The Business

Disney buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Is it a super deal or super dud?  Plus, the division and drama continues in Hollywood's labor unions, and two top TV producers and their money-making program they call the "total engagement experience." Programming note: This program will be not air on KCRW as it will be pre-empted by special Labor Day programming. It will be available as a podcast and on demand, and will be archived online.

The producers of the hit show Ghost Whisperer on making great TV…and a successful marriage.  Plus, we talk to the newly-elected president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

India's Reliance Big just made a major investment in Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks. Has another sucker landed on our shores, or has Hollywood finally met its match? And while India is coming to Hollywood, one Hollywood production went to India –  tales from Bombay with the producers of Bollywood Hero.

Documentaries used to be relegated to PBS and college classrooms, but these days, they're just as liable to come to theater near you.  We talk to Sheila Nevins, who's had a big part in growing of the nonfiction business as head of HBO Docs for the past three decades. Plus, we revisit our session with Hollywood therapist Dennis Palumbo.

This week, we look at the arcane, historical, fantastical and off-color jargon of the movie set.  Plus, when good executives recut bad films...inside the mind of a cinematic scissorhands. 

This week, The Business goes to "The Con," the annual nerd-fest know as Comic-Con that’s become a major marketing stop for Hollywood.  Plus, a new documentary looks at Ozploitation...

Twilight gave a faltering new movie studio an extreme makeover. We talk with Rob Friedman, the chief of Summit Entertainment.

From Michigan to New Mexico, the production tax incentives derby is on in a big, big way.  We talk to one of the producers of Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, which moved from Minnesota to Michigan because of incentives, and two state legislators on opposite sides of the incentives debate.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has inducted 134 new members. We talk to one of funniest, actress Jane Lynch. Plus, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for cable companies to record programs so you don't have to.  What does it all mean for the television business and TV viewers?

Paramount shuffles its top executives and Universal may be next. Sony cancels a high-profile project just before cameras roll and Fox balks at the budget of their new Denzel Washington thriller.  What the hell’s happening to the movie business?