The Business

Maria Bamford, Al Madrigal and Paul F. Tompkins on the hard-knocks life of a professional comedian…

Comedy Central exec Elizabeth Porter on those raunchy celebrity roasts, which are meant to be outrageous and  raunchy, but most of all utterly hilarious.

Director Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor) has made the new documentary. I Am is a spiritual journey in which he reevaluates his life while talking with great minds about big social problems. He tells Kim that some in the business think he's "nuts," but that others, like his longtime agent and lawyer, are coming around to understand him. Then I.M. Global CEO Stuart Ford gives us his take on the state of the international film market as he saw it in Berlin during the European Film Market.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith talks candidly about his admiration for Wayne Gretzky, his love of marijuana and his innovative plan to distribute his new movie, Red State, himself. We met with Smith as he embarks on a cross country tour screening the film in major venues. He discusses his rationale for bucking the traditional marketing route, reflects on his career in Hollywood, how smoking pot makes him more at ease with himself, and how some of his box office failures made him re-evaluate his ambition as a filmmaker.  

Composer-singer-songwriter Randy Newman has had 20 Oscar nominations and one win. This year he's nominated in the Best Song category for "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. But despite his success he says he wishes he was really good. Then, David Friendly, the producer behind the Big Momma's House franchise, talks about being a white guy in the urban comedy business.

Ever since entering the business, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has been as much a savvy entrepreneur as an auteur director. Now with Black Swan receiving five Oscar nominations and reaching $100 million at the box office, he's still not sure Hollywood will embrace his next passion project. But before he finds out he'll direct his first studio tent-pole movie, The Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman.

When television writer-producer Shawn Ryan created The Shield he helped make basic cable a go-to place for sophisticated original scripted programming. With his new Fox series, The Chicago Code, Ryan hopes to bring his brand of storytelling to a broader audience.

He may not be the biggest Hollywood name behind The Social Network, but without his relationship with author Ben Mezrich Hollywood may not have made this movie. Producer Dana Brunetti, recounts how he and now-partner Kevin Spacey wooed Facebook co-founder Eduardo Severin into telling them the story. He also explains his his own fascination with Facebook.

John Sloss, one of the Sundance Film Festival's most seasoned players, gives a window into selling movies as the independent film world struggles to recover. He talks about diversifying his business last year by distributing the documentary Exit through the Giftshop, and how that was both a solid business decision and a wild ride because Banksy, the famously secretive street artist behind the film, was in charge of all the marketing yet refused to talk with him.  Then we meet Loyd Catlett, Jeff Bridges' longtime stand-in and stunt double. After some 50 odd movies together Catlett talks about being at peace in the shadow of "The Dude," getting his head shaved for Iron Man, and the security of knowing that when the next gig comes he'll be there.

During their two-month ordeal the 33 Chilean miners made a pact that they would stick together and sell the rights to their story as a group when and if they emerged. Now attorney Guillermo Carey, part of a team that's formed a corporation to sell their story, talks about setting up a fund to take care of miners' needs and strategy for selling the rights to the story for books, movies, video games and more. Plus, Mindset Media's Jim Meyer discusses how what you watch could reflect your personality and buying choices.