The Big Picture · Discussion
August 19, 2024/ 48 min/ Brian Raftery
Chapter 1 of Brian Raftery's 'The Hollywood Hack,' handed the Big Picture feed for a week. It opens on Obama's December 2014 press conference and rewinds to the 2014 Sony breach: the studio lot, Amy Pascal's run from 'Groundhog Day' to 'Spider-Man,' Michael Linton's business-side rule, and a slate falling behind Marvel. Then the morning of November 24, when a red skeleton and a Guardians of Peace threat locked 7,000 computers, and the first leaks over Thanksgiving spilled 'Fury' and an unreleased 'Annie' online. Ben Fritz, John Carlin, and former Sony staff Marisa McGrath-Liston, Michael Fisk, and Michelle Vio walk through it. The whole thing traces back to 'The Interview,' the Rogen-Franco Kim Jong-un comedy North Korea wanted stopped.
37 films across 7 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The comedy at the center of itthe film North Korea wanted stopped
The Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy about two TV journalists recruited to assassinate Kim Jong-un. Set to open Christmas Day 2014, it drew a threat invoking 9/11 ('the world will be full of fear'), several chains pulled it, and Sony shelved the theatrical release. Co-writer and executive producer Dan Sterling calls the whole episode 'very surreal.' John Carlin later briefed Obama on it in the Situation Room, starting with a plot synopsis.
The Sony lota century of movies, recognizable from a single line
Shot on a Culver City sound stage back when MGM owned the lot; Sony's 100-foot steel rainbow sculpture is a nod to it.
Cited by Raftery among the films shot steps from where he was standing.
Another of the lot's landmarks.
Rounding out Raftery's 'how is that not exciting' tour of the lot.
A former staffer remembers looking out her window at the Ecto-1 car parked next to the 'Breaking Bad' RV.
Amy Pascal's Sonythe talent whisperer's run, hits and misses
Among the studio hits Pascal helped develop after joining in the late 1980s, when it was still Columbia.
Cited alongside her other early developments.
Another of the films that built her reputation.
A splashy literary adaptation from her run atop the movie division.
The kind of real-life drama Pascal liked to make.
One of her crowd-pleasing comedies.
Another comedy from the same stretch.
Pascal chased Adam Sandler to Atlantic City to sign him, then watched it become one of 1999's top grossers, kicking off years of Sandler money for Sony.
One of the films Pascal says she turned down, unusually candid about it: 'I've made some of the worst movies ever.'
The other pass she names in the same breath.
Cited as one of the genuine misfires she made for Sony.
Another of her flops named in the episode.
The third dud in the same list; even so, some of Pascal's bad movies still made money.
The slate that fell behindstar-driven Sony vs. the Marvel era
Pascal's long-delayed dream project and Sony's billion-dollar franchise starter, the upside-down kiss and 'the whole Willem Dafoe-ness of it.'
A Will Smith crowd-pleaser from Sony's star-first formula.
Another A-list vehicle in the mix.
The grown-up dramas Sony balanced against its hits.
Cited alongside 'Moneyball' as Sony's prestige side.
A $130 million Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi drama meant to launch Sony's own cinematic universe; instead it flopped in a rough summer 2013.
One of the summer 2013 underperformers.
Another 2013 miss, though Raftery grants it was 'actually pretty fun.'
Opened at number one in May 2014 but 'ridiculously expensive, not to mention joyless' as Sony's franchise sputtered.
A Cameron Diaz comedy counted among the 2014 duds.
The historical drama in the same run of misfires.
Denzel Washington's September 2014 opener that finally gave Sony a worldwide hit and a new franchise, prompting the all-caps internal email 'I feel like we can fucking conquer the world.'
How the movies imagined hackersthe cliches the real breach outran
The Sandra Bullock thriller, cited as the era's nerdy-outsider hacker cliche, and, fittingly, a Sony release.
'Let the hacking begin.' Used as the 2000s thrill-seeking-brat version of hacking, also from Sony.
The gossip the emails exposedthe leaks' first, lighter revelations
A leaked email captured Channing Tatum's all-caps reaction to its big opening weekend beating a rival: 'F you, Ted! Second of all time, biatch!' (Voiced on the show by a Ringer staffer, as all the emails are.)
The 'talking teddy bear movie' Tatum was gloating past in that same email.
The films that leaked onlineThanksgiving 2014, when it turned real
Brad Pitt's WWII drama, still in theaters when it leaked; downloaded more than a million times over the following days.
Sony's reported $65 million holiday musical remake, weeks from release, leaked and free to download; publicity exec Marisa McGrath-Liston's whole press tour vanished overnight.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The franchises Sony leaned on Men in BlackThe SmurfsAnaconda
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Breaking BadThe Crown
Podcasts The Hollywood HackDo We Get to Win This Time?
Books The Big Picture (Ben Fritz)
Other PlayStation Network
Ads White ClawBest WesternOlipopT-Mobile Home Run Derby