The Business

When director Chloé Zhao met horse trainer Brady Jandreau on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, she knew she wanted to put him in her next project. Then, Jandreau--a rising rodeo star--suffered a devastating riding accident, and Zhao knew she had the starting point of her new film. Zhao and Jandreau tell us how they made ‘The Rider’ on location in South Dakota on a shoestring budget with first-time actors.

‘Blockers ’is comedy writer Kay Cannon’s directorial debut. When she was hired for the project, she had some work to do on a script about girls, written by a bunch of guys. Cannon tells us how she made ‘Blockers’ funnier and more feminist.

‘The Looming Tower’ on Hulu follows FBI agent Ali Soufan as he tries to prevent an Al Qaeda attack on U.S. soil. The real Soufan says watching an actor play him has been weird, but could have an important payoff: teaching people what led to 9/11 and preventing another attack. Soufan and ‘The Looming Tower’ author Lawrence Wright tell us how they adapted the complicated story for TV.

TV writer Nell Scovell’s credits include ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Murphy Brown,’ ‘Late Night with David Letterman’ and ‘NCIS.’ When she started working in TV in the late 1980’s, more often than not, she’d be the only woman in the writers room. And in a lot of places, she's found, that's still the case. She tells us about calling out Letterman in Vanity Fair and shares stories from her new book ‘Just the Funny Parts.’

Sometimes our guests have so many interesting things to say that we can’t fit it all into one show. This week we bring you delicious leftovers: stuff that was too good to leave on the cutting-room floor, including insights from writers facing distinct challenges. Listen in for stories from comedy writer Janis Hirsch, writer-director Armando Iannucci, and showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino.

You might know puppeteer and filmmaker Frank Oz as Miss Piggy or Cookie Monster. He is also Yoda, and he directed movies including 'Little Shop of Horrors' and 'What About Bob?' A new documentary called ‘Muppet Guys Talking’ reunites Oz and some of the other talents behind the Muppets for the first time in years. Director Frank Oz and producer Victoria Labalme tell us about getting the gang together again.

Some of the scenes in Armando Iannucci’s new film, ‘The Death of Stalin,’ seem a bit over the top. But Iannucci says says he actually had to downplay the real story to make it believable. The political satirist behind ‘The Thick of It’ and ‘Veep’ tells us about his first time working on a project based on real people and how he had to work to balance comedy and terror when writing about the chaos that followed Stalin's death in 1953.

As 'Black Panther' mauls box office records, we stopped by a theater showing the film in a new panoramic format called ScreenX. We get reactions from 'Black Panther' fans and talk to Paul Kim, the man who’s trying to make ScreenX take off in America. Plus, we revisit our interview with director Ryan Coogler.

Kim Masters and Matt Belloni met up Monday morning to break down what happened at the Oscars. We're dropping this special banter here, but we'll be back with another new episode next week!

A year ago, a satirical horror film about race relations in America would not have sounded like an idea for a hit movie. But ‘Get Out’ was a box-office smash and it’s nominated for 4 Oscars, including best picture. Jordan Peele is also nominated for best director and best original screenplay--not bad for someone making his directorial debut. Peele tells us about the years-long process of getting to ‘Get Out.’