Episode 05 – Ben Fritz
You’re not going to find a better book about the current mindset — and future of — the Hollywood movie studios than Ben Fritz’s The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies. Named best non-fiction book of 2018 at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, it primarily drew from the Sony email hacks, and Fritz’s reporting, to tell an inside narrative of studios like Sony, Disney, Fox, and even Marvel, showing their logic from endless remakes to prioritizing merchandising. On this episode, we talk Disney/Fox, the oncoming streaming wars, Fritz’s journalism path from old Salon to Variety to his current job as a west coast editor for the Wall Street Journal, and a deep dive into media fragmentation, corporate consolidation, branding, and data. Y’know. Those ol’ movie chestnuts.
