"Pam Abdy & Mike De Luca"

We are joined by Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca (Co-Chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group) from not one, but two offices. Air travel protocols, a big dark room with a bunch of strangers, and the state of the union. Come get some little tiny bites… of comedy? It’s an all-new SmartLess.

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

• 0:01Sean Hayes?

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• 0:44Sean Hayes?

  in select regions for 18-plus users. Check responses for accuracy. Supervise closely; interrupt when needed.

• 0:54Sean Hayes?

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• 1:30Sean Hayes?

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• 2:06Sean Hayes?

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• 2:51Will Arnett?

  Guys, breathe. Big in, huh? Big out, okay?

• 2:56Jason Bateman?

  Okay, okay, okay.

• 2:58Will Arnett?

  Big in, one more, big in.

• 2:59Jason Bateman?

  Through the nose.

• 3:00Will Arnett?

  Yeah, and out.

• 3:01Jason Bateman?

  Are you just really getting into your sit bones?

• 3:03Will Arnett?

  Okay, are you feeling a little bit relaxed, both of you guys? A little bit?

• 3:06Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:06Will Arnett?

  Let me just tell you this. I took some of the Smartless money, I put it in Bitcoin.

• 3:12Jason Bateman?

  Wait, what?

• 3:13Will Arnett?

  It's gonna be fine. Welcome to all new Smartless.

• 3:33Will Arnett?

  I'm at the office today, so I'm not...

• 3:35Jason Bateman?

  Wait, whoa.

• 3:36Will Arnett?

  But I've got a, I've got a new...

• 3:38Jason Bateman?

  What office? He doesn't have a fucking office.

• 3:40Will Arnett?

  I have an office I've had for a couple of years over here.

• 3:43Jason Bateman?

  You don't need to talk all calm like it's no big deal. Let's talk about it.

• 3:47Will Arnett?

  You're really impressed with offices.

• 3:49Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I am. Remember the one we had you never showed up in?

• 3:52Will Arnett?

  Yeah, you know why? Because my dad spent 50 years working in an office and I'm an artist, man. I'm not playing part of this. I'm not playing businessman. Oh, let me go in and...

• 4:04Jason Bateman?

  Are you storytelling? Are you working out how to storytell?

• 4:07Will Arnett?

  I'm an artist now, okay? I'm an artist.

• 4:10Jason Bateman?

  Wait, truly, truly, honestly, how long have you had this? I've never heard about this.

• 4:14Will Arnett?

  Couple of years. Do you want me to turn the camera around so you can see?

• 4:16Jason Bateman?

  Wait, is this where the beast lives?

• 4:18Will Arnett?

  Yeah, this is where the beast lives. Hang on.

• 4:20Jason Bateman?

  Who's, what's the beast? I guess we'll wait. Listener, just wait. Will's got a...

• 4:24Will Arnett?

  Oh, former.

• 4:25Jason Bateman?

  No, he doesn't need to bring in, it's not show and tell. Oh, oh, who's got the leather, who's got like the bachelor leather couch?

• 4:32Sean Hayes?

  Look at how unused that meeting space is.

• 4:35Will Arnett?

  What are you talking about? JB, you forget, I grew up in a serious world. You grew up, so now you're playing make-believe office manager. You've got a company.

• 4:44Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, but there's people in my office. You've got an empty meeting space.

• 4:49Will Arnett?

  Dude, it doesn't matter. It's like, it's like those people who used to go like, we're gonna have all these platforms for content. So we're gonna create content like, what's the content? You can, anybody can have a fucking office. Sean could have an office, for Christ's sake.

• 5:03Jason Bateman?

  I think he does. He's talking to us from.

• 5:05Sean Hayes?

  Ooh.

• 5:06Jason Bateman?

  It's just off the kitchen, though.

• 5:07Sean Hayes?

  Ooh.

• 5:08Jason Bateman?

  And by the way, this is true. Ricky's bed is there below his feet.

• 5:11Sean Hayes?

  By Ricky's, Ricky's right there on the floor.

• 5:17Jason Bateman?

  That's hilarious. Hey, so, uh, how was everybody's night?

• 5:21Sean Hayes?

  Everybody, everything's.

• 5:22Jason Bateman?

  Uh, so listeners, we just, uh, or listener, sorry. I was a little ambitious there.

• 5:28Will Arnett?

  Oh, God, what are you doing?

• 5:29Jason Bateman?

  We, uh, we had, we had dinner again, our Sunday dinner. We haven't had in, how long did it, how long had it been? Months?

• 5:36Will Arnett?

  Months.

• 5:37Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, like two, three months. Yeah, that, uh, that was fun. It was good to see everybody.

• 5:41Will Arnett?

  It was really good. It was really good. It was really good to see Danny D's.

• 5:45Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, the great Dan D's.

• 5:47Sean Hayes?

  He's the best.

• 5:48Jason Bateman?

  I love him and Don.

• 5:49Will Arnett?

  And Don. That he and Don, uh, have, are part of our regular crew now. That's really, it's nice. It's nice.

• 5:58Sean Hayes?

  Did everybody sleep okay today?

• 6:00Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, we're, we're a little tie-tie, yeah?

• 6:02Sean Hayes?

  I guess so.

• 6:02Jason Bateman?

  I got my PJs on still. Will, do you wear pajamas to the office?

• 6:06Will Arnett?

  I don't, I could. It's so fast. It's a five-minute drive now from my new place. It's great.

• 6:11Jason Bateman?

  I'll bet they were very, I bet they were very happy to see you. You have not been in there for a while. You're fresh back from your film.

• 6:16Will Arnett?

  I haven't been here in a minute. They were happy to see me and, uh... Yeah, it was good. I, you know, I was up super early. I'm still a little jet lagged and still coming down. My, my clock is all messed up from late nights and stuff, so I'm, I don't know, just one of those. I woke up the other morning at like four forty-five and I got a coffee and then I was sitting out watching outside and I saw this huge crazy light, you know, being followed by sort of mist. It was kind of cutting through the mist, but the light was coming from behind and I looked it up and it turns out it was a rocket being launched.

• 6:48Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 6:48Will Arnett?

  From just up the coast here in California.

• 6:51Sean Hayes?

  UFO.

• 6:52Will Arnett?

  UFO. It was pretty, pretty spectacular to see at like, you know, five thirty AM. Yeah. And so I've been feeling just a little spacey, just kind of coming back to.

• 7:02Sean Hayes?

  Well, you're still on Eastern time, so you're still getting up and I'll bet you were getting up at five in the morning over there, which was two in the morning here, so.

• 7:08Will Arnett?

  We were doing five in the morning like, like Monday, Tuesdays and then immediately switching to nights. And we did that for about three weeks in a row.

• 7:15Sean Hayes?

  The littlest thing that I did, Jay, I was, I was there like, you know, we had night shoots and it was two in the morning.

• 7:20Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, listener Sean was in it as well.

• 7:22Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but, but like two in the morning, I'm like, okay, bye everybody. I got to go home. And I look back and I'm like, there's Willie still going till like five, six in the morning. It was unbelievable.

• 7:31Will Arnett?

  Of course you're talking. And, and then I've got, I've got young Denny too. So Denny's been, he's a little bit on New York Times too, so he's like up early and, you know. Anyway, it's all good. These are, these are great problems to have, but I'm, it's nice being in California. Nice to see everybody.

• 7:48Sean Hayes?

  I'm sorry about last night too. I was gonna grab a bite, a steak and I, I forgot I had a dinner because our friend's dog died.

• 7:54Will Arnett?

  Okay, so JB, I'm gonna walk you through this because it a little bit felt like a lie.

• 7:58Sean Hayes?

  No, not at all. Not at all.

• 8:00Will Arnett?

  Okay, well, hang on. And, and I don't want to meet, I guess it looks like we have a double guest coming up, but which we, because we've got two squares, but.

• 8:07Sean Hayes?

  Sorry, guests.

• 8:08Will Arnett?

  Sorry, guests, plural. Jesus.

• 8:11Sean Hayes?

  Yeah. And then I wanna, I wanna, and then I wanna ask you if you've locked down your car and we don't need to say what kind it is.

• 8:17Will Arnett?

  Okay. Yes, yes, I have. That's, that's a lock down.

• 8:20Jason Bateman?

  Oh, that's nice.

• 8:22Sean Hayes?

  Bobby Big Deal's at the fucking office. Got himself a real nice car this weekend.

• 8:27Jason Bateman?

  Bobby Big Deal.

• 8:28Sean Hayes?

  Jesus Christ.

• 8:29Will Arnett?

  I know, I know.

• 8:32Will Arnett?

  Let's not go too deep.

• 8:33Sean Hayes?

  No, no.

• 8:36Will Arnett?

  But, uh, but I said to Sean yesterday, I talked to him in the morning, we were talking about something and I go, "Oh, you know what? I think that the, the big boys like have stuff after school and they have, uh, you know, music and athletic stuff." So I said, "Look, you wanna go get a dinner, uh, grab an early dinner?" He goes, "Yes." And then he texts me and he goes, "Oh, I forgot our friends, we made plans with our friends." I'm like.

• 8:58Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, that is.

• 8:59Will Arnett?

  It felt a little excusey, do you know what I mean?

• 9:02Sean Hayes?

  No, I swear to God. Cause the initial thing was like, "Yes, of course I wanna go to Jar and have a steak with you."

• 9:07Jason Bateman?

  But didn't you pile on the excuse just now and say that a, uh, an animal had died as well?

• 9:12Sean Hayes?

  Didn't pile on, but.

• 9:13Will Arnett?

  Well, he had a friend, friends of theirs.

• 9:15Sean Hayes?

  Kevin and Carrie, you know Kevin and Carrie.

• 9:16Will Arnett?

  And they said, he said that they'd lost their dog. I said, "Well, maybe we can help them find, find it."

• 9:20Jason Bateman?

  Good, well.

• 9:21Will Arnett?

  Which is a rip off of an old Norm MacDonald joke, by the way.

• 9:24Jason Bateman?

  So wait, so they lost their dog and they needed you and Scotty to sit around them and, and eat?

• 9:29Sean Hayes?

  And support, yeah, support.

• 9:30Jason Bateman?

  You know, the doggies like a family member.

• 9:32Will Arnett?

  JB, have you tried this, this, have you tried this bar?

• 9:35Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I have. It's not bad.

• 9:37Will Arnett?

  It's pretty good, right?

• 9:38Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. You can mention it, maybe get some free ones.

• 9:41Will Arnett?

  You know, I'm good for six bucks.

• 9:42Sean Hayes?

  I'll wait till you take a bite.

• 9:43Will Arnett?

  The Bear Bell, the Bear Bell bars, they're really good.

• 9:46Jason Bateman?

  All right, listener, today, we don't have some fishy flashy fancy celeb type.

• 9:53Sean Hayes?

  Oh.

• 9:54Jason Bateman?

  Not today. Today we have got not one but two people who make the flashy fancy types. They are two of the most important people in the industry today, period, full stop. Entertainment industry, okay?

• 10:09Will Arnett?

  Okay, okay.

• 10:10Jason Bateman?

  Individually.

• 10:11Will Arnett?

  The only industry in the world, okay?

• 10:13Jason Bateman?

  I, all right. But individually, individually, they've been behind such movies as Birdman, The Big Short, The Revenant, The Social Network, Moneyball, Captain Phillips, Austin Powers, Boogie Nights, Seven. Together, they have combined to bring us such films as Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Wonka, Dune Part Two and Barbie. Let's find out how these two are able to bring us so much incredible entertainment. Please meet the co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Brothers Motion Picture Group, Pam Abdy and Michael DeLuca.

• 10:42Sean Hayes?

  No way.

• 10:43Jason Bateman?

  On the smart list. Good morning.

• 10:47Speaker 03

  Good morning.

• 10:48Sean Hayes?

  Great.

• 10:48Jason Bateman?

  We're gonna have a couple of smart folks come on and talk to us for fucking once.

• 10:53Sean Hayes?

  This is cool.

• 10:54Speaker 04

  I had to hold my laughter in. Oh my god.

• 10:56Jason Bateman?

  I want to say Pam's still at home. Mike, you're at the office.

• 10:59Speaker 05

  I am.

• 11:00Speaker 04

  I'm in the office.

• 11:00Jason Bateman?

  You were both in the office.

• 11:01Speaker 05

  We have two offices. We have an office we share, and then we have a spillover office. We need to do solo things. Pam's in the spillover office.

• 11:09Will Arnett?

  These are people with two offices.

• 11:11Sean Hayes?

  So in all of Warner Brothers, you only have two offices.

• 11:13Jason Bateman?

  Now, in the shared office, do you have one of those his and her desks where you're looking at each other?

• 11:18Speaker 05

  No, we thought about it, like an old.

• 11:20Speaker 04

  We're not diagonal, we are.

• 11:21Speaker 05

  Like an old Howard Hawks movie, like a Ben Hecht screenplay where the desks in the newsroom are together. But we went, I think, a more realistic.

• 11:30Jason Bateman?

  Willie, didn't you?

• 11:30Speaker 05

  We're catty-cornered.

• 11:32Jason Bateman?

  We did have that for a second, didn't we?

• 11:34Will Arnett?

  Jason and I had an office for a while, for a couple of years, where we faced each other. And he would always complain, as you could just tell this morning, that I was never there.

• 11:41Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 11:41Will Arnett?

  Again, my dad was in an office.

• 11:43Jason Bateman?

  What happened to the company? What happened to the company?

• 11:45Will Arnett?

  It went belly up.

• 11:46Jason Bateman?

  Like a lead balloon, right?

• 11:47Will Arnett?

  Your shitty ideas sunk it. Hey, Mike and Pam, welcome to Smartless. Wow.

• 11:53Jason Bateman?

  Welcome to Smartless.

• 11:54Speaker 05

  This is an honor for us. We're super fans.

• 11:57Jason Bateman?

  Pam and I have threatened to do this for a long time. I'm so glad we finally found some time from your very busy schedule to do this.

• 12:04Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 12:04Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 12:05Will Arnett?

  Collectively, individually and collectively, you two are responsible for some of the greatest pieces of entertainment that people have enjoyed across this country ever. It's true.

• 12:14Sean Hayes?

  It's really cool. So impressive.

• 12:16Will Arnett?

  It is really impressive.

• 12:18Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 12:18Jason Bateman?

  It is. Now, but what is unique, listener, is that usually the people who are driving these factories of incredible entertainment is usually just one person. But this is a pair. This is a duo. And this isn't the first time that you guys have done it. You came from, tell the audience where you started to work on your duo-ness.

• 12:43Speaker 05

  Well, I got to meet Pam. I was at this company, New Line, in the 1990s. It was my first job, actually.

• 12:48Jason Bateman?

  What a company.

• 12:49Speaker 05

  Out of a.

• 12:52Speaker 05

  I joined, I was there as an intern in eighty-five from NYU. So I'd been at New Line for a long time. And Pam worked for this company, Jersey Films, which of course produced Pulp Fiction and so many great films in the nineties.

• 13:07Jason Bateman?

  Dan DeVito and Michael.

• 13:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, Shamber and Stacy Cher.

• 13:10Jason Bateman?

  Yep, and yep.

• 13:11Will Arnett?

  Many of my people moved to Jersey.

• 13:13Jason Bateman?

  This is an ongoing dumbass bit. Some Italian guy in the back wings that likes to comment. Sorry, push through it.

• 13:21Speaker 05

  That's okay. I met Pam. Pam, Jersey Films produced a couple of movies for New Line. That's where I met Pam. We became best friends. She's from Jersey, I'm from Brooklyn. We're united on all things Italian food.

• 13:31Jason Bateman?

  It's the Holland Tunnel apart.

• 13:33Speaker 05

  And movies, yep. And then we had a chance, we switched jobs, you know, many times. I went from being an exec to being a producer. She became an exec at Paramount. I produced for her. Then when I became an executive again after producing at MGM, I invited Pam to work with me and then we've been an executive team ever since.

• 13:51Jason Bateman?

  Oh, it's just like, but so, so then, again, for the listener, there's, there's, you can either be selling stuff or you can be buying stuff. And that there's like a big, big difference, you know? One, obviously, you're sort of like doing the dog and pony show and selling your wares. And the other one, you get to sit back in the chair, fold your arms and say, sell me. Let me hear what you've got to overly reduce it. So you guys have done both of that at very, very, very high levels. You're obviously on the premium, elite buying side right now. Is there, is there a side that you like more? I mean, obviously with the selling part, you spend more time sort of out there in the trenches and on set sometimes.

• 14:33Jason Bateman?

  And on the buying side, you're in a more air-conditioned situation. Snacks are better, more consistent. What do you, what do you, what do you prefer?

• 14:44Speaker 05

  Well, you know, it's different pleasures. When you're a producer, you know, it's more artisanal and you're building the project from the ground up with the director and you're just so much more intimately involved in the, in just the creative aspects of movie making. And it's, it's just a different pleasure. You're kind of part of a family that erupts, you know, as the thing starts to take shape.

• 15:04Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 15:05Speaker 05

  And it's, and it's, it's a really wonderful experience and you're with, you know, these people for...

• 15:10Jason Bateman?

  Stressy, I bet, yeah? Because you don't, you're not in control. You're not, you're not the buyer.

• 15:15Speaker 05

  You sing for your supper a little bit more, but, but there's, we find, there's advocacy on both, on both sides. You know, if you're a producer, you're advocating for the, for a financier or a studio to greenlight you, but even when you have the power of the checkbook, you're still advocating for, you know, your boss or the board that you report to, to, to finance a slate of pictures. And it, there's advocacy on kind of both versions of the job.

• 15:38Jason Bateman?

  But the agenda's different. Yeah, Pam, I mean, you're like, while you're advocate, you need to sort of mind the asset a little bit more on the buying side and on the selling side, you can be a little bit more sort of purist and like, no, just whatever's better for the film. I mean, I'm oversimplifying it.

• 15:54Will Arnett?

  But you also know, as both having, having been on the other side, that you know, you can't bullshit a bullshitter. So if somebody comes to you and is like, hey, this, and then you're like, hey, man, I know how it's, I know how the sausage...

• 16:06Speaker 05

  Nobody can tell Pam, nobody can tell Pam, no producer's gonna pull the wool over Pam's eyes on budget. She can literally do both jobs, you know, with her eyes closed.

• 16:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, my love, I mean, Jason knows this because Jason and I have produced a movie together and worked together. My first love will always be producing because I just love the grind and being on set. As you guys know, it's just the best. There's nothing like it.

• 16:28Jason Bateman?

  Well, then, do you miss that?

• 16:29Speaker 04

  Always, but I love this too. You know, they're not, they're not, it's not either or.

• 16:33Jason Bateman?

  You guys can go visit the set.

• 16:35Speaker 04

  We do.

• 16:36Jason Bateman?

  Right, exactly, anytime you want.

• 16:37Speaker 04

  But I am, you can't, you can't pull the wool over me.

• 16:38Will Arnett?

  Have you not watched the studio?

• 16:39Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 16:40Speaker 05

  Well, you gotta really watch it. Like, if you're not in, we try to visit the set. If, if you don't visit, sometimes they think, oh, well, don't you care about us?

• 16:47Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 16:48Speaker 05

  But then, when you do show up... People are worried like, oh, are we over budget? Is there a problem? Really gotta navigate that carefully of like when and how we show up.

• 16:57Jason Bateman?

  Who's more prone to say, hey, let's go visit that set? Who likes to get out a little bit more often?

• 17:02Speaker 05

  Oh, Pam.

• 17:02Speaker 04

  Me.

• 17:02Speaker 05

  For sure.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  I like to go rogue.

• 17:04Speaker 05

  Yeah. I have a terrible turbulence anxiety. Like, I have a flying phobia. So I do it, but it's not something, you know, that I volunteer for a lot.

• 17:13Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, Will has a little bit of that.

• 17:14Will Arnett?

  I do too. It's, yeah, it's gotten increasingly worse. And you know what? In the last couple of months, it's been a little bit better. But these guys know I get quite.

• 17:21Jason Bateman?

  Now, where does it, like, Will, you didn't have like a bad experience, right? It's just like as you become older, more responsible.

• 17:27Will Arnett?

  When I had kids, when I had kids.

• 17:29Jason Bateman?

  Same with you, Mike? Or did you have a bad experience?

• 17:31Speaker 05

  Exactly. Yeah, yeah. No, no bad experience. A shrink, a shrink told me once, it's a control issue, obviously. And a lot of, a lot of people get it when they get their first dose of real responsibility. So when I got, when they, when New Line made me head of production in the, in the 90s, I was only, I was 26, 27, and I, I, you know, it was the first big responsibility I ever got. That's when I got the flying phobia. And then it just, it's escalated since I've had children and gotten more responsibility. It just kind of increased exponentially.

• 17:59Will Arnett?

  Have you, have you thought about working? I have considered working through it because I know, I have a friend of mine who, years ago, he, and he had, you know, access to tremendous resources. But he went with that guy who, who's famous for walking people through that phobia. And he did, I think he told me he did a month of flights. And he'd go to the, he'd go to like LaGuardia. He lives in New York. And they'd pick a, they'd look at the board and they'd pick a flight and they'd go, they'd fly to Cleveland. Then they'd fly to Houston. Then they'd fly to Miami. And he did that for about a month. And the guy walked him through basically every scenario. And he got over it.

• 18:35Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, well, I'm telling you, when I got stuck in that elevator, like my therapist said, the best thing you could do from now on, because I, then I was in such a massive panic. She goes, ride as many elevators as you possibly can.

• 18:45Speaker 05

  Right. It's like aversion therapy. It does help. I accidentally stumbled into aversion therapy because my ex-wife lives in Fort Worth, Texas with my children, and I, I travel there every weekend.

• 18:56Jason Bateman?

  Oh, the weather.

• 18:57Speaker 05

  You know, so, so I'm on planes twice a week. And it's just kind of, you know, normalized it for me. So that that's helped a lot. And then information helps me. So I fly with a lot of apps. Like I have apps going that tell me where the plane is. In relation to every other plane.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  Oh, you should fly with him.

• 19:12Will Arnett?

  Dude, me too.

• 19:13Speaker 05

  And what the weather is like and it really helps.

• 19:15Jason Bateman?

  Wait a second.

• 19:15Will Arnett?

  Mike, I'll tell you something. Mike, I do the same thing and I'll tell you what I've done recently.

• 19:19Jason Bateman?

  Tracking traffic while you're in the air.

• 19:20Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I track my own flight and I look at AccuWeather and I look at FlightAware and to see what the thing and I'm like, are these guys gonna go around this storm or not?

• 19:27Speaker 05

  I'm right there with you, brother. I literally will go to the flight attendant. Excuse me, flight attendant, I noticed that this plane at 34,000 feet is smooth. Cause you perhaps ask our pilot to pick it up 2,000 feet. Cause we're bopping around at 32.

• 19:40Will Arnett?

  By the way, do you know, do you know, do you know that they now have this new software that the pilots use? That shows them where turbulence is, that they all share it and it's like a.

• 19:50Speaker 05

  Py reps, yeah, pilot, Py reps, pilot reports.

• 19:52Speaker 04

  He knows everything, Will. He knows everything. I fly with him a lot.

• 19:56Will Arnett?

  But, but here's my suggestion. This is what I, and this is recent, just this spring. I, I decided to stop doing it. I had a moment, Mike, where I went, where I went, I'm not flying this plane. And the pilots don't want to die.

• 20:14Speaker 05

  That's trust. Somehow you've achieved trust. I'm still working on trust.

• 20:18Jason Bateman?

  Here's what I do. I fly the first flight out as much as I can because I'm so unbelievably exhausted. I don't care what happens.

• 20:28Speaker 05

  Are you able to sleep on planes?

• 20:29Jason Bateman?

  I fall asleep in a second.

• 20:30Speaker 05

  I'm so envious of that.

• 20:31Will Arnett?

  So, cause that explains your diet too. That you just, you don't care what happens.

• 20:35Jason Bateman?

  Mike, what about, what about, what about a nice, a nice cool beverage? To, to, to cut, to cut the edge or, or maybe a.

• 20:42Speaker 05

  You know, I'm sober, so I'm in a lifetime timeout of anything.

• 20:45Jason Bateman?

  What about, what about a, are sleeping pills on your list of?

• 20:49Speaker 05

  No, I can't. Yeah, not, they're on the no, they're on the no fly list for me.

• 20:52Jason Bateman?

  What about, what about melatonin or, um, and no?

• 20:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, I try to do it substance free and, uh, and just use my apps and, and engage with the flight attendants.

• 21:02Will Arnett?

  Same.

• 21:03Speaker 04

  When we're flying together, I'll go check on him and then he, he tends to show me every app. So then I start to have. A panic attack, which I don't normally have on a flight, but yes, that's what we do.

• 21:13Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, you know what I feel would would help all of us is if we flew in one of those hurricane planes that the that the air force has.

• 21:20Speaker 05

  Totally. I think about that often.

• 21:21Jason Bateman?

  They fly literally into the wall of a hurricane to to to to measure the speed of the winds. Well, that's just it. It turns out planes can handle so much more than you think that they can. So once you go, once you basically scuba dive with a shark, you're no longer scared of sharks. Because you look them in the eye and they don't care about you.

• 21:40Will Arnett?

  And by the way, by the way, I, you know, I was with my, I was talking to my therapist the other day. And it turns out that humans can withstand so much more, too.

• 21:47Jason Bateman?

  Oh, Will. Jesus. Yeah, you can, you can do it, Willie.

• 21:51Speaker 05

  We are resilient. Humans can too.

• 21:54Speaker 04

  We can handle it.

• 21:55Jason Bateman?

  Now, let's talk about real fear. Let's talk about budgets. Let's talk about.

• 22:01Will Arnett?

  Dave Zaz, let's talk about Zaz.

• 22:04Sean Hayes?

  Also, but like to Jason's point, though, too, like I, I want to get into that because I'm fascinated watching from the sidelines about movies and stuff. And like, why, you know, what is your opinion about, because you, I'm sure you guys talk about this. We all talk about, everybody in the business talks about what's the state, what's the state of the business? Because it seems like, first of all, it seems like you tell me the perception is that the I, the star of any movie now is the idea. Because movie stars, at least there are some that can still, you go, oh, I want to see that person. I like that person. I like this. But for the most part, do I have that right or is that?

• 22:38Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, like stars used to open films and now it's a little bit more plot and premise driven to to to drive audience and.

• 22:44Speaker 05

  I think there's an element of truth to that. However, you see, you see each new generation kind of want to, wants, they still want to create their own movie stars. So you have, you have people like Timothy Chalamet and Austin Butler and Florence Pugh. Like, you know, basically, any, anyone on the red carpet for Barbie or or Dune is an example of, you know, young, young audiences creating new movie stars.

• 23:05Sean Hayes?

  What brought audiences to that is the concept before the star, right?

• 23:10Speaker 05

  It's exponential. If you can, if you can, no, I think, I think Chalamet playing Bob Dylan was a great example.

• 23:15Sean Hayes?

  For sure.

• 23:16Speaker 05

  Combining, you know, something iconic with with an actor. People clearly want to see. I think there's opportunities to create new movie stars. Movie stars still matter. But it is, you know, with the advent of streaming where people get so much content, you know, constantly, you do need that sticky idea and that provocative, audacious kind of concept to break through theatrics.

• 23:36Jason Bateman?

  With that pre-existing IP like Superman.

• 23:39Will Arnett?

  Well, we've been inundated, right? We, as, who was it who said, Tom Rothman who said, you know, the tyranny of IP. And we've been inundated with it, right? And, and is there something?

• 23:51Jason Bateman?

  Says the guy who only has one Marvel title.

• 23:56Will Arnett?

  Way to go. Way to go. Now you just made his shit list.

• 23:59Jason Bateman?

  Well, no, I loved.

• 24:00Will Arnett?

  No, no, no, I'm kidding. He's a great guy.

• 24:04Jason Bateman?

  And we will be right back.

• 24:08Sean Hayes?

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• 24:44Will Arnett?

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• 25:25Will Arnett?

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• 25:47Sean Hayes?

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• 26:30Sean Hayes?

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• 26:54Sean Hayes?

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• 27:34Sean Hayes?

  And now, back to the show.

• 27:37Will Arnett?

  My question is, I guess, in the face of all of that, is there, and be as candid as you want to be, you're comfortable as being, given if all things being equal, if you could control the appetite of film goers and people who go into the theaters, what would be, what would you do? What kind of films would you make? Would you greenlight? Would you develop, you know, all things being equal?

• 28:02Speaker 05

  All things being equal, we really believe in a diversified slate because we feel like it's, you know, the world's become pretty nichey. So we try to have something for everyone. So all your eggs aren't in one basket. You know, it's pretty, it's almost impossible, even for Disney, which owns those four giant labels of, you know, Lucasfilm and Pixar and Marvel. You can't have a 20 tent pole slate. There's just not that much IP available to just have nothing but, you know, billion dollar movies every year, although we certainly love it and everybody tries, so.

• 28:34Will Arnett?

  But there's room for the originals too, like what you guys did with Sinners, right?

• 28:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, we think, we think a balanced slate, we have something for everyone. And, you know, yes, if you're lucky enough to have IP and you can mine those franchises, great. But then it's also great to give new voices a chance, new filmmakers, directors.

• 28:51Will Arnett?

  So if you could change one thing, you would, you'd maybe try to get the audience to be a little bit more thirsty for something weird and original and without.

• 29:01Jason Bateman?

  See, I think they are.

• 29:02Speaker 04

  But I think they are.

• 29:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, I think it's, I think if we could change anything, it would be to get our fellow studios to make more movies. I think, I think box office is down just because the amount of films has never really ticked back up since the pandemic started to resume.

• 29:15Will Arnett?

  Well, and also you can just get it on streaming.

• 29:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, the other thing I think that's important for the audience now is directors. I think there is a relationship with this next generation where they can tell when a signature filmmaker has their voice on a movie. They can tell that.

• 29:30Will Arnett?

  Like a Jordan Peele or Ryan Coogler.

• 29:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, Jordan Peele or Ryan Coogler or Greta Gerwig or Chris Nolan.

• 29:35Will Arnett?

  Paul Thomas Anderson.

• 29:37Speaker 05

  They can sense authorship or the lack of it. They really can.

• 29:39Will Arnett?

  Jason Bateman.

• 29:40Speaker 04

  Jason Bateman.

• 29:41Will Arnett?

  Oh, this guy.

• 29:41Speaker 05

  Absolutely, Jason Bateman. We're waiting for a much bigger filmography, man.

• 29:46Will Arnett?

  Bateman picture, he refers himself in the third person a lot, you know.

• 29:49Jason Bateman?

  I filmed by.

• 29:50Will Arnett?

  I think the world needs another Jason Bateman picture.

• 29:52Speaker 04

  I told him.

• 29:53Jason Bateman?

  I love his picture.

• 29:54Speaker 04

  I told you, I told Jason to start directing when we were making Identity.

• 29:58Jason Bateman?

  Yes, you did.

• 29:59Will Arnett?

  No, he's such a good director and we, and, and we always encourage him to make more comedies too, because he's such a funny mofo. But, but can I ask you this, though, just while we're on this topic? Is there, and again, at the, at the risk of, of, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. But, but is, is there, has the, the, the sort of the onslaught of IP? And again, we, we, there are lots of great films that have come out in this era, and there are a lot of people that, whom we all know and love, who have, who have made these, and have done really well, and blah, blah, blah. The list is very long. But have we, in, in a certain way, have we dulled our, our, our taste buds for other kinds of films? Have we changed?

• 30:45Will Arnett?

  Is, is there a chance that we altered people's tastes?

• 30:51Jason Bateman?

  Because the big things are so loud and sticky now?

• 30:54Will Arnett?

  Well, yeah, that, that we don't, you know, we were all, we're, we're all older, we're all the same sort of generation. We, we were all raised on a diversified slate of films that came out every year, and there were lots of comedies and dramas and action, et cetera, et cetera. And so we.

• 31:07Jason Bateman?

  You had The Verdict and Raging Bull and Kramer vs Kramer, which now you can't have those sort of adult dramas.

• 31:12Will Arnett?

  And, and so now everything's been kind of, it's kind of like, you know, it's, it's what people complain about pop music, if you will, that everything just becomes the very, you know, homogenized and very much the same. And have we damaged tastes?

• 31:27Speaker 05

  I don't think so. I think, and again, because the tastes are always refreshed by new audiences coming up. I think, I think what's happened is the bar has just gotten higher for what's, what we consider theater-worthy criteria. You know, things that will make something not streaming, but theatrical. But I think, you know, when you see a spread of theatrical successes from Long Legs or Everything Everywhere All at Once, from the Neons and the 824s, they're not, they're not ten pulls, they're not making a billion dollars globally, but they are pulling in audiences theatrical. And then on our side of the street, when you have, you know, something as, you know, as diverse as Minecraft, and then the next weekend, Sinner's or at Universal, you know, Oppenheimer, and then we had Barbie. There's, there's, I, I think that people are up for the theatrical experience and they're

• 32:12Speaker 05

  up for a variety of movies. The bar is just higher for what will, will get them out of the house. And, and that's our job to meet that higher bar.

• 32:19Jason Bateman?

  And it's less about how our theatrical is not as good. It is more about how streaming is more appealing and there's good stuff to watch at home and so.

• 32:31Will Arnett?

  Convenient.

• 32:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're not mutually exclusive.

• 32:33Speaker 05

  There's enough to go around. Yeah, I think, I think there are, there are consumers that are happy to wait for streaming or watch streaming originals and then there's consumers that want the theatrical experience.

• 32:42Will Arnett?

  Yeah, and, and there are people who don't want to ever leave their house, right? Who don't want to go, they won't even go to Larchmont, even though it's three blocks away.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:50Speaker 05

  I wonder who that could be.

• 32:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, you can get everything on your phone.

• 32:54Will Arnett?

  Go ahead, Sean.

• 32:57Jason Bateman?

  Now, but you said, but you said you would, you'd, you'd love it if studios made more movies.

• 33:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 33:01Jason Bateman?

  What do you think the, the, the, is the primary reason that they're not making more movies because it's getting increasingly more expensive to, to build a sort of a, a, a, a public profile for it, like a marketing profile, like you gotta have, we gotta buy a bunch of commercials for it and, and sort of build that social pressure to go see this thing because everyone's seeing the billboards and the commercials and oh my God, I guess I gotta go see that because I gotta talk about it at work. It's cost so much money to buy those commercials and those billboards that people say, ah, maybe I'll just make it for streaming where I don't need to do all that stuff. It's just production costs. Is, is that one of the big things that?

• 33:37Speaker 04

  No, I think, I think it's about, yes, it's expensive to make some films, but you can make films at different, you know, different budget levels depending on, depending on what it is.

• 33:46Jason Bateman?

  But isn't the, the price to sell them the same?

• 33:49Speaker 04

  But I think you have to meet, I think, I think marketing has changed and I think you have to meet the, like the, the audience where they're receiving their advertising.

• 33:57Jason Bateman?

  Not necessarily a 30, right?

• 33:59Speaker 04

  Not necessarily a 30 second linear TV spot, but like digitally, like what we saw, just how we saw the fervor of. Minecraft with the chicken jockey and the memes taking on a life of its own. Coupled with two weeks later, sinners and like Mike and my TikTok feed just filling with people, you know, experiencing this film like that was magical, like magical to see that happen. And I think that's where they are.

• 34:23Speaker 05

  I think every legacy studio, by legacy studio, I mean, you know, the Paramount, Sony, us, the non-streamers, coming out of the pandemic, everyone is cautious about, okay, is box office down because the pandemic irrevocably altered viewing habits? Or is box office down because we're making less movies? You know, Pam and I feel like it's because we're making less movies. Some people feel human behavior may have been altered and the audience may be never coming back at the level they were in pre-pandemic. So I think as everybody tries to figure out the answer to that, and it's a very fluid situation, working, working your slate back up to 10, 15, 20 movies a year, I just, it's going to be a slow, cautious process.

• 35:07Speaker 05

  Everyone's kind of feeling their way of what's, what's exactly causing the downturn? Is it the hangover from the pandemic or, or is it that we're not making the same amount of movies?

• 35:16Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 35:16Sean Hayes?

  Right, you know, almost to that point, you know, it seems like, and you guys tell me, more people than ever out of work in the history of the entertainment business. It seems like writers, you know, that used to work all the time can't find a get like more actors, directors, producers, that crew, everybody. Why is that in your opinion? And what does your crystal ball say about the future of that? Do you see that changing? Like Village Roadshow, didn't they just go bankrupt or something? It just seems like the entertainment business is collapsing.

• 35:45Jason Bateman?

  Constrict, yeah, it's, it's, it's getting smaller because there's, there's less stuff being made, yeah.

• 35:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, there's work, there's, there's been some consolidation, you know, in the industry. So that immediately means less buyers on the block. There was a contraction in production, you know, both on the series side and the, and the feature side. You know, as we were navigating the pandemic and then, you know, the so-called streaming wars, which were never really a war, Netflix won that war before it even started.

• 36:11Sean Hayes?

  Right, right, right.

• 36:12Speaker 05

  They had a 20-year head start.

• 36:15Speaker 05

  I do think things are picking up. And will tick up, uh, maybe not to pre pandemic levels, but I think that has been a symptom of of.

• 36:21Will Arnett?

  It's all it's all cyclical, right?

• 36:23Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 36:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was just gonna say, just the studio is making less movies, like we were saying, but also if you go to TV, you know, streaming has created the eight to 10 episode series as opposed to what we all grew up with, you know, on network television with 22 episodes. And you you constantly felt like, you know, you had all those linear networks that were creating multiple shows, filling must see TV and all that stuff. And I feel like that has been altered, you know, quite a bit since the streaming and since the pandemic.

• 36:56Will Arnett?

  Sean, you used to do, how many, 24 episodes a year on Will and Grace?

• 36:59Sean Hayes?

  Sometimes 22, sometimes 26, sometimes 23. It was crazy.

• 37:02Speaker 05

  Amazing.

• 37:02Will Arnett?

  And then they don't. Ozark, how many do you guys do? Just 10. JB, 13, 10? 10. And they're remaking it, right? They're doing it with robots and they said it's got more life to it.

• 37:12Sean Hayes?

  You see the way he's he's he can set it and hit it.

• 37:16Will Arnett?

  Yeah, they said it's good. It's good. Yeah, it breathes more.

• 37:19Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but, uh, shoot, what was I gonna say?

• 37:22Speaker 05

  By the way, Will, we we use Lego Batman in every tribute reel to Warner, every best of Warner Brothers reel that we screen at CinemaCon, we always include Lego Batman.

• 37:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's our favorite.

• 37:32Sean Hayes?

  Don't do that to him, Mike. He's gonna dime out on that.

• 37:34Will Arnett?

  Thank you.

• 37:35Speaker 04

  We love it.

• 37:35Jason Bateman?

  So so guys, you you have you have been uniquely great individually and also together and in really getting behind some of the more specific creative voices behind these movies, people like Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher, et cetera, et cetera. When you are collaborating with someone like that, who they like to keep the edges on and that's what the audience likes too, but sometimes, oftentimes, that's at odds with the the goal to get as many people into tent as possible, buying a ticket and and making it mass appeal and kind of round the edges sometimes and not be as controversial, not be as challenging.

• 38:19Jason Bateman?

  How do you how do you manage that as a on the producing side, on the on the selling side? I it's probably a lot easier, but in your current roles as as, you know, trying to bring in profits as well, are those conversations difficult? Do you err on one side or the other? Walk us through that a little bit.

• 38:36Speaker 04

  I find it because of our background. I mean, listen, I'm 30 years in. Mike's longer than that. We're just a little.

• 38:44Speaker 05

  It's very polite of you, Pam. Thank you for saying.

• 38:46Will Arnett?

  Wow.

• 38:47Speaker 05

  Not naming the number of years.

• 38:50Speaker 04

  No, no, no. I'm just saying, I'm 30 years in, whatever. But I think because both he and I have been in the trenches on a producerial side, there's a certain level of understanding and trust that we bring to this job. So the filmmakers that we work with, some of them, we've had long relationships. Like, we're working with Alejandro and Yuritu right now. I'm on my fourth film with him. I think it's, there's a trust. There's a collaboration. There's a respect. I mean, you have to earn the filmmaker's respect, you know? So I think what we bring to the table is because we have this knowledge of being on the ground and going through the ups and downs and the difficulties of what it is to be on set every day

• 39:34Speaker 04

  and try to make something great. Because we all set out to make something great and sometimes shit happens and it doesn't come out exactly how you envisioned it. You have to be in lockstep together as creative partners. So I think Mike and I try to approach it that way where we look at filmmakers as our partners. We all have the same end goal, to make something great and to get the biggest audience in the theater to see it. So I don't find it difficult. I actually find it invigorating.

• 40:02Will Arnett?

  Well, that's really funny, Pam. That's really funny because you often hear people, you do, in comments and stuff, saying, "These fucking people in Hollywood, and they just want to make shit movies." Like, nobody's trying, nobody sets out to make a shitty movie, by the way. Everybody's intentions are good.

• 40:17Jason Bateman?

  Right, right.

• 40:18Speaker 05

  And there's no blanket statement for Hollywood. Like, it's so, it's so different. You know, our friend Donna Langley at Universal is different than Tom Rothman at Sony. We do our thing at Warner's. Like, it's not a-

• 40:30Jason Bateman?

  Donna, another one from New Line that started out, not as an intern, right?

• 40:35Speaker 05

  No, we actually hired Donna. She was an assistant to a manager at the time. And she, you know, and-

• 40:44Speaker 05

  She and another executive, Mary Parent, who went on to do great things and is a

• 40:48Jason Bateman?

  My god.

• 40:49Speaker 05

  Running legendary for Josh Grode.

• 40:51Jason Bateman?

  It's a factory, yeah.

• 40:51Speaker 05

  New Line, it was a great kind of, you know, training ground for a lot of people in the 90s and you met Donna and you knew she was gonna run an empire someday. I mean, she was just born to do it.

• 41:01Jason Bateman?

  And has been in that position of leadership longer than anyone?

• 41:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:07Jason Bateman?

  Like ever, maybe?

• 41:08Speaker 05

  Through multiple regimes.

• 41:09Jason Bateman?

  Running Universal, it's just so incredible.

• 41:12Will Arnett?

  By the way, the New Line, the people who've come in and out of New Line, it's a pretty interesting slate of people now that I think about it. All the people, Brenner's still there with you, right?

• 41:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:19Will Arnett?

  And then you've got...

• 41:20Jason Bateman?

  Toby Emrick wasn't in there?

• 41:21Will Arnett?

  Obviously Toby.

• 41:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:23Will Arnett?

  And then you have our buddy, Ken Alterman, who is there, who we're still, Jason and I still play golf with. We love Ken Alterman.

• 41:31Speaker 05

  Oh, cool. Ken's great.

• 41:32Will Arnett?

  Love. Love Ken. And I'm just thinking like, wow, that was, what an interesting place that was for a lot of people who kind of, you know, learned their stuff there.

• 41:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, we were given, we were given the freedom to really run our projects and even though you're an executive, you almost behave like a producer at New Line at that, at that time. So we all learned a lot.

• 41:53Will Arnett?

  Interesting.

• 41:53Jason Bateman?

  And it really does seem like you guys are creating that or continuing that environment of trust and deference to a very specific filmmaker agenda, like something like Sinners, for example. Like, I have not seen it yet, but from what I've, what I've seen from the materials and heard from people, it's a very specific and exciting creative...

• 42:16Will Arnett?

  And their response is incredible.

• 42:18Jason Bateman?

  Leap. Oh, yeah.

• 42:18Speaker 04

  It is.

• 42:19Jason Bateman?

  People are just like crazy for it.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  We're so happy for Ryan.

• 42:22Jason Bateman?

  Selling popcorn and getting incredible reviews. So like, that's, that's the mother load right there, right?

• 42:28Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:28Jason Bateman?

  So, talk about how frightening that can be to, while you, as you say, Pam, you're a partner with the filmmaker, you're coming from a place of shared experience and you kind of know what they're going through and blah, blah, blah, but eventually, one has to just kind of close your eyes and jump in and just say, alright, Ryan, I guess what you're going for here, we're really not gonna be able to gauge until we're done. And so... We have to trust you, we have to wait till after principal photography, get through post, have all that music come in and the color timing and all that stuff to create this very finely cooked meal. That it looks like nothing coming out of the grocery store. You look at all the ingredients, like you don't know what you've got till it's cooked.

• 43:12Jason Bateman?

  And so you have to give him all of that runway. Is that really, really frightening or is it exciting or both?

• 43:18Will Arnett?

  And we'll be right back.

• 43:23Jason Bateman?

  Sorry, we gotta reload.

• 43:24Will Arnett?

  No, it is a good question. It is a good question. It was long, but it is a good question.

• 43:30Speaker 04

  I find it exciting. I have to be honest. I think, I think when you have that chemistry with a filmmaker, with a director, and when you're pushing and pulling on things, it's not like we're just sitting here saying, hey, go off and run in the field and make this movie. You know, we're all talking all the time through the script process, through the screening process.

• 43:51Jason Bateman?

  Where'd you get that from?

• 43:52Speaker 04

  Cause I don't know, it's just, you know.

• 43:53Speaker 05

  Running field.

• 43:54Speaker 04

  Go off and play it and play and play.

• 43:57Will Arnett?

  This is gonna be a new, people are gonna start to use this, by the way.

• 44:00Speaker 04

  Thanks, Will. Thanks for teasing me. Thanks, Will.

• 44:03Will Arnett?

  At Netflix meeting tomorrow, they're gonna be like, look, guys, we're not gonna be running in the field over here.

• 44:09Will Arnett?

  Cause Ted doesn't want us running.

• 44:11Speaker 04

  Exactly. You're gonna sell your next movie.

• 44:13Jason Bateman?

  Pam, I just wanna run in the field.

• 44:17Speaker 04

  Frolicking, you know, having a good time.

• 44:19Speaker 05

  It's gonna be the Variety headline tomorrow, like Pam Abbe of Warner Brothers advocates field running.

• 44:24Speaker 04

  By the way, by the way, the last six weeks I've been having, I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway.

• 44:30Will Arnett?

  No, no, no, guys. Warner Ankle's Field Running.

• 44:36Speaker 05

  But you know, Ryan, when you're dealing with, like Ryan comes to the table trailing, you know, like two billion in box office, like he, yes, you could call it IP, but he created the Creed franchise out of his head, you know, and he, Black Panther, you know, I'm a comic book fan, I'm a huge comic book collector still and geek fan, and I knew, I knew the Black Panther character. But it's not like that was one of the top 10 characters. Ryan, you know, created that franchise also, again, out of his mind. Obviously, under the brilliant Kevin Feige too, but, so when you're, when you're, when you're doing a film with Ryan Coogler, who has that pedigree. It is a little bit of a hedge against the unknown. I mean,

• 45:17Speaker 05

  greenlining movies at a studio is like being at a casino. You have a certain amount of money and you're placing bets and you're hoping more than work than don't work. But the only hedge against the unknown is sometimes you can point to someone's track record. You know, like when we hired David Fincher to do Seven, you know, I happened to thought, I thought Alien Three was a beautiful movie. It didn't, it didn't work as big as they wanted to commercially, but there was tremendous artistry. And of course, he had all his music, his music videos and his commercials.

• 45:44Sean Hayes?

  Amazing.

• 45:45Speaker 05

  You know, before that point, made hiring him for Seven very, very easy. We were lucky to have him. So when you can look at someone's pedigree, whether they're established, like Ryan, or a new voice coming up, like we just made a movie with this guy Zach Craigor, who did the movie Barbarian, and I think he's an amazing.

• 46:01Sean Hayes?

  I loved that movie.

• 46:02Speaker 05

  Wasn't that an amazing movie?

• 46:03Sean Hayes?

  Great, so good.

• 46:04Speaker 04

  It's great.

• 46:04Speaker 05

  Totally unique, surprising in the genre, innovative within the genre. You know, we were, we were lucky to get his next movie. When you can look at someone's previous work, also, another great horror movie that came out, Talk to Me, you know, by these two, two directors who started on a YouTube channel, Raka Raka, in Australia.

• 46:22Sean Hayes?

  Oh, wow.

• 46:22Speaker 05

  Where you can, where you can look at people's previous work, it gives you a little bit of a hedge against the unknown, and that helps us make that call sometimes.

• 46:28Will Arnett?

  There used to be that, that old adage, or that, that thing that people would say, that the studios are in the business of not making movies, right? Do you remember? No, is that true?

• 46:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I remember that. I remember when they used to say that.

• 46:39Sean Hayes?

  There was a period, right? Yeah, when studios were playing defense.

• 46:41Speaker 05

  There was a period when I was a non-writing producer, which is literally like Willy Loman, with scripts under your arm, like driving all over town, you know, pitching your, pitching your wares.

• 46:51Sean Hayes?

  That was just from somebody who just got, you get somebody passed on. They're like, yeah, studios are making a movie.

• 46:58Speaker 05

  Studios would almost be like, we dare you to make a movie. We dare you to get us to make a movie. And that, that, that I find not a helpful attitude.

• 47:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's not helpful. I also don't think you can declare, like that, I think that was like in the early 2000s, Will, when people, when like after the boom of the 90s and like where starting to shift and internet and all that stuff was happening and tech and everything. I, I just don't think you can declare any one thing, right? You can't say, this is the way So we shouldn't make these kinds of movies until until one works.

• 47:28Speaker 05

  Although when we lost DVDs, when DVDs went away, we did lose a safety net.

• 47:32Speaker 04

  We did.

• 47:32Speaker 05

  And you know, and streaming doesn't quite make up that gap. So it is, we are working without a net, you know. But I also think, like Pam said, that can be really exciting because it just, I think for the consumer, it means that the bar for quality really, really has to be high to get you to get out of your house and convert to being a ticket buyer.

• 47:49Will Arnett?

  And but people couldn't, they couldn't have predicted back then in the early 2000, what it was going to become. And I think that that sort of fear, so, so, you know, as you said, you lost DVDs. However, everybody was so nervous at the advent of the internet and social media. You remember the fear, you know, I remember the first, when MySpace took off and people were trying to green light movies for people who had a presence on MySpace and everybody's clamoring to be the... People were not able to predict what it would be in the same way that we can't now with things like AI, etc. And of course, we're going to look back in 10 years and say, my God, we were so foolish to spend so much time worried about X, Y, and Z.

• 48:28Speaker 05

  I agree.

• 48:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, totally.

• 48:30Will Arnett?

  Because there, there, obviously, something else will happen. People will want to watch stuff. People will want to enjoy stuff in some way and...

• 48:38Speaker 04

  And there is the, they want the communal experience, you know?

• 48:41Will Arnett?

  Right, of course.

• 48:42Speaker 04

  For certain kinds of films, they want to go and sit with their neighbors and go watch the movie and then go to a cafe afterwards or a bar and have a drink and talk about it.

• 48:51Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, and I get that being in a, being in a big, a big, dark room with a bunch of strangers, it's really fun to like get a, get a, get a shared experience.

• 48:58Speaker 05

  My twenties, those are my twenties in Chicago.

• 49:01Will Arnett?

  That was Berlin for me, that's Berlin. Twice a year, I allow myself twice a year.

• 49:09Jason Bateman?

  We'll be right back.

• 49:12Sean Hayes?

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• 51:59Sean Hayes?

  And back to the show.

• 52:03Jason Bateman?

  But to like, everybody be in the same room, all at the same time, get scared. I get why horror movies make so much money.

• 52:09Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 52:10Jason Bateman?

  Now, to think about, you know, crying next to a stranger, I get how maybe dramas, I'd rather maybe see that at home on a streamer, I get that. What I don't get is that there, there isn't the desire for a shared experience with laughter in a group of people, like, so, well, tell us what you guys think, what is your theory of why comedy is such a hard sell in theat- in movie theaters nowadays?

• 52:35Sean Hayes?

  I'm gonna jump in real quick with a super fast answer that you guys do. It's because comedy now, you can get on your phone in little tiny bites and you're fulfilled. And I, I think that has a bit to do with it.

• 52:46Will Arnett?

  Thanks, Sean.

• 52:46Sean Hayes?

  You're welcome. Guys, I gotta run, I gotta run.

• 52:49Jason Bateman?

  TikTok.

• 52:49Will Arnett?

  You're taking off?

• 52:50Jason Bateman?

  TikTok is killed it.

• 52:51Sean Hayes?

  I'm so sorry, I'll talk to you guys later.

• 52:53Speaker 05

  Sean Hayes, brought to you by Netflix.

• 52:58Sean Hayes?

  TikTok.

• 52:59Will Arnett?

  By the way, think about, people used to go to theaters to watch porns together. That's true.

• 53:04Sean Hayes?

  What do you mean, used to?

• 53:05Will Arnett?

  That's over now. Right, Sean, that's over now, right, Sean?

• 53:09Sean Hayes?

  Used to, yeah, yeah, yeah, still going.

• 53:11Speaker 05

  But I think com- I think, you know, a lot of, a lot of comedy has gone to live on streaming and, and TikTok in short, short form, however, I do think that theatrical audience is there. I thought Jen Lawrence's movie, No Hard Feelings, was a, was a good shot at it. And I do think-

• 53:27Jason Bateman?

  That's one for Tom. Tom got, right, was that Tom Rothman?

• 53:30Speaker 05

  Yes, Tom Rothman.

• 53:31Will Arnett?

  You're back.

• 53:31Jason Bateman?

  Hey, this guy.

• 53:33Speaker 05

  I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give Tom Rothman too. Anyone But You came out and, and worked theatrically.

• 53:38Will Arnett?

  Thank you, Mike, for showing Jason up. Jason, Tom is so mad at you. Two Tom movies. Tom is mad at you now.

• 53:44Sean Hayes?

  Also, comedy is different now. Comedy is different than when we grew up. It's, it's told in a different way and it's different.

• 53:51Speaker 05

  But I think if you had, you know, if you, if you had, we're, we're, we want to bring our radio comedy back, we want to bring romantic comedy back, but if you, I think, I do think if, I do think it's a case, if you build it, they will come. We just, so much of the talent, the new talent, has gone directly right into, you know, streaming. And TikTok and YouTube that we're just trying to steer them back to look, let's take a shot with an original script. Let's take a shot with it.

• 54:16Will Arnett?

  Well, we had Blum, we had Blum on here a while ago.

• 54:18Jason Bateman?

  Jason Blum, yeah.

• 54:19Will Arnett?

  Jason Blum, because he, yeah, Tracy knows because she heard it.

• 54:23Jason Bateman?

  Yes, okay.

• 54:24Will Arnett?

  And we had Blum on here because, because he basically forced us to have him on. And we love it, we love it, we love it, we love it. It's a joke. He was amazing. We love Jason too. Yeah, we love him. Couldn't love him more. But we did talk to him about the, because he was, you know, he's obviously the master of horror in, in horror. And he, he, I said, why can't we make a comedy? He said, you just can't make any money. And he was quite blunt about it.

• 54:53Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, we're gonna prove him wrong.

• 54:55Speaker 05

  I'm just suspicious of blanket statements like that because everybody says, so my career is forty, forty years now, since nineteen eighty-five.

• 55:02Jason Bateman?

  You look great, Mike.

• 55:03Speaker 05

  Every time someone says, thank you so much, I moisturize. I think every time someone says, this will never work again, and then something comes out and proves it wrong. I remember R-rated comedy was dead, and then American Pie came out, and suddenly everybody had to have an R-rated comedy. Hollywood can be such a pack animal sometimes, and I just am very suspicious of blanket statements.

• 55:25Will Arnett?

  And reactionary too, right?

• 55:26Speaker 04

  Yes, very.

• 55:27Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, one of the greatest things I ever heard is everybody wants to be the second person to say yes.

• 55:30Speaker 05

  That's a great, that's a great quote, yeah.

• 55:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, but it's more fun being first through the door.

• 55:35Jason Bateman?

  That's true.

• 55:36Will Arnett?

  Of course.

• 55:37Speaker 05

  You know, look, this could be famous last words, but Pam, for better or worse, Pam and I feel like you can't do this job if you're afraid of getting fired. You gotta be fearless in it, because if you, if you breed risk out of the, out of the system, then innovation dies and the customer moves on.

• 55:51Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 55:52Speaker 04

  And it also breeds a culture of people not wanting to pitch exciting new ideas. And just because it hasn't been done before, doesn't mean it's not gonna work.

• 56:00Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 56:01Speaker 04

  And I just think.

• 56:02Speaker 05

  You could do both. You could walk and shoot gum at the same time. You can mine your IP, your franchises, but you can also try to find that next generation of filmmakers that'll give you new franchises.

• 56:10Jason Bateman?

  Speaking of, speaking of IP, you know, you mentioned earlier you're a big comic book collector, Mike, and so, you know, one of the things you guys get to over. DC is DC and James Gunn and Peter Safran are in there. And tell us what you're excited about coming out of there.

• 56:25Speaker 05

  Well, we actually, we have to stipulate, DC reports directly to David Zaslove. We don't oversee it, but we were big supporters of Peter and James taking the job.

• 56:34Jason Bateman?

  Working concert with.

• 56:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, we agree that that label, you know, really could have, we thought, our advice when we were asked is, it doesn't need another career executive, it needs a storyteller in charge. We were really impressed with Pixar. They brought Pete Docter, who's a filmmaker in from the field, to be chief content officer and preside over their slate of movies. And I, James, you know, I've been, I used to chase James as a producer, you know, when he did Slither and started with his low budget movies. And he's really unique and I think DC is in great hands with the two of them. We've seen an early cut of Superman and I don't want to, I don't want to jump, I don't want to bury the lead.

• 57:17Speaker 05

  There's a lot of marketing about to roll out on the way to its release, but he really understood the assignment. His heart's in the right place, his aim is true, and we're really excited about their new version of DC.

• 57:28Sean Hayes?

  That's cool.

• 57:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, James is great.

• 57:29Jason Bateman?

  It's awesome for the whole studio though, too, because it allows for you to sort of cross promote and like, what is it, the rising tides? Will, what's the saying?

• 57:38Will Arnett?

  Well, all boats.

• 57:40Speaker 04

  All boats rise.

• 57:42Speaker 05

  What do you guys think about?

• 57:43Will Arnett?

  God, you're gonna love the real world at some point.

• 57:46Jason Bateman?

  I just knew I was gonna get it slightly wrong.

• 57:48Will Arnett?

  Honestly, it's really enjoyable.

• 57:49Speaker 05

  It's nice that you guys have each other's backs.

• 57:51Speaker 04

  I know, I love it.

• 57:53Speaker 05

  What do you guys think about, like, remember Quibi? When Quibi came out, which may have.

• 57:58Will Arnett?

  You promised to never bring up Quibi again. What are you doing?

• 58:01Speaker 05

  Wait.

• 58:02Will Arnett?

  Now we heard, Rothman, now you're hurting Jeffrey.

• 58:05Speaker 05

  I didn't say anything about it, I just said you remember it.

• 58:08Speaker 04

  I do remember it.

• 58:10Sean Hayes?

  Okay, and I just read an, I didn't read the whole thing. I read a blurb about that. That's coming back now like short, short little things, like short episodes that are two minutes long and they're really picking up and kids on social media are loving it. They want a whole season of like two minute episodes and 10, 10 two minute episodes or something that tell a story. What do you think about that? Is that true and are people, is that really picking up steam?

• 58:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I personally think, um, you know, YouTube and TikTok and, and some of the platforms are really about user generated content.

• 58:43Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 58:43Speaker 05

  And I think that, I think that, I think that's great. And I think some of the user generated content kind of will evolve into scripted content.

• 58:51Sean Hayes?

  I think so too, yeah.

• 58:52Speaker 05

  But, but in a, in a way, when Quibi debuted, I, I'm not an MBA. I, I'm not half as smart as, as a lot of the people involved in, who ran that company. And, and I would never, I would never say that I know better. I did think though, like YouTube kind of has that base covered even then in terms of, and, and, you know, I thought what, what people, what people really love about those platforms and short form content is that it's user generated.

• 59:20Sean Hayes?

  Right.

• 59:21Speaker 05

  There's no distributor involved. It's, it's the creator directly to their audience.

• 59:25Sean Hayes?

  That's right, and it's for those platforms.

• 59:27Speaker 05

  And I think that's kind of wonderful, yeah.

• 59:28Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 59:29Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I mean, it was, I, I actually do think that it was a sort of a valiant effort to try to do that and to, and to get into that space. But I think that you're right, and I think that it seems to be one of the, one of the mistakes that is consistently made is that people try to jump out of their lane. And there's nothing wrong with taking chances, but they, they, they say, well, we're, now we're going to do the thing, we're going to try to create this and then make it into a movie. Well, no, it is that, it shouldn't be that. It's like when they make the doc, you know, that documentary that everybody loved during the pandemic. Right. And then they go, let's make it into a movie. Well, they've already got the documentary.

• 1:00:03Sean Hayes?

  That's right.

• 1:00:03Will Arnett?

  We know the fucking story.

• 1:00:04Sean Hayes?

  I know.

• 1:00:04Will Arnett?

  Why are we doing that again?

• 1:00:05Sean Hayes?

  I think the same thing, yeah.

• 1:00:07Will Arnett?

  Well, then why have you never said that then? Why did I have to say it and then you can just agree? You don't get to co-author this.

• 1:00:15Speaker 05

  You're the second guy, the second guy in.

• 1:00:17Will Arnett?

  No, this isn't mine. You can agree with me and say, yeah, you're really smart, but you don't get to have any ownership of it.

• 1:00:23Jason Bateman?

  But wait a minute, I agree, but there are examples that where that has happened, but it worked where the documentary, I mean, the film of the documentary is actually engaging and thoughtful and successful and, you know.

• 1:00:34Speaker 05

  I mean, sometimes when we did Captain Phillips, I did that with Scott Rudin and Dana Brunnetti. The impetus was we were watching the news. You get a version of the story from the news, but, you know, we were thinking, gee, the news can't tell you what's being said inside that lifeboat or what the hijackers are saying to Captain Phillips. And when you can dramatize, because I did Moneyball, Captain Phillips, and Social Network, all based on true stories. And the neat thing about dramatizing true stories, whether you're adapting a documentary or working off a nonfiction book, is you can bring audiences dramatic structure, which are peaks and valleys and, you know, moments that you can't.

• 1:01:17Will Arnett?

  I'm the captain now.

• 1:01:19Speaker 05

  And that was an improv line, too, yeah.

• 1:01:21Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I'm the captain now. And by the way, I remember reading Moneyball, that was 2003.

• 1:01:27Jason Bateman?

  The great Michael Lewis.

• 1:01:28Will Arnett?

  When that book came out.

• 1:01:29Speaker 05

  The great Michael Lewis, absolutely.

• 1:01:30Will Arnett?

  The great Michael Lewis. I've read all his books. These guys have never read a book in their lives. And I read that book.

• 1:01:35Jason Bateman?

  My ears work.

• 1:01:36Speaker 05

  They read book reviews, though, I'm sure.

• 1:01:38Will Arnett?

  But I remember thinking at the time, when I heard that they were making Moneyball into a film, I thought, if you've read the book, you think, well, how the fuck are they going to do that, right?

• 1:01:47Jason Bateman?

  Or Social Network, like, I want to see a fucking movie about Facebook.

• 1:01:49Will Arnett?

  And it was incredible. I loved Moneyball, the film.

• 1:01:52Speaker 05

  We had the, I mean, Aaron Sorkin, who's one of the, if not the best working screenwriter, certainly one of the greats on Social Network, and he co-wrote Moneyball with Steve Zalian, who wrote Chinler's List. I mean, these are incredible screenwriters, and they were able to find the human story. Obviously, the, it's amazing, yeah, what they did.

• 1:02:11Will Arnett?

  Brilliant. If you've read the book, you realize how brilliant those screenplays are.

• 1:02:14Jason Bateman?

  But talk a little bit, if you don't think it's going to be a sleeping pill, like my questions are, is there an interesting story that Tracy might be interested to hear about how, when you do a true story? How do you put the words into the mouth of real people without getting sued? Like, how do you, how does Aaron Sorkin go off and say, "All right, now, you know, Mark Zuckerberg says this," and then he says that?

• 1:02:42Sean Hayes?

  Because it's a dramatization, it's not...

• 1:02:44Jason Bateman?

  I know, but you're using real people, so there's legal, uh, safe harbor you can get into.

• 1:02:48Speaker 05

  Basically, the way, not to get too boring about it, but basically, if you're not derogatory or defamatory, you know, you have dramatic license, certainly to make up dialogue. You also, we do a legal vetting of every screenplay based on a true story, and it goes through this vetting process of, are you on the right side of the derogatory and defamatory line?

• 1:03:07Jason Bateman?

  What's the risk we're running here?

• 1:03:08Speaker 05

  And can you back up things that you're alleging through documentation? On Social Network, we had the transcripts of the lawsuit that Ed Savarin brought against Zuckerberg, and if you remember the movie, that's kind of home base for Aaron, that trot, that law, that, those depositions in that lawsuit are kind of what he cuts back to as the story's being told, so he was on safe ground there. On Moneyball and Captain Phillips, we actually negotiated the life rights of each of the people, so we had sewn them up before the movies were shot.

• 1:03:40Jason Bateman?

  But then, does that give them the, does that give them the right to then look at the script and say, "No, I didn't say that, or I would never say that, take it out," or once you pay them?

• 1:03:48Will Arnett?

  No, not necessarily. They signed it away before it's written.

• 1:03:51Speaker 05

  No, of course, you don't want to, you try to, you know, be responsible, because you don't, you don't want people saying when the movie comes out, you know, going on a PR jihad, that, oh, that this was, this is rude, my reputation.

• 1:04:01Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 1:04:01Speaker 05

  Yeah. Moneyball was actually great, because we made our deal with Major League Baseball, and they were, they were the gatekeepers, and all we had to do was make sure Major League Baseball approved the script and approved the cut of the movie.

• 1:04:12Speaker 04

  It is helpful when you have the life rights of people, and you bring them into the tent, like, films just, I worked on World Trade Center, we had John and Will's rights on Aaron Brockovich, Aaron's rights on this film Freedom Riders years ago, of this teacher, Aaron Gruel, it was based on, you know, we had the kids involved, we changed the kids' names to protect them and their background, but it was so helpful to have that authenticity and to have that collaboration with the real people.

• 1:04:38Jason Bateman?

  But sometimes then your hands are tied, though, because it's... It's a true story. Maybe the ending isn't as movie-ish as you might want it to be. And then you have to deviate from the real story and create some weird ending.

• 1:04:48Will Arnett?

  Well, let's ask somebody who loves having their hands tied. Sean.

• 1:04:51Jason Bateman?

  Sean?

• 1:04:51Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, so I would prefer, I would prefer a twist.

• 1:04:54Will Arnett?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:04:56Jason Bateman?

  That's with the glow stick in your teeth?

• 1:04:58Will Arnett?

  He pays to have their hands tied.

• 1:05:02Jason Bateman?

  Well, before we let you guys go, can you talk a little bit about what you guys might be collectively or separately excited about that's coming out of Warner Brothers that the audience can be looking forward to? Who's, who's, you guys want to like separately say which is your?

• 1:05:20Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 1:05:20Jason Bateman?

  You can't say which is your favorite coming out, but like.

• 1:05:22Sean Hayes?

  That's like asking a parent, like, you know, his kid.

• 1:05:24Speaker 04

  They're all our babies.

• 1:05:26Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, I know.

• 1:05:26Sean Hayes?

  But what's, what's coming up next that you're excited about? You're excited about all of them. What's coming up?

• 1:05:30Speaker 05

  Well, look, this is, this, this is, this, you know, I'm a little biased about New Line because I started my career there. So it's just neat for me to have it back in my life. Final Destination 6 is a fantastic theatrical experience.

• 1:05:44Jason Bateman?

  That trailer looks amazing.

• 1:05:45Speaker 05

  It is so much fun.

• 1:05:46Jason Bateman?

  Incredible.

• 1:05:47Speaker 05

  It is so much fun. And then, and then we have Zach's movie Weapons, which is his follow-up to Barbarian, which is completely original.

• 1:05:54Jason Bateman?

  I can't wait to see that.

• 1:05:54Speaker 05

  And again, incredible audience response. And Paul Thomas Anderson has made a movie with DiCaprio. It's so of its moment. You even, I mean, we're gonna drop, that was a teaser. There's gonna be another trailer. It's so unique and so of the moment. I think that's gonna really blow people away. We have Brad Pitt's F1 movie.

• 1:06:16Jason Bateman?

  That looks incredible.

• 1:06:17Speaker 05

  Fun, big Jerry Bruckheimer, Joe Kaczynski production.

• 1:06:21Will Arnett?

  I'm there day one. Nobody's a bigger fan than Brad.

• 1:06:24Jason Bateman?

  Cool it, cool it, Will.

• 1:06:25Speaker 05

  It's Brad Pitt at his Brad Pittiest. It's so, it's just so, it's really, it's really amazing to watch in that movie. And then, you know, again, as a comic book geek, I'm really up for, I think, I cannot wait for this, for the world to see James's new Superman.

• 1:06:38Speaker 04

  I'm excited, so I'm excited for all of our slate. And we have Mortal Kombat as well, too, in the fall, which is super fun. And I'm really excited for some of the stuff we have in post. I mean, we started, we relaunched the animation division here.

• 1:06:51Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, Will, we launched Warner Animation to stand on the shoulders of Lego Movie and Lego Batman.

• 1:06:56Jason Bateman?

  Oh, Will, you're, I guess, not included in that, though, huh?

• 1:07:00Speaker 04

  No, we're gonna have you back.

• 1:07:01Will Arnett?

  Warner Animation Group is back, it's back? I think, I feel like I sunk you guys with Teen Titans Go to the Movies, which is actually a great movie, if you've ever seen it.

• 1:07:11Jason Bateman?

  What's it called?

• 1:07:13Will Arnett?

  It's a phenomenal movie.

• 1:07:14Jason Bateman?

  What's it called?

• 1:07:14Will Arnett?

  Teen Titans Go to the Movies is really...

• 1:07:16Speaker 05

  I love that movie, no, I love that film.

• 1:07:18Jason Bateman?

  I hear that's great.

• 1:07:19Will Arnett?

  And I convinced, you know, we worked with those writers, Aaron and Michael, are brilliant.

• 1:07:25Speaker 05

  They're brilliant, I agree, yeah. I think James and Peter are working on a live-action Teen Titans, but...

• 1:07:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think they are.

• 1:07:31Speaker 05

  And a new Teen Titans Go, I think, actually, too.

• 1:07:34Jason Bateman?

  Will, maybe you could read for that, you play pretty young.

• 1:07:37Will Arnett?

  It's a really...

• 1:07:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, we're really excited about the new animation label.

• 1:07:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, our first movie next year is Cat in the Hat with Hater as the cat.

• 1:07:44Speaker 05

  Bill Hater.

• 1:07:44Speaker 04

  So, really, really excited for that. And, um...

• 1:07:47Jason Bateman?

  I was in the origin.

• 1:07:48Speaker 05

  Like Jason Bateman, Bill Hater's a director that we hope to have making movies at the studio.

• 1:07:54Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, Bill's a great director, too.

• 1:07:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, we have Emerald Fennell's movie, Wuthering Heights, next year. We have Maggie Gyllenhaal's movie, The Bride, next year. So, we're really, we're really jazzed about, you know, the eclectic slate we're trying to build here with the existing IP and, you know, filmmaker-driven.

• 1:08:09Jason Bateman?

  It is really exciting that you guys are there and doing what you're doing and the way that you're doing it. And I'm so excited for you.

• 1:08:16Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 1:08:17Jason Bateman?

  The success, I don't know when this is gonna air, but, you know, Minecraft and Sinners, Double Barrel, you know, Blockbusters coming out of the gate this month. And so, just huge congratulations to you guys.

• 1:08:29Speaker 05

  Oh, Jack's the best, yeah. Look, man, it's the best, like, we love, when you love movies, it's the best job in the world. You know, we've been obsessed with movies since we were toddlers, and to be able to do this is...

• 1:08:39Speaker 04

  It's a dream.

• 1:08:40Speaker 05

  It's a dream come true.

• 1:08:41Jason Bateman?

  You can tell with the films you guys are giving your yeses to. So, please keep, keep doing that. And thank you very much for joining us today. You guys are...

• 1:08:49Speaker 04

  Thanks for having us.

• 1:08:50Speaker 05

  Oh, my God, thank you. What an honor, thank you guys so much. We love Smartless.

• 1:08:55Will Arnett?

  So great.

• 1:08:55Jason Bateman?

  Thank you.

• 1:08:56Speaker 04

  I know, we love it.

• 1:08:57Jason Bateman?

  Please, now, go back to your busy, your busy day in green light.

• 1:09:00Speaker 04

  No, this is the most fun we're gonna have today, so thank you for this.

• 1:09:04Jason Bateman?

  Thank you guys so much. Thank you guys.

• 1:09:06Will Arnett?

  Thanks guys.

• 1:09:07Jason Bateman?

  Bye, have a great day.

• 1:09:08Will Arnett?

  Bye bye bye.

• 1:09:08Jason Bateman?

  See you later.

• 1:09:11Jason Bateman?

  So guys, you know, I gotta mix it up a little bit. Yes, I was just gonna say.

• 1:09:16Will Arnett?

  I could've talked to them for a lot longer.

• 1:09:17Jason Bateman?

  Right?

• 1:09:18Sean Hayes?

  I was just gonna say, so interesting to talk to that kinda caliber of people on the show.

• 1:09:22Will Arnett?

  I know.

• 1:09:23Sean Hayes?

  We never get to talk to those people. We're always talking about them, or about studios, or about whatever.

• 1:09:27Jason Bateman?

  People who work for the studio, they are running the studio. They are in control of what America is seeing.

• 1:09:32Sean Hayes?

  We see, yeah. At Warner Brothers. Really fascinating.

• 1:09:34Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, and they've got such good taste, and usually those folks don't get hired to do such a corporately responsible job, and they manage to balance the two. I'm just, I'm really fascinated with how they're able to do both that.

• 1:09:48Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:49Will Arnett?

  God, you're so stupid.

• 1:09:51Jason Bateman?

  I'm so dumb. I know, it would be hard for me. You know, I can't do two things at once.

• 1:09:55Will Arnett?

  I couldn't do anything.

• 1:09:55Jason Bateman?

  You see me try to chew gum?

• 1:09:56Will Arnett?

  I always say, I always go like, imagine if I was in charge. You think we'd have bridges and roads? There would be nothing. We'd all be huddled under a tree if I had been in charge. Do you know what I mean?

• 1:10:07Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, how do you think you would do at running a studio, Will?

• 1:10:09Will Arnett?

  I would be terrible. I'd run into the ground, one week.

• 1:10:12Jason Bateman?

  What about you, Shawnee?

• 1:10:13Sean Hayes?

  I would love it.

• 1:10:14Jason Bateman?

  I think I would really love it too. I don't think I'd be any good at it, but I would love it just for, just for a week to be on the buying side, right?

• 1:10:20Sean Hayes?

  I think, I think I could do it.

• 1:10:22Jason Bateman?

  Get to sit there and just say, yes, tell me.

• 1:10:24Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, and I think it'd be super fun, and like they said.

• 1:10:28Will Arnett?

  I think you'd both be horrible. You'd drive everybody who worked for you crazy. Everybody'd hate you both. Knowing you both as well as I do, everybody who'd worked there would fucking hate the hell out of you.

• 1:10:37Jason Bateman?

  Snacks, snacks would be so good.

• 1:10:38Will Arnett?

  And they wouldn't be able to tell you. Neither of you are self-aware in any real way, you know what I mean?

• 1:10:42Sean Hayes?

  We'd have a gummy.

• 1:10:42Jason Bateman?

  Oh yeah, a gummy, a gummy closet, a chips closet.

• 1:10:46Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, but you know what?

• 1:10:48Jason Bateman?

  Chocolate closet.

• 1:10:49Will Arnett?

  Talking about the snacks.

• 1:10:50Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:52Sean Hayes?

  No, wait, I got one.

• 1:10:53Jason Bateman?

  Oh, here he comes.

• 1:10:54Sean Hayes?

  You know, but, but the biggest movie that they did was so great. What was it, last year? What was it, about the Hasbro, the doll? What was it? Bar?

• 1:11:03Jason Bateman?

  No, it's not Bee. It's not Bye. So you can't use it.

• 1:11:07Will Arnett?

  It's lazy.

• 1:11:08Jason Bateman?

  No, try another title that's got Bye in it.

• 1:11:11Will Arnett?

  If you wanna find a word that, that does-

• 1:11:13Jason Bateman?

  Barby would have been great.

• 1:11:14Will Arnett?

  Why don't you just go and look up and use some help from a by?

• 1:11:18Jason Bateman?

  No, no, not there either.

• 1:11:20Will Arnett?

  No, that's not a word either.

• 1:11:22Sean Hayes?

  Barby would have been great.

• 1:11:24Jason Bateman?

  Um, let's see here.

• 1:11:25Will Arnett?

  Barby?

• 1:11:26Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, Barbie. Yeah, Barb, Barbby. That would have been great. Okay, you know what? I just check with the judges, they will allow.

• 1:11:35Will Arnett?

  You know what? Hang on, I'm gonna look at a word and you two, I'm gonna put both of you on standby. Bye.

• 1:11:41Jason Bateman?

  Very good. Bye.

• 1:11:45Will Arnett?

  Now that's a bye.

• 1:11:59Will Arnett?

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• 1:12:16Sean Hayes?

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• 1:12:57Speaker 06

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