Warner Bros History In 30 Minutes and What Screenwriters Can Learn | Kinolime Podcast Ep 45
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Hosted byDanny Murray, John Schramm
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c71Twfc9p5Yhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/c71Twfc9p5Y
Show Notes
Eulogy for a Titan: The History, Legacy, and Fate of Warner Bros.
🎙️ Episode Overview
The Threat of Media Consolidation: Danny breaks down the corporate reality of the Ellison/Skydance era, warning of a potential shift away from bold, auteur-driven cinema toward safe, hyper-commercialized, tech-bro IP (like Call of Duty: The Movie) and AI integration.
The Ultimate Working Man's Art Form: John shares a hilarious personal story about discovering his color blindness in kindergarten, paving the way for a deep dive into how movies help regular people escape reality and explore the human condition.
🎬 A Century of Gritty, High-Stakes History
The Hustler Beginnings: How Warner Bros. was built from the ground up by gritty, Polish-Jewish immigrant brothers from Youngstown, Ohio, who cut their teeth running early family Nickelodeons.
Brave, Anti-Nazi Activism: Long before corporate safe bets took over, the studio risked everything to challenge global regimes, releasing films like 1939’s Confessions of a Nazi Spy, which Adolf Hitler actively tried to ban.
The Golden Eras & Crisis Points: A look back at how the studio thrived on creative risks during the collapse of the old studio system in the 50s and the New Hollywood revolution of the 70s—proving that prestige and artistic freedom always beat the corporate bottom line.
🏆 5 Game-Changing Pivots in Cinema History
The Jazz Singer (1927): The legendary breakthrough that completely killed off the silent film era and launched the age of the "talkies."
Casablanca (1942): The ultimate template for character-driven romantic drama set against the backdrop of global geopolitical chaos.
The Exorcist (1973): A profound masterpiece that effortlessly bridged the gap between pure visceral horror and philosophical themes of faith and doubt.
Goodfellas (1990): Martin Scorsese’s revolutionary epic that threw out the rulebook by using brilliant, fourth-wall-breaking voiceover narration as a structural engine.
The Dark Knight (2008): Christopher and Jonathan Nolan's legendary blockbusting milestone that elevated superhero cinema into an intellectual, Shakespearean crime epic.
✍️ 10 Essential Warner Bros. Screenplays Every Writer Must Read
The Masters of Noir & Suspense: Deep-dive recommendations for immaculate detective writing, including The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown.
Atmosphere & Structural Feats: Why screenwriters need to study the structural shifts in The Matrix, the atmospheric world-building of Blade Runner, and the conversational genius of Richard Linklater's Blue Moon.
The Ultimate Bonus List: John adds a stellar line-up of unmissable screenplays to the list, championing Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Departed.
Tune in to this week's episode as John and Danny celebrate a legendary Hollywood legacy, challenge the new regime to take original creative risks, and plead to keep the artistic spirit of cinema alive!
Key Takeaways:
- Swan Song for the Greatest Studio: Hosts John Schramm and Danny Murray deliver a passionate "eulogy" to Warner Bros. following its massive sweep at the Oscars (One Battle After Another, Sinners) and ahead of its looming merger with Paramount under David Ellison ("Parabros").
Full Transcript
[00:00]
Warner Walsh's identity, which was like, imagine it's losing identity again.
[00:04]
I mean, they'll keep the name Warner Brothers, but what if they, you know,
[00:07]
change it to like, Ellison's, Tech Bro productions or something?
[00:11]
They're gonna be making, you know, Call of Duty the movie, you know?
[00:15]
That's what we got coming down the pipe.
[00:17]
No more of anything.
[00:18]
And we're gonna make a new movie every day.
[00:20]
300 movies a year.
[00:22]
Thanks to Larry and David.
[00:30]
Well, hello.
[00:37]
Welcome to the key line pipe.
[00:38]
I don't know why I did that, too.
[00:39]
But anyway, welcome today's St. Patty's Day.
[00:42]
I didn't even know I was wearing green.
[00:44]
We both didn't know.
[00:45]
You didn't know you were green, either?
[00:46]
I had no idea it was St. Patty's Day.
[00:48]
Wow.
[00:49]
I don't keep you.
[00:50]
You're wearing green, that's great.
[00:51]
I'm colorblind, everyone at home.
[00:53]
So I didn't know.
[00:54]
I don't believe that.
[00:55]
I played Uno with you before.
[00:56]
Yeah, that's a lot.
[00:57]
You've won.
[00:58]
That is a lie.
[00:59]
I have a very funny story how I found out I was colorblind
[01:01]
when I was in kindergarten.
[01:02]
We played colored bingo, like square purple.
[01:05]
This that.
[01:06]
So I would never win.
[01:07]
One day I win, right?
[01:08]
I'm like, I got them all the shapes, circle, yellow.
[01:10]
I get a fair, I go to my teacher.
[01:12]
And I'm like, I'm so happy.
[01:13]
I'm like, look, I want to watch.
[01:14]
It's like, John, you got everyone wrong.
[01:16]
And that's how I knew I was colorblind.
[01:17]
So funny story.
[01:19]
So today, well, this, we're post-oscurs.
[01:22]
We got a lot going on today.
[01:24]
But we had a really fun idea for a podcast actually.
[01:26]
There's Danny's idea about what we're
[01:29]
going to talk about today, which is Danny's favorite topic.
[01:31]
It's always about mergers and takeovers.
[01:33]
Media consolidation.
[01:36]
And we were talking about Warner Brothers, which
[01:39]
is selling to Paramount.
[01:41]
And it's going to go by by.
[01:42]
Parabros.
[01:43]
Parabros.
[01:44]
And.
[01:45]
But the history of Warner Brothers is incredible.
[01:48]
So we're going to talk a little bit about the history.
[01:50]
This is a Danny Colter Swan song.
[01:51]
I'm calling it eulogy to the greatest studio ever, I'd
[01:56]
say.
[01:57]
No question.
[01:57]
I mean, hopefully it's not going to change with D for everybody
[02:00]
at home, update us on the current situation
[02:03]
with Warner Brothers.
[02:05]
Yeah, Paramount.
[02:06]
I think we can start on Sunday, right?
[02:09]
Again, all these great original films from Warner
[02:12]
almost swept the Oscars, right?
[02:15]
One battle, my thaves, centers, weapons.
[02:19]
Again, just clean house.
[02:21]
Again, they have the best studio execs in the business
[02:24]
at any major studio.
[02:27]
And in a way, as I was watching all of these great original
[02:32]
film, everything we want, bold original films, big budgets,
[02:36]
a tour driven, amazing stuff.
[02:39]
I just kept thinking there's almost no way
[02:42]
this same team will be here in a year if this goes through.
[02:45]
And again, there's still a lot of steps
[02:46]
before this merger is actually completed.
[02:48]
There's EU regulation.
[02:50]
The FCC is going to be quick.
[02:51]
But states are going to try to block it where they can.
[02:54]
But realistically, it's going to be.
[02:55]
And then it goes through.
[02:57]
We say it goes through, again, David Ellison from Paramount.
[03:02]
Again, he went to the lot.
[03:04]
And it was tense.
[03:06]
It's so weird.
[03:06]
It's very clear he is probably going to clean house
[03:09]
in this creative team.
[03:10]
The kind of creative mandates they have are going to change
[03:14]
from what we're hearing.
[03:15]
There's going to be less movies that
[03:16]
is going to be more IP driven, safer bets.
[03:21]
The type of things that anyone that would be watching
[03:23]
something like this, your ears probably bleeding.
[03:27]
But yeah, so again, everything is great.
[03:30]
Yeah, we again, we're at a really weird impasse.
[03:33]
I was thinking a lot about where the business stands
[03:37]
and the history of it, the history of Warner.
[03:40]
And it's probably something closer to the 1940s and 1950s,
[03:44]
where there's a lot of upheaval.
[03:46]
There is this new kind of medium.
[03:49]
I think what a YouTube is doing, a meta,
[03:51]
social media and YouTube.
[03:54]
What it's doing to the business, it's probably the biggest
[03:56]
cataclysmic change since television.
[03:59]
And a lot of ways probably bigger, because again,
[04:02]
it's a different distribution model.
[04:04]
And it also just has a bigger market share than movies.
[04:09]
So we don't really know where we're going.
[04:12]
But we're going to look back to try to find out
[04:14]
where we're going to look back.
[04:15]
And there's some great books out there.
[04:17]
I highly recommend.
[04:18]
It's called The Warner Brothers.
[04:20]
It's a book.
[04:22]
I would recommend reading that based on
[04:23]
if you're interested in history of Warner's.
[04:25]
But look, it was started by some Polish immigrants.
[04:28]
They were Polish Jewish immigrants.
[04:30]
And they were, I think, from Junkson, Ohio.
[04:33]
And Jack Warner, I think we talk about how we get to,
[04:35]
Fist of Cuffs and Fights growing up.
[04:36]
They're like hustlers.
[04:37]
And that sort of upbringing influenced,
[04:40]
you could see later on, the gangster films,
[04:42]
the gritty films.
[04:44]
And that was, that's like essentially their mold.
[04:48]
And they started at the bottom.
[04:49]
They were doing like two real Nickelodeon shows back in the day.
[04:54]
And that's how they learned the business by operating
[04:57]
in these sort of, they called them the Nickelodeon,
[04:59]
which is not the TV station that we know today
[05:02]
is a little bit different.
[05:03]
But that's how they learned every part of the business
[05:06]
from the ground up.
[05:07]
And then that's like how they kind of started their company.
[05:11]
And then they started to make some swings.
[05:13]
And they had a big headline hit in the 19, I think it's 1918.
[05:18]
Well, it's a called, oh, my four years in Germany.
[05:20]
And this was based on a recent political book, right?
[05:22]
So that got them to be headline movies.
[05:23]
They were doing things that were sort of political and pushing it.
[05:26]
I mean, it turned out 1918.
[05:29]
But the real change happened with Warner's
[05:31]
when they introduced, they went from Turkey,
[05:34]
sorry, to Turkey with the jazz singer.
[05:36]
And that like, I mean, we wouldn't be where we are today
[05:40]
if this didn't happen.
[05:42]
We'd be looking at each other and there'd be like a sign
[05:44]
of us our dialogue in the subject.
[05:47]
Which would be great.
[05:48]
I do.
[05:49]
I do have a switch.
[05:50]
That was the case where we went like blah, blah, blah, blah,
[05:51]
blah with our mouths.
[05:52]
And then a little dialogue line would pop up.
[05:54]
But also, that'd be way better.
[05:55]
We should try that.
[05:56]
The sides transitioning from the silent era to the talkies,
[06:18]
they also took care of the silent actors.
[06:22]
They were like, keep the amount of payroll.
[06:24]
They tried to help them out.
[06:24]
They surprisingly had a hard goal.
[06:27]
And then we're going to go into the history of Warner further.
[06:29]
But that's kind of like their foundation,
[06:32]
to give a little bit of sense of who the Warner brothers were
[06:36]
from an ideological standpoint.
[06:38]
But they just had a going through this history.
[06:42]
I was looking at the movies which you're going to get into
[06:44]
and have a fun time chat about.
[06:46]
This is the greatest movie studio ever.
[06:48]
It is.
[06:49]
And it's why they're always so coveted.
[06:52]
Again, they've been bought and merged seven times since the 60s.
[06:57]
And in large part, like you see it in David Sous-Love,
[07:00]
who led the last merger with Discovery,
[07:03]
he sits behind Jack Warner's desk.
[07:05]
Like he really relishes, as most of the previous people
[07:09]
that have acquired them have, in the legacy of the studio.
[07:13]
Something that, and again, it's why this feels a bit different
[07:17]
just because of the technological aspect of Oracle
[07:21]
and the Ellisons.
[07:22]
But in general, there probably has never
[07:25]
been a worst business decision anyone's ever made,
[07:29]
then deciding to acquire Warner Brothers.
[07:32]
The history of these acquisitions is what John's saying.
[07:36]
It's people that look back at this miraculous film legacy.
[07:40]
And like the entrepreneurial spirit, that kind of created
[07:43]
so much of our culture.
[07:45]
And everyone sees it as kind of like that last missing piece,
[07:48]
whether that's AT&T, whether that was time,
[07:50]
whether that's Discovery.
[07:52]
And every time, it usually very quickly fails.
[07:55]
Yeah, it does.
[07:57]
And it's a shame.
[07:58]
I mean, it cussed up the history of Warner's and how,
[08:02]
you know, look, it's like kind of how, why, typically,
[08:06]
you know, wealthy,
[08:08]
heirs don't, can't, oh, surpass their parents, right?
[08:12]
Or father, or whoever, that was successful.
[08:13]
Because it's like hard to be in the shadow, right?
[08:15]
And you now have Warner's with this legacy that, you know,
[08:18]
that they like, will they, will they take care of the legacy?
[08:21]
I mean, the Warner's had the look.
[08:23]
I mean, when the Warner Brothers and Jack,
[08:25]
they, and the future presidents,
[08:27]
they wanted to preserve the war, like they were really into
[08:30]
what it meant to be a Warner Brothers movie, right?
[08:32]
It was dark.
[08:33]
It was gritty.
[08:34]
They used contrast shadows.
[08:35]
Like that was their big thing.
[08:36]
And like they also took a huge stance as like,
[08:38]
I think there was a film in like 1939 from when I read,
[08:41]
it was like, confessions of a Nazi spy that like Hitler tried to ban
[08:46]
because it was, it was, they were the most like anti-Nazi studio
[08:48]
out there.
[08:49]
They were taking risks with their studio,
[08:51]
which you would never see today, most likely from a large student
[08:55]
worried about the bottom line.
[08:56]
They didn't care.
[08:57]
They were trying to like stop Naziism, which was a good thing.
[09:01]
And then you'll see later in the years, like them taking some real risks
[09:04]
in like the, the 70s revolution of cinema, et cetera.
[09:08]
So I want to get into it.
[09:10]
Let's talk more about Warner Brothers and their history.
[09:13]
But we're going to go early.
[09:15]
We're going to start, you know, I got a little piece of paper here.
[09:20]
We'll get to the 30s.
[09:21]
We'll go past post-Jass singer.
[09:23]
How does that sound?
[09:24]
So it sounds great.
[09:25]
It sounds great.
[09:26]
For what the talkies happen.
[09:27]
For everyone at home, we want to get you involved.
[09:29]
We're going to list a ton of movies, right?
[09:31]
So like, there is a litany, I mean, like pages of great films.
[09:34]
So if we miss anything, don't crucify us.
[09:37]
Go to our website, you know, go to the comments, hit us up.
[09:40]
Like let us know what we've missed some of the great films.
[09:42]
I can't get it all.
[09:43]
But I want to hear some of your films.
[09:44]
You want to hear what do you think the greatest films were?
[09:47]
We can go by decade.
[09:48]
We can go by your favorite person.
[09:49]
We'll love that.
[09:50]
So start with the 30s and 40s.
[09:51]
So this is where like the identity was born.
[09:53]
This is where Casa Blanca, the Maltese Falcon, Yankee Dutelani.
[09:58]
Like this was the defining films of those errors.
[10:01]
Like I don't know.
[10:02]
Do you have a favorite from the 30s and 40s that come to mind?
[10:05]
Yeah.
[10:06]
I mean, a lot of like the, you know, for me, I think a lot about Howard Hawks.
[10:11]
There's something I just enjoy so much about the kind of 30s carry grant movies.
[10:16]
I think bringing up baby I'm pretty sure was Warner.
[10:19]
Yeah.
[10:20]
Don't drama studio, right?
[10:21]
This is like what was starting then.
[10:23]
Yeah.
[10:24]
And it's like, you know, it's just these kind of oddball, really snappy comedies that,
[10:29]
yeah.
[10:30]
Okay.
[10:31]
It is in a small way like a departure from what you would imagine.
[10:34]
Because again, like they have these kind of hard gritty dramas.
[10:38]
But again, the beauty of Warner Brothers is like, again, they kind of encompass most
[10:44]
of like there's not a corner of the American landscape that you can't find a great Warner
[10:50]
Brothers movie in in the 30s.
[10:53]
Like they had Howard Hawks who again, like he wasn't inherently political in a way a lot
[10:59]
of other filmmakers were.
[11:01]
But his dialogue so snappy, all of his movies just again, it's just like this
[11:07]
warm kind of spirit and all of them that you would be hard pressed to find in a lot
[11:13]
of other studio comedies.
[11:14]
And I love that you brought the comedy.
[11:16]
But when I think Warner's did so well that era was these sort of like in a way like we
[11:21]
say now so much, they're gritty, the gritty, gritty fumple.
[11:23]
But they really were gritty for this, this era.
[11:25]
Yeah, totally.
[11:26]
Like they really were, they were crushing the New War genre.
[11:28]
Like they knew how to make these sort of adult driven films that like no studio at the
[11:33]
time kind of was making.
[11:34]
Like they were like edgy, they were pushing it.
[11:37]
Like for like the 30s and 40s when all you think of flappers and people just like enjoying
[11:42]
life before a massive war was going to roll in.
[11:45]
There's second one in 20 years.
[11:49]
But they were no for sharp dialogue, like the cynical characters, it was like crime stories.
[11:53]
Like that's the thing of like that era in terms of like the crime story along with the
[11:57]
comedies.
[11:58]
But then we now we go to this, this is the next section of the 50s to 60s.
[12:01]
This is what I like to think is the transitional era.
[12:03]
This is where they made their great.
[12:06]
This might be my favorite decade.
[12:07]
You know, you have North by Northwest.
[12:09]
I'm going to listen.
[12:10]
The searchers, a streetcar name is I rebel without a cause.
[12:13]
Like this, this was like the era where you're seeing them start to own their identity and
[12:18]
really work with filmmakers and like again, these are some of the greatest films ever that
[12:22]
Warner's made.
[12:23]
Yeah, I mean like is there one that kind of sticks with you?
[12:29]
Because it's again, it's like a kind of like second golden age of of Hollywood.
[12:34]
Yeah, this is like before.
[12:35]
Yeah, this is probably like their golden age.
[12:37]
I mean, this, like for me like a streetcar name desire, right?
[12:40]
Though North by Northwest, like where the my two gems of this era, because I think
[12:45]
you see the emergence of Marlon Brando and taking like a Tennessee Williams play, putting
[12:50]
it on screen, seeing one of the greatest actors ever like own that.
[12:54]
And then you see North by Northwest, arguably Hitchcock's best film.
[12:59]
I don't think it's his best, but some people will argue that.
[13:02]
And like what that did for cinema at the time, you know, the searchers, like who does
[13:08]
it love John Wayne and you know, greedy Western.
[13:13]
But there was just don't they, you should see how their stories are kind of all over the
[13:17]
map.
[13:18]
Yeah, and it's something that's again, like the 50s for the studios were kind of like this
[13:23]
big crisis point right where TV again, it's the emergence of television and like pretty
[13:30]
much every person that talks about movies now, it's like there's so much uncertainty
[13:33]
of like how will we kind of move past this massive new calamity hitting the market?
[13:39]
Like what you kind of see with Warner's like the films you're talking about are wide and
[13:45]
big.
[13:46]
And I'm not totally sure if you would argue that solely because of television, but you
[13:52]
could tell like these are big movies that like we always talk about now, like we need big
[13:59]
movies that you cannot just see on a small screen.
[14:03]
Right.
[14:04]
You need something that really shows the soul and spirit of the theater.
[14:08]
And like the old system was kind of collapsing at this point.
[14:10]
It was a transition period.
[14:13]
So what Warner's was doing, they were backing these bold choices and voices.
[14:16]
So now we're moving into like 2000, want to space out of sea, a bonding cli cool hand
[14:20]
Luke, bullet, the wild bunch, which is one of my favorite movies ever.
[14:25]
It just was, it just was a risk taking venture.
[14:28]
But then something sad happened in 1967, they sold the company to seven arts, I believe,
[14:35]
which was a parking lot company.
[14:37]
So the great Warner brothers, this Titan of filmmaking sold to the seven lots company.
[14:43]
And for two years, I believe 67 to 69, they were known as seven arts studios.
[14:49]
And but in that run, they made like tremendous films like coincidentally, which is because
[14:53]
of the timing, but Warner lost its identity, which was like, imagine, it's losing identity
[14:59]
again.
[15:00]
I mean, they'll keep the name Warner brothers, but what if they, you know, change it to
[15:03]
like Ellison's tech bro productions or something, you know what I mean?
[15:07]
Yeah, that's pretty much what it will be.
[15:11]
They're going to be making, you know, farewell the searchers like, call a duty of the movie.
[15:16]
You know, that's what we got coming down the pipe.
[15:18]
And then later in 1969, it sold to the Kinney national company, which they eventually
[15:23]
turned on Warner communications.
[15:24]
So like, it's just crazy that the biggest studio, maybe at the time, like would not only
[15:30]
just sell, but then change its name and then lose its identity.
[15:33]
Like that's kind of sad to me, if you think about it.
[15:35]
Yeah, again, it's, it's fascinating because like the history of media mergers almost
[15:41]
never works well.
[15:42]
Yeah.
[15:43]
But again, it kind of comes down to like, what is actually so kind of specific and fascinating
[15:49]
about Warner, which is like, again, it is a company that runs off of prestige.
[15:54]
It acquires talent from prestige.
[15:56]
It's why like there's very few people that if you're a filmmaker, will sell your film
[16:01]
to Netflix when you can get it instead on HBO if it's a TV show or you can get it in theaters
[16:08]
with Warner.
[16:09]
But there is like a psychological element of what this company is and what's kind of always
[16:15]
been a pursuit of that just since the dawn of, well, I guess since the 60s has just kind
[16:21]
of forced people to always be looking for it.
[16:24]
No matter how much debt it will saddle with no matter how many companies they'll have
[16:29]
to spin on.
[16:30]
Get this guy going on merger talk.
[16:31]
Look at him run.
[16:32]
Yeah, but it's sad.
[16:33]
It's part of life.
[16:34]
It is what it is.
[16:35]
We're going to have one studio in like 10 years, just one.
[16:39]
Pretty much.
[16:40]
Yeah.
[16:41]
Interesting is after the 60s is when these like this is the the all-tore era of Warner
[16:48]
Brothers.
[16:49]
This is where again, exorcist dog day, the OG Superman, one flew over the Cougars and that's
[16:55]
all the presidents men.
[16:56]
This was where like they were taking risks with filmmakers.
[16:59]
This was like obviously it was the golden age or Renaissance of like New Hollywood.
[17:04]
Yeah, New Hollywood.
[17:05]
But man, when they making some of like the best movies ever in the 70s, like really risk
[17:10]
taking stuff.
[17:11]
Let's go pull up a list of the 70s.
[17:13]
I want to see what you like.
[17:14]
What it is in large parts, what blazing saddles, the Kubrick stuff, fucking godfought, you
[17:19]
know, it's a.
[17:21]
And this is where the studio became known as like it's serious filmmaking.
[17:26]
You're starting to see the identity of Warner's kind of like hone in now.
[17:30]
We talk about this screen running all the time.
[17:31]
Like around your midpoint, you want to start zeroing in on your plot, your character.
[17:36]
Like they're their motivation, their goal, their want is starting to become a little bit
[17:39]
more defined and finite.
[17:42]
And we see Warner Brothers here like having a vision, like what the studio is going to
[17:46]
be.
[17:47]
And that image is going to take it up until pretty much yesterday.
[17:51]
I think as you kind of look through the history of Warner, what it really is is like it's
[17:57]
routinely just like the history of like where they're for the most part, the best talent
[18:02]
goes.
[18:03]
Yeah.
[18:04]
Right.
[18:05]
It's why it's so fascinating as a company because again, we could look at specific
[18:09]
studio heads.
[18:11]
We can look at the history of the company itself.
[18:14]
But what it really is, it's like this is where, you know, the best filmmakers go to make
[18:18]
their stuff.
[18:19]
Yeah.
[18:20]
And then those filmmakers in the 80s, you know, we're going to blunt the 80s and 90s.
[18:23]
There's full metal jacket.
[18:24]
There's blade runner in the 80s.
[18:25]
They made it a slew more.
[18:27]
But the 90s is like another decade that like just was popping off.
[18:30]
I mean, you're talking good fellows.
[18:32]
The Matrix.
[18:33]
I'm going to throw this in there.
[18:34]
Dumb and Dumber.
[18:35]
Shawshank Redemption.
[18:36]
Friday.
[18:37]
The Mask.
[18:38]
Austin Powers.
[18:39]
You're seeing, culturally, the great films of the 90s still coming out of Warner's.
[18:46]
Yeah.
[18:47]
And at this point.
[18:48]
And all over the place, you go from Austin Powers, which was the biggest comedy, I think,
[18:51]
probably of the 90s.
[18:52]
And then unforgiving, which is one of my favorite westerns ever that redefined the western
[18:56]
genre.
[18:57]
Like how can you take those risks?
[18:59]
You know, we see now all the time, studios have a mandate, right?
[19:03]
They're going to do these certain IPs.
[19:04]
They're going to have this vision.
[19:06]
You see what an A24 movie looks and feels like.
[19:09]
But this is a studio that's like swinging all over the place.
[19:12]
Yeah.
[19:13]
I mean, again, from Friday to the Matrix, like that's insane.
[19:18]
Yeah.
[19:19]
Like in terms of taste and eclectic, you know, the chances, like I just find that incredible.
[19:25]
Yeah.
[19:26]
And it's why I think like Pam Abdy and Mike DeLuca are so awesome as like the studios
[19:30]
X is like all of what is like really cool about Warner's history, right?
[19:34]
Like again, making these kind of political thrillers that other people won't touch, investing
[19:39]
in our tours.
[19:41]
And again, just big wide releases for movies that a lot of people can't believe got made.
[19:47]
It's what made this Oscar so cool was because it almost felt like a perfect amalgamation
[19:51]
of like everything that the studio can be.
[19:55]
Yeah.
[19:56]
And yeah, like at this kind of perfect apex point, it's all going to go away.
[20:02]
So what also I love about Warner's was their logo introductions to the movies.
[20:08]
Like I don't, so I remember like Warner Brothers when I was a kid, I think it was like tiny
[20:12]
tunes.
[20:13]
They had the Warner Brothers and then they would bust through the WB like the WB.
[20:18]
That was like a bit and you were not alive then, but the DIPers, but the WB was like
[20:23]
that we were like the cool after school cartoons were.
[20:25]
And then they, and then I just remember the Matrix logo with the WB and it was like the
[20:29]
wave of like the Matrix, like they, and then Dark Knight which we'll get into like I
[20:34]
loved how they took a logo introduction and made it something like you're waiting for.
[20:40]
It's almost like 21st century, right?
[20:42]
Like with the opening of Star Wars, you know, or Fox, but they made it so they evolved
[20:48]
that through the years and we're going to put up all the great logos of the decades
[20:52]
from Warner Brothers which I researched.
[20:53]
And I want to know your favorites as well, which is your favorite logo.
[20:56]
I like the WB from the 70s.
[21:00]
You're not seeing it because it's invisible, but when you go take a look, there's some
[21:02]
great logos there and I think that's like also fascinating that they really were all
[21:06]
about their, their image and design and like what, what Warner Brothers movie would feel
[21:10]
like?
[21:11]
Moving into the 2000s era and then we'll kind of stop there because of the 2010s and I
[21:15]
mean we know all the great films over the last decade, but key films from the 2000s Harry
[21:20]
Potter, Dark Knight which you hate, the Hangover Oceans 11, the Departed, Pans Labyrinth,
[21:24]
Best in Show which I love, Letters of View, GMAT and a lot of it's even on there, a history
[21:29]
of violence, Mystic River.
[21:30]
Like again, when I think of Mystic River, I think of the WB logo.
[21:32]
Like they were making these great, greedy films again, giving filmmakers the chance to
[21:36]
spread their wings and tell their stories.
[21:38]
Yeah, and again, it's like that specific era is also where like so many of these massive
[21:44]
kind of like all this massive IP, you know, kind of take center stage like again, but
[21:51]
the reason why this company sold for $110 billion if you really look at it is like it's
[21:56]
mostly because of Harry Potter and Batman and you know, there's a couple of these IPs
[22:02]
that again are pretty much as valuable as like any other, I mean like there isn't a studio
[22:10]
in the world that even as a tenth of the IP that Warner has.
[22:15]
Yeah, I mean it is really fascinating to kind of think like, you know, we don't really
[22:22]
know where the studio is going to go outside of those big IPs.
[22:27]
Yeah.
[22:28]
I am terrified because you know, if you look at a 20th century Fox or even a Netflix, like
[22:33]
there's what's so cool about Warner is like it's one of the only studios that doesn't
[22:40]
have like even if it's not outward, like some sort of mandate of the type of content,
[22:46]
like Italy's like the principles would like to see.
[22:49]
Mm-hmm.
[22:50]
Very scary that we're getting to a place where like maybe we won't really have a studio
[22:55]
that has like true kind of artistic freedom.
[22:58]
Not that any of them, you know, it's still a studio for Christ's sake, but like.
[23:02]
No, but you want them to have and I think this is why we're going to talk about now the
[23:06]
five influential films of Warner Brothers and How Pivoted the Landscape of Time.
[23:10]
So we talked about the jazz singer, right, which was the first talky film that obviously
[23:15]
put the whole filmmaking world into a new era.
[23:18]
Then I would argue that their next influential film was Casa Blanca, right, because that
[23:23]
like sort of changed how they viewed character driven stories.
[23:27]
It was like a gritty sort of love story dealing with a future war that was about to happen,
[23:33]
about the climate of the time.
[23:36]
I would then say this is my third influential film if you look at the map here of, you
[23:39]
know, pivoting the exercise dude.
[23:41]
Like that was another sort of serious filmmaking in a genre of like that's still to me probably
[23:48]
the scariest movie ever made, but it was like horror and philosophy together, right, faith
[23:52]
and doubt and like to show like a priest going doubting his god.
[23:57]
I mean, and also the terrifying nature of that was remarkable in the 70s to like, or
[24:03]
it was in 1980s.
[24:04]
No, it's like 73 I think.
[24:06]
It's in early 70s.
[24:08]
And then Goodfellas, you know, as the fourth pillar of the Warner Brothers pivot, like
[24:12]
that took again, it made a gangster film that we haven't seen before using like voice
[24:18]
over a narration for structure.
[24:19]
I mean, it really kind of broke them all with what a gangster movie could be.
[24:22]
Yeah, it's also something like what we were having conversation about Goodfellas yesterday.
[24:26]
And about like, I usually hate narration movies, but like Goodfellas is just so kind of
[24:31]
savvy with again, like breaking the fourth wall and like how they have a voice over.
[24:37]
Yeah, exactly.
[24:38]
Totally groundbreaking stuff.
[24:40]
And then their last influential film in my opinion is The Dark Knight.
[24:43]
I know, I know he rolls his eyes, but it really did change the game and how superhero
[24:48]
movies were made.
[24:50]
What did The Dark Knight possibly?
[24:51]
It was like, it was philosophical.
[24:53]
It was almost Shakespearean.
[24:55]
If you ever read the screenplay, which is going to be on my list for 10 screenplays, you
[24:58]
need to read from Warner Bros. history.
[25:01]
It's just a great read.
[25:02]
It was an intellectual blockbuster that like we haven't seen before on like a superhero
[25:06]
level.
[25:07]
And you can't escape it.
[25:08]
Like it really set the tone for like how superhero movies were made after that.
[25:12]
And it's still the biggest.
[25:13]
But it wasn't even the grittiest Batman movie of the year.
[25:16]
That happened to be really, but it was like, but it was big spectacle, big themes.
[25:19]
It was the animated Batman.
[25:20]
I mean, there's no question.
[25:22]
Come on.
[25:23]
There's no question.
[25:24]
That's why it's like, that's like a mid-tier Batman.
[25:27]
Before we part, as always, want to give you guys homework.
[25:30]
Right here, I got my 10 Warner Bros. screenplays at every screenwriter you read.
[25:35]
I'm going to listen off.
[25:36]
And I would love for you to read these all-dress screenplays that you can all learn a little
[25:39]
bit from.
[25:40]
We're going to talk about Casa Blanca.
[25:42]
First, it's possibly the greatest example of perfect character arcs that I can think
[25:46]
of.
[25:47]
People, there was a rumor I read years ago that someone submitted Casa Blanca as like Rick's
[25:55]
Cafe as a title.
[25:56]
It took a title page off.
[25:57]
Submitted all around Hollywood.
[25:58]
This is maybe the 90 or 2000s.
[26:00]
Under Rick's Cafe, everybody passed on it.
[26:03]
Has like an experiment to see like the greatest screenplay ever made a modern executive's
[26:07]
would pass on that?
[26:08]
Did they just say this guy submitted Casa Blanca?
[26:11]
I mean, apparently no one knew that it was Casa Blanca, which is amazing.
[26:15]
Number two, the Maltese Falcon.
[26:17]
This is one of the cleanest detective scripts ever.
[26:19]
Like, if you're looking about, if you want to write detective noir, like, this is the
[26:22]
script to study.
[26:23]
I don't know if you've seen the film, but it's fantastic.
[26:26]
Highly recommend the Maltese Falcon.
[26:27]
Number three, I mean, this is on everyone's list, Chinatown.
[26:30]
It's like described as like the bet, arguably the best screenplay ever written in Brian
[26:34]
Blanca, Casa Blanca, which Warner Bros.
[26:36]
owns two of those.
[26:37]
Fourth, as I mentioned before, the exorcist.
[26:39]
It's really like the perfect script, horror script that gets into that philosophical
[26:44]
nature while fusing horror.
[26:48]
Fight me if I'm off any out of these.
[26:50]
Five is good fellows.
[26:51]
We know how revolutionized structure.
[26:53]
This is unforgiven.
[26:54]
This is like, I mean, God, I would love to just rip off unforgiven in everything I do.
[27:00]
Like that in heat are the two films I could rip off for days.
[27:04]
I'm not a big speed fan.
[27:06]
I respect speed.
[27:07]
I respect speed.
[27:08]
You love speed.
[27:09]
No, I respect speed.
[27:11]
I do as like an action movie with like a 30 second elevator pitch, but it's not one
[27:16]
of my favorite movies.
[27:17]
Get out of here.
[27:18]
Then we're going to go into the Matrix.
[27:20]
1999, it was obviously one of the most influential sci-fi scripts ever.
[27:25]
The Dark Knight.
[27:26]
You got to read it.
[27:27]
Please go read it.
[27:28]
If you want to like, it's sophisticated blockbuster, no one writes like that.
[27:32]
Jonathan Nolan.
[27:33]
Then I don't know why I'm going to get that.
[27:35]
Yeah.
[27:36]
Christopher Nolan is brother.
[27:37]
Oh, he wrote it with his brother.
[27:39]
Yeah.
[27:40]
I didn't know that.
[27:41]
Salsa.
[27:42]
Blade Runner.
[27:43]
We know that's an atmosphere driven storytelling.
[27:44]
It's not one of my favorite movies, but I think from a screenplay perspective, definitely
[27:48]
something to look at.
[27:49]
For 10, I couldn't give you 10.
[27:50]
So I'm going to give you four extra ones because they're like all tied.
[27:54]
Dog day afternoon, network, Mad Max Furrier Road, and one of my all-time favorite movies
[27:59]
that I've parted.
[28:00]
They're all, again, it's like, I can't really argue because you're right.
[28:03]
Like, again, looking at the history of Warner is just looking at the history of great movies.
[28:09]
And I think what we really came here to talk about today is like, again, we love these
[28:14]
movies and we love the pursuit of these great movies.
[28:18]
We would really, again, we'd love to see these cute, cute, cute music, cute violin music.
[28:24]
Here's my argument, right?
[28:25]
I know that in the next two years, this will have probably completely blown up.
[28:30]
And that Flix and Disney and like Amazon will be picking apart, you know, whatever comes
[28:35]
from this merger, you know, for scraps.
[28:40]
That's really sad.
[28:41]
I would like Warner to stay in one piece.
[28:42]
I hope this merger doesn't go through.
[28:44]
It's going to, may it at least have a few great originals.
[28:50]
Prick's had this as Ellison right here.
[28:52]
Hey, Dave and Larry, look, I know that this is just one small piece of your, you know,
[28:57]
you guys own the entire world, you know, you probably own my clothes off my back.
[29:02]
You probably own the parent company that owns my apartment.
[29:05]
You own everything.
[29:07]
Good for you, I guess.
[29:10]
Please just keep my camp and charge.
[29:12]
You said you're going to make 30 movies a year.
[29:14]
You're not.
[29:15]
Maybe 20.
[29:16]
Look, you're going to lay off like half the business.
[29:20]
No one's going to have health insurance.
[29:22]
It's going to be, you know, it's going to be like a full gig economy in cinema.
[29:26]
You're going to destroy windows.
[29:28]
You know, it's all going to be AI, you know, goop.
[29:32]
I'm terrified.
[29:34]
Please just, you know, make some good original stuff before you, you know, throw grenade
[29:40]
into, you know, into the last movie theater on the, on planet earth.
[29:45]
Please just a couple more good movies, you know, maybe employ us, you know, buy some of
[29:52]
our movies, distribute them 5,000 theaters.
[29:56]
I think there's only like 4,000 something in the state.
[29:59]
No, 10,000 theaters.
[30:01]
Let's vertically, you know what, I changed my mind.
[30:03]
You guys are the best people ever.
[30:05]
We're going to vertically integrate the entire studio system.
[30:08]
You guys are going to own everything or own every news channel, every social media platform,
[30:12]
every movie, all the IP, every camera.
[30:15]
And guess what we're going to do?
[30:16]
We're going to force movies down every person's throat.
[30:21]
No more of anything.
[30:22]
Just movies.
[30:23]
This is genius.
[30:24]
TikTok is just going to be short reels, verticals of movies.
[30:29]
And we're going to make a new movie every day, 300 movies a year.
[30:33]
Thanks to Larry and David.
[30:35]
And I'm going to be employed on all of them.
[30:38]
And I'm going to have 10% finders fee on the four existing budgets.
[30:42]
We're good.
[30:43]
That was really lovely.
[30:44]
I'm moved.
[30:45]
But we do want to just say, look at all these great films, right?
[30:50]
Like what have they evoked to you?
[30:51]
Like when I think of the Warner's logo, and I remember seeing Matrix for the first time
[30:54]
in the theater as a teenager, like it blew me away.
[30:57]
Like it blew me away.
[30:59]
And I just want y'all to keep that going.
[31:02]
Like I know profit means a lot.
[31:04]
I get it.
[31:05]
But like make movies because people care.
[31:07]
People actually care about movies.
[31:09]
It helps them get through their day.
[31:11]
Their shitty life if they're having a rough time.
[31:13]
Like it really does.
[31:14]
And it helps them like explore life through a lens.
[31:17]
Like we just don't really get to see like, you know, I love books.
[31:20]
But we know reading is sort of going down.
[31:22]
People like movies.
[31:23]
Like just keep the spirit alive, the creativity.
[31:26]
Give people shots to make their creative visions.
[31:29]
I'm not saying everything's got to be art house cinema.
[31:32]
Like please take original chances on stuff.
[31:34]
That doesn't have to be always IP driven.
[31:36]
And as Timothy Shalame would say, what's really important we do is we preserve the spirit
[31:41]
of movies for everyone.
[31:43]
This is not ballet.
[31:45]
This is not opera.
[31:46]
This is the working man's art form.
[31:48]
Okay.
[31:49]
So if you're a trucker, if you're a construction worker, get off your phone, go to the movies,
[31:56]
send Larry Ellison a $20 invoice, get some popcorn.
[31:59]
It'll be great.
[32:00]
Okay.
[32:01]
Watch the movies.
[32:02]
Just we hope you stay around and we love you to the best studio ever.
[32:05]
Best studio ever.
[32:06]
Keep watching movies, keep making movies.
[32:08]
We're out.
