you're an unbelievable guest.

• 1:08:54Jason Bateman?

  You're an unbelievable, look at you.

• 1:08:55Will Arnett?

  Unbelievable guy.

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  Took me four years, but I, there was a lot of pressure, I had to make it worth it.

• 1:08:59Will Arnett?

  Fuck, you delivered.

• 1:09:00Speaker 03

  Thank you, guys.

• 1:09:00Will Arnett?

  You delivered.

• 1:09:01Speaker 03

  Thank you for having me, I appreciate it, thanks.

• 1:09:03Jason Bateman?

  Say hi to Lauren, please.

• 1:09:04Speaker 03

  Okay, well, I will, lots of love to all of you.

• 1:09:06Jason Bateman?

  Love you, and congrats, by the way, your new daughter.

• 1:09:09Speaker 03

  Thank you, thank you, our little daughter.

• 1:09:11Jason Bateman?

  Bye, buddy.

• 1:09:11Speaker 03

  All right, thanks, guys.

• 1:09:13Jason Bateman?

  Bye, pal.

• 1:09:15Jason Bateman?

  The man is a gift for gab, you know, we could expand this to, to four hosts, and you very easily come in.

• 1:09:22Sean Hayes?

  But aside from, totally, aside from buying a movie from him, I would buy a house from him.

• 1:09:27Will Arnett?

  I know. I'd let him shovel my driveway.

• 1:09:30Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:31Will Arnett?

  I'd let him shovel my driveway.

• 1:09:32Jason Bateman?

  I'd, I'd let him fix my wiring, huh? I'd deal with the electric van. Um, no, a very, very good person, and so is his wife, and it's just, uh...

• 1:09:44Jason Bateman?

  I don't know.

• 1:09:44Sean Hayes?

  A good guy.

• 1:09:45Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:45Sean Hayes?

  I mean, and a perfect example of how to succeed. You know, like when you're kind of starting out in this business, if there's any young producers out there, it's a perfect person to kind of, you know, look for inspiration of how he did it.

• 1:09:59Jason Bateman?

  I know, but it's like, how would you, but how would you say like, you know, he does have, I was trying to break down, like, what's the recipe to become Jason Blum?

• 1:10:08Sean Hayes?

  His personality.

• 1:10:09Jason Bateman?

  But I mean, but not to belittle his ability in the business, but people's skills is an enormous part of this industry, no matter what lane you're in.

• 1:10:18Will Arnett?

  That's true, and I will say this, and I will say he has the, I was thinking about it too, throughout the thing, like, what is that makes him so successful, other than he's got, he says that he's a good picker, he's got tremendous people skills, he understands, but he's really smart.

• 1:10:34Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:34Will Arnett?

  And so.

• 1:10:35Sean Hayes?

  You have to be a lot of things, and he's a lot of things.

• 1:10:37Will Arnett?

  So like, it's a good place to start, is being really smart.

• 1:10:40Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:41Will Arnett?

  You know, JB, nothing?

• 1:10:42Jason Bateman?

  Huh? Oh, no, I was looking at a text, and I thought, are we getting?

• 1:10:48Will Arnett?

  Now we know why you're not him.

• 1:10:49Sean Hayes?

  And attentive.

• 1:10:50Will Arnett?

  Now we know why you're not him, because he would never do that.

• 1:10:54Jason Bateman?

  No, no, not at all. Well, Rob Armory, stop fucking texting me while we're doing the wrap up. God damn it.

• 1:11:00Sean Hayes?

  Rob was texting you?

• 1:11:02Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, we have pickups, we have pickups we have to get to, so let's get to a buy, Sean, you have anything on the list?

• 1:11:07Sean Hayes?

  I don't have anything on the list that fits.

• 1:11:10Jason Bateman?

  Um.

• 1:11:10Will Arnett?

  Really?

• 1:11:11Jason Bateman?

  How about, you know, let's try a new thing. I'm gonna give you a word here that I'd like for you to work into a buy, okay, and it's, the word is bifurcate. Okay, Will, would you like to go first?

• 1:11:21Will Arnett?

  We did that one last week, right?

• 1:11:23Jason Bateman?

  Okay, how about, um.

• 1:11:24Sean Hayes?

  How about a, how about a buyback?

• 1:11:27Jason Bateman?

  What's a buyback? A buyback.

• 1:11:29Sean Hayes?

  What is a buyback?

• 1:11:31Jason Bateman?

  Somebody with two backs?

• 1:11:34Jason Bateman?

  A buyback would be if you wanted to purchase something back from somebody.

• 1:11:39Sean Hayes?

  Oh, well, I would never want to do that to one of his films. I would never want to go into a film after seeing something so spectacular and ask for a.

• 1:11:46Jason Bateman?

  You would never need to.

• 1:11:48Sean Hayes?

  I would never need to go into a space.

• 1:11:51Will Arnett?

  I feel like this is gonna be, I feel like this is gonna be really lazy.

• 1:11:54Sean Hayes?

  No, I would never ask for, need a buyback.

• 1:11:59Will Arnett?

  Hmm.

• 1:12:03Jason Bateman?

  Oh, no.

• 1:12:04Sean Hayes?

  We all even saw it coming.

• 1:12:06Jason Bateman?

  I don't know.

• 1:12:06Will Arnett?

  Bennett groaned.

• 1:12:08Speaker 04

  Could be called Bye.

• 1:12:09Sean Hayes?

  What's that? What's that, Michael?

• 1:12:11Speaker 04

  Instead of Get Out, it could be called Bye.

• 1:12:12Sean Hayes?

  Bye. There you go.

• 1:12:14Jason Bateman?

  Oh, yes. It didn't clear. It was already taken. But yeah, the original title for Get Out was Bye.

• 1:12:25Jason Bateman?

  That's good.

• 1:12:26Speaker 05

  Smart. Less.

• 1:12:32Speaker 05

  Smart. Less.

• 1:12:38Will Arnett?

  Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarv, and Bennett Barbaco.

• 1:12:50Speaker 05

  Smart. Less.

• 1:12:56Jason Bateman?

  Learning to invest is kind of like learning to drive. Putting your teen's hands on the wheel is the best way for them to learn. With a Fidelity Youth account, your teen can make their own trades while you supervise as needed. It's the only brokerage account a teen can own independently, and Investing 101 lessons are built into the app. Learn more at fidelity.com/youth. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, member NYSE, SIPC.

• 1:13:35Sean Hayes?

  You know what stood the test of time? No, not bad haircuts and pretending to understand wine. For centuries, law has remained a remarkably consistent way of making our promises stick. A word becomes an agreement, and an agreement becomes a contract, and a contract becomes bound by law. Now, Harvey, the AI platform designed specifically for legal work, is helping write the next chapter of that legacy. And Harvey is already pretty well-established in the legal world. More than 200,000 lawyers, 80% of the Am Law 100, and 20% of the Fortune 500 are building with Harvey. Accelerating review, sharpening negotiations, uncovering insights, drafting first responses, and more.

• 1:14:18Sean Hayes?

  Basically, Harvey is helping legal teams spend less time on repetitive work and more time on the big picture stuff. This is how the future of agreements is being crafted now. Harvey. Learn more at harvey.ai. That's harvey.ai. Harvey does not provide legal advice. Users should always independently review and verify any output provided by Harvey.