The Big Picture - The Oscar Hangover Mailbag. Plus: ‘Dune: Part Three’ Is Coming!

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Sean and Amanda kick off the show by reacting to a laundry list of movie news, including the new trailer for Denis Villeneuve's ‘Dune: Part Three,’ starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya; the reports that Bradley Cooper will direct a new 'Ocean's 11' prequel for Warner Bros.; and Universal’s decision to extend theatrical windows for new releases (1:15). Then, they open up the mailbag for a post-Oscars hangover discussion and talk through whether or not Chalamet will be OK going forward, what the Oscars can do differently when they move over to YouTube, and how the industry can build positive momentum around the good energy surrounding the state of cinema (35:22). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders Production Support: Lucas Cavanagh Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan®️. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there®️. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. It's winter and you can now get almost anything you need for the coldest months of the year delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost? Well, you can't get a ski slope delivered, but you can get dish slope delivered. Fair weather, no. Shredded cheddar. Yes. Snow Angel, no.

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I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about closing the book on the Oscars. It's been 36 hours since one battle after another's triumph. So we are diving into the mailbag

to answer your lingering questions about the season and the telecast, maybe do a little way too early forecasting for next year's Oscar race. We will also dig into some movie news that we've missed over the past week. The telecast ratings, if they've come out yet,

I'm not sure if they have. And the new Dune Part 3 trailer which just dropped, we will get into all of it right after this. This episode of The Big Picture is presented by State Farm. Sure, being an expert and movie trivia is impressive. You know, it's even more impressive? Being smart about saving money. And a great way to do that is by saving when you choose to bundle home and auto with the State Farm personal price plan.

Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings. and eligibility vary by state. Okay, Amanda. Okay.

We just sat here together. Dune 3. And we watched Dune Part 3. Not Dune Messiah, I noted. Dune 3. It is officially called Dune Part 3. The conclusion to the epic trilogy of Frank Herbert novelizations. As adapted by Deney Villeneuve.

Yes. So am I allowed to talk now? Yes, I asked you to not speak while we watched. I did watch it on my phone in the car when it dropped. As Deney Villanouin of Intenton. Because I was. So excited. Project popcorn.

I immediately wanted to race in and watch it. We just watched it. How were you feeling? What did you think? I'm pro these movies. Yeah. I'm excited. Looks good.

Looks excited. It's not what I thought was going to happen in June Messiah, now retitled, Dune 3. Yes. A lot of the speculation. That we know. That we have seen on the screen. Maybe they're hiding the ball on some of the crazy revelations that you feared or were excited about.

Yeah. I, of course, as a non-dune knower, I'm excited to learn about this story for the first time. And I'm with you. I'm, like, so, I'm vibrating. I'm so excited. I think epic scale, sci-fi made by a true artist like Villeneuve is fucking awesome. And this looks as good as the last two films.

Robert Pattinson and Annia Teller Joy joined the cast. I was going to ask Pattinson, Oscar. Is it time? Oh, wow. He's clearly, he's being some sort of villain character. Villain with a Karate Kid, Die Job, at least. Yeah, yeah. And looks like, he doesn't even say anything in this trailer, but I was like, oh, weird Pattinson is locked in.

Yes. And that, as we saw this year, can often lead to a supporting actor or actress nom. Yeah. I mean, win. I mean, I think there's an expectation that this is sort of the trifecta, that this is a fandom movie. It's a general audience box office movie and that it's probably going to be an awards movie. Whether or not it can pull the return of the king move. We've been speculating about that for four years.

since we saw the first Dune movie. A lot of the concerns that were raised about why this wouldn't be do not seem to be in this trailer. That's true. This looks like a war movie. This looks like a Lawrence of Arabia-style epic. And no one that we, there were no worms. No worms. In the trailer, which, you know, doesn't mean that there aren't worms in the film and maybe they are saving it.

But from what we've seen, no one becomes a worm. And I don't think that the worm is holding it back from being concerned. that are prestigious. You know, if you go back and watch the Return of the King, you know, you've got your walking trees and you've got your little people and you've got your creatures, you know, you've got orcs,

you've got all these things in those movies, and they're still considered great feats of cinematic triumph. So I'm just thrilled for this movie. I do find this movie to be a really interesting test case for where Hollywood and studio distribution is at right now because the thing that is confirmed, it seems, is that this movie, despite what I might have suggested on the pod

despite what I have heard from people over the last few months is sticking to its December 18th release date. That is the same release date as Avengers Doomsday. Now the reason why it seems... Your most anticipated film of 2026. Yeah, I mean, the reason why I thought it would move is because obviously Avengers movies are guaranteed billing at the box office,

or so they were. But Dune Part 3 has the rights, at least on the opening weekend, to all the IMAX screens. And so they have no reason to move. They have secured that date. And, you know, as we know, in modern blockbuster filmmaking, those premium format screens are really valuable to the box office and really valuable to the movie's history. And I think that this just means that Hollywood is just not afraid of Marvel anymore. And that Marvel just does not mean what it used to.

They've only had $2 billion movies since COVID relative to nine prior to COVID. They've had several movies come in under $500 million over the last. five years. And that paradigm that we talked about in 2020 that could shift, like would shift, right? These things always fashions come in, fashions go out. Yes, there are phases, much like a Marvel movie. Indeed. This feels like a really notable moment in that paradigm shift. What do you, what do you make about? Well, I want to ask you, do you think that both movies will be released on December 18th? It is March. And I think you're right. It feels a little bit. it like a game of chicken. And I think you're right to interpret that Warner Brothers, which is

locked up all the IMAX screens and timed the release of this trailer for 36 hours after it's one best picture and really best picture runner-up at the Oscars, knows what it's doing is claiming its ground and is sort of challenging Disney. Like, you know, we're not moving. This is what we're going to do. You can come play or you can come not. And I think you're in. interpretation of the threat of Marvel or the perceived threat waning is true. I'm curious what Disney does. And I'm curious whether Disney holds on and does a, tries to do like a barb and hyper thing, tries to move screens to get IMAX, tries, you know, maybe they get creative.

But right now, in March, do you think it's going to be a face-off? If it is a face-off, I stand here before you and I will dub this Doones Day, that that will be the Barbenheimer of 2026. And it's D-U-N-E-3, D-A-Y. That's how we will be spelling it. It's being trademarked right here. Doons Day, okay? All the checks come to the big picture going forward, Jack, right? And if anyone uses that.

100%. I'm not sure what the status of Avengers Doomsday is right now. Did they finish shooting? Is the script done? We have no idea. What we just saw in that trailer looks like a movie that's ready to come out now. And at Doomsday, we just don't know what the status of the film is. So maybe it moves.

Maybe it doesn't. I feel like it matters a lot to Disney's bottom line that movie that they've been earmarking. Presumably a billion dollars on their spreadsheet because of the release of this movie. The reason that I thought in January, when this really seemed to be coming into clear view, that Dune would move, was because there were still a lot of open dates on the calendar that while Thanksgiving was taken by Narnia, there were a couple of earlier weeks in November, there were a couple of weeks in October

that were available for a big calendar release. Right. Most of those dates have been filled. There's not really any terrain in October or November for Dune Part 3 to go. Now, maybe Dune Part 3 does something that, remember when Mission Impossible 7 moved up like three days? to get additional IMAX screens because of

Barbenheimer coming. I do, but it didn't work out for Mission Impossible 7. I mean, it probably saved a little bit of face. So maybe there's a world where, like, December 15th. One of these movies goes to that date, or even December 11th. You could see that. But there's a Jumanji movie coming on on December 11th. And while we have not spent a lot of time breaking down the lore of Jumanji on the show over the years,

those movies are also very successful and very big. So... I'm looking at what else, Disney's. has this year. So they have Mandalorian and Grogu also Devilware's Prada too, which I think will be a will not be a billion dollars. It's sizable. And they're really, the tie-ins are starting. The popcorn bucket is starting. I

will not be getting a popcorn bucket. I don't endorse that. Toy Story 5, Moana. All of those movies will be big. Right. And then a bunch of other things before Avengers Doomsday. They don't have anything in the fourth quarter that is guaranteed except for first. Hax. Right, which is an original animated film. Yes, but not, that's not guaranteed in the way.

But if you think about, they don't usually miss on those. You know, if you think about Moana, if you think about Enkanto, like those, that, when they put an original movie in those spaces, they feel pretty confident about it. This was the, that's holding the spot that Zootopia 2 had last year. So I wouldn't underestimate that movie, generally speaking. But you're right that there's not in between the summer block. There's not a ton in the fall for them. So could dooms they go up? Sure, but it would have to be done. I'm also wondering would it ever, would it go back to 2027? And it doesn't seem like they have a very strong summer. So maybe that can carry them through with Hext. And, you know, I'm not privy to their balance sheets.

So I don't know. And the next thing that they have, they've got animated movies, but then they have Star Wars Starfighter. in the Star Wars Memorial Day spot. It's coming out of my wedding anniversary. I just realized. That's so exciting. Congratulations.

Well, you think you guys will have your celebration there at the screening? You know, yes. We're doing 10th anniversary at the Mandalorian premiere. That is wonderful. Yeah, isn't that beautiful? So could they bomb Star Wars and bump everything down? It's possible. I don't know.

It's possible. Here's the thing. as I mentioned earlier this year this is the fewest comic book movies on the calendar I think that we've had in 15 years and we only have the Spider-Man movie which is Marvel of course but it's distributed by Sony

so then you have just Spider-Man and then you'll wait another nine calendar months to get to Doomsday that's a long time to go without an MCU film that means from it's basically it would be two years between Fantastic Four and Doomsday

two years? Well how much can change? in our interest set in two years. I mean, entire trends will completely die in a two-year period. Right. So this isn't just a really, really interesting collision of interest and changing tastes for moviegoers. Now, I think it's likely that Dooms Day will still make more money than Dune Part 3. You know, Dune Part 3 is never, Dune has never crossed a billion dollars. So I don't want to overstate the point here.

But the fact that a movie like Dune, which has this built-in fan base, the first, the second film was bigger than the first film. No, the first film did open during COVID. During COVID. I don't know. It's just fascinating to me that this is happening and that Robert Downey Jr. returning for a Marvel movie doesn't really scare anybody. It's probably for the good. You know what?

I still want Dooms Day to be good. I'm not saying I don't. Right, because it brings in the X-Men, right? Well, just in general. I'm just like for those movies to be good. I'm just kind of doing like an X-Men status check with you at all times because I think that's funny. But this is the introduction of the X-Men into the...

Maybe. Maybe. You don't know. I mean, there have been no announcements made and we don't know what characters are playing. They weren't in the director's chairs? There have been no announcements. It might just be putting closure on the previous generation. And then the next...

Secret Wars. Well, that would be X-Men? That probably. That's what I think they would do. So, you know, we may not even be close to X-Men. They might be, especially if they push... this movie back, we might be two years away, three years away from getting an X-Men movie. Okay.

And where will I be then? Will that be... Would that be before or after the Four Beatles movies? What are we podcasting for at this point? What's the finish line? Right. So X-Men and Beatles in 2028, and then that's the end. Okay.

That'll be... Those will be the last episodes. You have anything else you want to say about Dune and Marvel and the end of our year? We also have Werewolf coming out on Christmas, which is the new Robert Eggers movie. Okay, but not related to... Not a Marvel or Dune. thing and not a wolverine thing. Is Wolverine a werewolf?

No. Okay. Because werewolves are only at night? Just like, yeah. Sunglasses. Corey Hart. I mean, isn't that the moon? And then...

He's feral, Wolverine. But he's not... First of all, he's... First of all, he's a wolverine, not a wolf. That's a different animal. Here? But I don't... Now it's trying to give me the movie.

You know a wolverine is a different animal than a wolf, right? What? A wolverine. A wolverine... Yeah, you don't know what a wolverine is? Like the Michigan Wolverines, the college? No, I do. I know that that's their...

You know a Wolverine was a word that they invented? Yeah. Or I thought it was like... I thought it was like a dragon, you know? Like, I don't know. This is insane. You don't know that a Wolverine is an animal. What are Wolverines?

I don't know. When I moved to Los Angeles, I met a coyote for the first time and I thought it was a dog with crazy eyes. Okay, Wolverine. Oh, okay. This kind of looks like a land otter. That's, yeah, I think they're much more violent than that. Okay.

Well, I think otters can get pretty frisky. Is that a fact? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Seals definitely. Okay. Dolphins, as we know. This morning, my daughter asked me, do seals eat penguins? And I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure on that.

And just so I said, not the nice ones. Okay. That was my response. Is that accurate, do you think? That's like in Zootopia, too. What's happening? me. I don't know, but everyone's okay. We watched March of the Penguins this weekend for the first time. I was going to show that to Alice. So did it play? Was it it did go well? It did. I had to leave to get ready for the Oscars. That was Sunday morning. But I think Knox seemed very excited. And they were looking for an egg. And he was witnessing, you know, the miracle of life.

Okay. Don't forget the penguin is in the DC films, not in the Marvel films. Right. But we're talking about real penguins. in Antarctica and he seemed okay with it. He seemed to ride with the ups and downs of the natural world. That's exciting. Okay, Wolverine is a move on. No, but I didn't know that this was a real thing. This is extraordinary.

Where does it live? Oh, it's Arctic. Well, that's why. Okay. You seem to know about penguins and seals. Well, that's Antarctic. Okay. And are there no penguins in the Arctic?

No, I think they're Antarctica only. It's not a fact. Yeah, we read the beginning of Mr. Popper's Penguins, and that's what was stated in Mr. Popper's Penguins. That was before Knox Loss's attention. As always, this is the only movie podcast that we'll have this conversation. Okay, so, but a werewolf, oh, they can shape shift. They can be a wolf or a human, depending on, maybe depending on the moon. Okay.

That's correct. Great. Thanks for clearing that up. Other movie news that we missed, Bradley Cooper will reportedly star, right, and direct. the new Ocean's 11 prequel opposite Margo Robbie. I accept. You do?

Okay, interesting. Why wouldn't I accept? What do you want him to do? Make another film about a tortured artist betraying the people that he loves? Well, I think this movie is about Danny Ocean's father who might just be that. Let's just put that out into the world.

Was Danny Ocean's father an artist? Well, does he create? I mean... Sure. The art of theft. There is an artistry. The art of the deal. Yeah, as the Night Fox teaches us

every time we watch Ocean's 12. That's what I'm saying. Still, I think, I mean, if this is a tortured origin story, if this is all about Danny Ocean's trauma, which is really about Danny Ocean's senior's trauma, then of course I'm out. Okay. But if it has any trappings of a fun heist film. Yeah, it could be like, could be very Thomas Crown Affair. Could be exactly what you like. It feels a little bit like a retrenchment for Bradley Cooper, who took a couple of very big swings with Maestro and with Is This Thing?

on. By the way, we didn't mention that I thought Will Arnett was very funny with Channing Tatum on the Academy Awards, acknowledging that nobody saw his movie as his thing on, but he was a very good support about that. I hope this is good. He's replacing Lee Isaac Chung, director of Minari and Twisters, and he was attached to the movie for a while. He's moved on. Cooper, you know, if done right, this sounds great. It's very clear now that his bullet remake with Steven Spielberg is not happening. That was reportedly going to be the next Steven Spielberg movie after Disclosure Day and it appears to have been shelved. So, sure.

The problem I think is that Oceans 14 is going to happen. And so because we know that they're going to make another one of those, it's a little bit like, do we need two Oceans movies in 20 months? I'm not totally sure that that makes sense. Okay, you do. Make as many heist films with movie stars as you possibly can. Okay. Make bad ones.

Make good ones. Make weird ones. Don't make trauma ones. I don't need that. but make as many heist films, make as many Oceans films. My concern about Ocean 14 is that Steven Soderberg is reportedly not involved. Yes, that doesn't seem great. Yeah.

But everyone else is, right? Brad and George and the whole gang, Julia. I think so. Matt. Matt. All my friends. I hope so. I hope so.

Yeah. Yeah, we'll see about this. We'll see if it actually happens. A Quiet Place 3 was announced. Great. Now, there have been three A Quiet Place films, but a quiet, the third Quiet Place film

is not a Quiet Place 3. That's a quiet place, day one. Day one, I thought it was going to say a new day, but it's really the opposite. So a lot of people are saying that this is the third Quiet Place movie, but it's not.

It's the fourth Quiet Place movie, but it's part three. Okay. It will be written. Fun with numbers with Sean Fentzy. It will be written and directed by John Krasinski. You just asked me

during the Academy Words, what's that guy up to? Yeah. We looked it up. Because you were, you were talking to me, we were watching the Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer.

We were talking about Emily Blunt. She's obviously in Devil Wars Pride of 2, Disclosure Day, what's she up to next? You know, I was just wondering about their family life. Well, he will be starring in the Jack Ryan film, Jack Ryan, colon, ghost war, which I assume is about a war between ghosts. And that movie is coming out on May 20th on Amazon Prime, not theatrically. Okay, well, that's going to be, will that be international?

Can we watch that and can? Yeah, I mean, yeah, it says premieres globally. Okay, great. Do you want to do a ghost war pod waltzed in can? Well, we've been talking a lot about what we're going to do while we're in Europe for several weeks, in my case. I'm just relocating for May. That's great. So thank you, I guess, to Amazon for making that internationally available.

I'm sure that it'll be received very well internationally. Jack Ryan is the kind of perspective that travels. Yeah, the hero we need in this war-torn country and war-torn universe. I've never seen an episode of Jack Ryan. Nor have I. I've seen every film. Yeah. And I've enjoyed every film.

I have too. Despite... Even the bad ones. Shadow Recruit? I love a Shadow Recruit. Is that the Bad Affleck? No. That's the sum of all fears.

I enjoy the sum of all fears. Shadow Recruit is Chris Pine? Sure. Listen, we always enjoy Chris Pride. Yeah. Princess Diaries 2 forever. You've seen that yet? No.

Princess Diaries 1? Could be a while. No. I'm currently preparing for the 1988 movie draft. I am going to start doing that this afternoon. You're not going to do any Princess Diaries before Devil Worse Prada

so you can really... Before the year of Anne Hathaway? Maybe I will. So you can speak to the full? Maybe I'll complete the arc. Yeah. The whole filmography. That's right.

We did watch Ella Enchanted earlier this year, which Alice seemed to enjoy. Have you seen that? Is that... That's not Amy... No, that's enchanted. Okay. Ella Enchanted is almost like...

It's sort of like the naked gun, but for fantasy movies starring Anne Hathaway. Oh, good for her. Yeah, it's a little goofy, but charming enough. And Hathaway, as always, is wonderful. Okay, more movie news.

This is probably the most important thing that's happened in movies in the last week. Universal announced last week that it is extending the window theatrically for all of its films to five weeks in 26 and seven weeks in 27. My reaction to this. Yes, my reaction to this is let's go. We are crawling back. We are dragging back what we deserve, what we deserve, what we. have earned what we have fought for.

Now, Universal implemented during COVID, the 17-day window, a lot of their films, if they didn't cross a certain threshold, financially, would go straight to PVOD after a very limited period of time. A lot of the Focus features homes in particular, it doesn't seem like that's changing for focus. It seems like their windows will still be pretty short. But the major Universal release is starting next year will basically be spending two months in theaters before going to P-Vod. Here's my take.

Somebody who thinks about this shit way too much. I don't think it's going to have a job. dramatic impact on the box office for most films because most films by the end of the fourth or fifth week stop drawing in big money. However, there will be one out of every roughly five, maybe four films that they release for which this will really matter. And if you look at a movie like The House Made, the House Made did okay in its first weekend. It did a little better in its second weekend. And it, through three months, clawed to hundreds of millions of dollars. This is how movies used to work. When we had long as long as well, we had long as a lot of, it was a lot of

longer windows, when we waited longer to let people watch these movies at home or rent them from Blockbuster, they made profit over time. Movie studios know that this still works. Like Tom Rothman talks about this with Sony, Universal's doing it. I think some of it feels like a little bit of a hay synophiles. We have your back in the face of the conglomeration of Warner Brothers and Paramount. And some of it, I think, is just good business when you're already working with Christopher Nolan and you're already working with Steven Spielberg, people who... Care about these things. Yes. I just think it's interesting in terms of what it says about Universal's relationship to the Peavod window and to who is buying and renting and paying money for movies at home, which is kind of a window at like a group of people and a group of consumption and money that we never really talk about.

The streaming window isn't changing here. Universal has said for several years that they do actually make a lot of money. And Peavod. I don't think I have ever met anyone besides myself who rents or pays for a movie at home because it does really feel like people are either going to go see it in theaters or they'll wait until it's free. So. I think a lot of parents do. I think a lot of parents do because they couldn't get out to Zootopia 2.

Right. And that's true. Actually, we do own Zootopia too because the stomach bug hit our house. Yes. I think that's a very common thing. Yeah. But it's just, it's interesting. It's more a reflection of it's, it's,

seems like if that business were still working very well for them, that maybe they wouldn't be changing it in the same way? I think that's... So I just think it's interesting. I agree. I think that's the right takeaway. It's hard to know because I always felt like there was a lot of chest puffing about the Peabod performance over the last few years.

Like the Northman was the one that you always heard about, right? The Northman did like $70 million in theaters and it was like, how could this $100 million movie be considered a success? But a lot of people around the industry were like, oh, no, no, this was a really big hit on PVod. Which sure, I mean, how do we know that? And there's no system in place to allow us to see what that data is. But I think you're right that this shows that they wouldn't make a choice like this if it wasn't good for their business.

But it's good for our business. It's good for what we care about. I guess it is. Yeah. Maybe it trains a few more people to go to theaters instead of renting Zootopia or buying Zootopia too at home. You know, that's Disney. So it's a whole different when doing kind of worms. But I don't know.

I think it's fine. Good luck movie theaters, you know? Yeah. Well, we'll be at CinemaCon soon. Will you shake every theater owner's hand and say thank you for your service? Yeah. You guys are doing great. You're definitely innovating and keeping up.

I'll tell you, Universal is going to be applauded. They're going to be really celebrated. I mean, they always are. They always are. Relatedly, Hoppers has grossed $164 million in 10 days. And now a movie that I think I underestimated. when we talked about the movie last Monday in terms of its box office performance could end up becoming a sort of elemental or even bigger size hit $500, $600, $700,000, $700 million.

And once again, original storytelling, kind of having a little bit of a bounce back moment here in movies. Take that, Avengers Doomsday. Yeah. And box office is up 14% year over year. Yeah. And we just ran through a whole bunch of the blockbusters that are coming. I regret to inform you we are back. We're back.

Yeah. And especially the little guys like Disney, they're back. Well, let me ask you one. Listen, that's great. We had a great time. Another thing I was thinking about, idly, have you had one conversation or mention of hoppers with your child since you went to see it in theaters? Yes. I was giving Alice a bath last week.

And it was after you and I spoke and we mentioned that there was no discussion of the movie. on the pod. It was a Wednesday. Okay. She was absolutely filthy. Okay. She's in the bath. She turns to me, she's been in the bath for 20 minutes.

And she says, Dad, why was that beaver a robot? Unprompted. No context. We're seven days away from having seen the film. Keep going. How did you answer that question?

I said, well, they created the robot so that people could get closer to animals to understand them. Which I think is accurate. Okay, Sam Allman. Well, I mean, you know, this wasn't an AI situation. It was just a cycling. I know that.

I just, you know, it's very. I don't support Sam Holman. Okay. I was in the Vanity Fair Party, I heard. I read in Matt Bellany's town. Did you give him your ticket? Have the Oscar ratings come out? Where are they? Where are the Oscar ratings?

I don't know. Do you think this means that they're bad because they're being kept for me? It's Tuesday at 11 a.m. I mean, where are they? Has it ever gone this late? Jack, while we're doing this conversation, can you just keep your eye on that data point for me? I'll stay posted on it. As Brian Curtis would say, the number of people who watch the Oscars will not meaningfully affect your life. Well, as I have frequently said to Brian, I disagree. I think it's a meaningful data point and it represents something about how money works in these spaces.

And that actually matters. The amount of money that you can get for a telecast, the amount of money that goes into these systems, which then dictates what kind of movies we see. That does matter. The same is true for sports. That's true. But the amount of money they're getting for the telecast has already been decided. And it's going to a place where the... But it's connected to future sales.

The ad rate will be meaningfully affected by how many people are watching the show. This is understood. You know, it's a very clever catchphrase that Brian has, but it is actually not accurate in my opinion. Nevertheless. Okay. So we don't know the ratings. Yeah. Before we get into the mailbag, any loose thoughts about the telecast, about the results, anything that has bubbled to the surface since we spent all that time preparing for these awards?

It's been strange how good the vibes are. You know, except for in the comments and on the internet, which is always the case. I liked the show. It was interesting talking to friends, loved ones, people who are not in the Oscar nerd bubble that this show is. And who also seemed to respond to the actual movie moments and the wins and this telecast as celebration of this year's films as opposed to an advertisement for movies or, you know, a random celebration of Moulin Rouge. And that feels nice because that's why we, We watched the Oscars, and that's kind of how we would design the Oscars to be, which is these movies that we really liked.

And, you know, that's the other thing. It was a good year for movies. It was. And for the most part, the movies we liked were rewarded. So I'm trying to make sense of how, of the positivity that I feel about all of it. It's very strange. I was like, we're in a positive time. We are in a...

I mean, we're not. We're in a pretty... No, the world is not. But this one. world? The Oscars. The Oscars are. The movie business is up.

Okay. Consolidation is happening and that's terrible. David Ellison incoming. Well, I noted this beforehand, but I couldn't think of a time in Oscars history where the two films that were like in a legitimate race for Best Picture had been as widely seen as both one battle after another in Sinners. And, you know, sinners made $400 million. $200 million.

I couldn't think of another time when before nominations were announced, two movies had made over $200 million at the box office that actually had a chance to win. Now, there have been many nominees that make over that much money,

but they're more in the F-1 variety. Your Top Gun Mavericks, your Barbies, where you're like, this movie's good, everybody loves it, has no chance to win. Yeah. There was a real sense that these two very widely seen movies

had a chance to win. They had big stars in them. They represented something culturally. The Oscars has not been good about representing something. specifically. And there's no way to control it. It just has to happen based on the movies that come out and the swell behind them. But

I think that helped a lot. And even though we haven't heard the ratings, and maybe they're way down, but my instinct tells me that they're way up. And by way up, I mean, maybe a million people. But that would be good. And I think one of the reasons why the vibes are good is because there were a lot more people who were just generally invested in the story this year.

And not everybody liked the ending to the story. You know, not everybody is going to agree that one battle. A lot of one battle takes out there. Boy. Well, sure. Boy. The best one that I got, and I'm realizing now that I forgot to respond to my dad's text message, so if anyone in my family is watching, my dad will never watch this. But he had seen one battle the first time, and he and my stem mom did not like it very much, but they didn't respond to it.

And they shared that take. They said leftist propaganda. They just kind of sighed, and they were like, we had a harder time with this. And then Zach and I, you know, just diffused about it and kind of said, well, this is what we responded to. And my dad texted me on Sunday night saying, you know, maybe I'm just getting older, but I rewatched it. And I was very moved. Like, what a lovely movie about being a parent. A girl dad. Yeah, no, I know.

So maybe some of those people will also rewatch with the spirit inside them and reconsider. Or maybe they'll just keep writing bad things on the internet. Well, I thought it was interesting. there was a reporter who very reasonably asked Paul Thomas Anderson to specifically address some of the criticisms of perfidia, Beverly Hills, and just generally kind of his point of view around the way that he shaped the characters in the film. And Paul has been very resistant to that, not just throughout this campaign, but really for all of his movies for about 20 years. Yeah, he got to the point where he didn't have to explain his movies anymore and he stopped,

which, you know, may we all get there someday. Yeah, and I've interviewed him multiple times now, and many times I've tried to say, what does this movie mean to you and why? You know, like, just direct questions that are seeking theme. And he, I think, has pretty deftly navigated those conversations. And when he answered that question in the press conference after one of his wins, he attempted to communicate specifically how he saw that character as flawed and how it spoke to the general idea of the movie, which is about, we tried, and now it is about

the future and the next generation, which I think you and I talked about specifically in our very first episode about the movie. We clicked into that idea right away. And I mean, the ending of the movie is an incredibly moving letter read in voiceover by Tiana Taylor as perfidia Beverly Hills to the Willa character saying exactly that. It's not, you know, we aren't geniuses. It says, you know, we tried our best. I'm, you know, like, I'm sorry. I hope you'll make the world a better place. I think of you every day. Are you happy? Yes. All those things. And, you know, of course, I saw a lot of reactions to his response, his answer and the question. He seemed nervous answering the question. I think he didn't want to say the wrong thing. I thought he spoke, seemed to be very honestly about it. And then of course, there's just a pile on. Yeah. It's just like, here's what's wrong with that answer. And that was confirmation why you shouldn't answer questions like that. Because when you're an artist and you're asked to explain yourself, you're never going to give people something that is satisfactory in that way. I say this as someone who loves to interview artists and talk to art. And talk to. artist and try to get them to tell me how they feel. But when a movie is as tightly loaded as a

movie like this, you're never going to satisfy everybody. It's just not possible. It's a subjective art form. And he'll probably never be in that specific situation again where it's like, okay, you want all the prizes. All our eyes are on you. You have to answer every question that this scrum is asking. You can't control who's in the room right now. And I found it to be interesting, you know, and it's like, obviously it is the role of journalists to pursue that information as best they can to better understand what matters to the world at large. But see the reactions, you know, you think he'd like committed a violent crime. Like people are just, they feel so strongly about this stuff, which maybe is good.

You know, maybe it is good that people are passionate about art, but I thought it was pretty funny. I do in general at the end of this season. And I, this is not just specific to the Oscars or to the award season or, but to the internet at large. people just got to think a little bit while they're typing. You know, we all can see this. We can all see your behavior. And it's in public. Uh-huh.

So just consider that, you know? Just consider it. Just consider it. Okay. Do you want to go into the mailbag? Any other thoughts? No, they're good questions. Okay.

We can do it. Our first mailbag question is brought to you by Volkswagen. All the actors, directors, directors, and artists from this award season have one thing in common. They've made some of their best work by taking risks, by trying something different and taking control their futures. Take it from them, from us, from VW, and from all the drivers out there, grab the wheel, see what you can achieve? Okay, Jack, what is that first question? Our first question is an amalgamation of about 5,000 emails. Is Timothy Shalameh going to be okay? Will he be nominated for Dune Part 3? And is he the next Leo, and will need to wait a

painfully long time. Yes, maybe yes, is the short version. He's going to be fine. Our sweet baby, Timothy Chalemay, we never stopped believing, even if we had some notes about delivery. And, you know, maybe we also, maybe we all learned something from the, that you do got to think about what you're saying before you say it, whether you're typing it or whether you're saying it on a recorded podcast.

slash town hall. But on the other hand, it's him not thinking before he says things that got him where he was and got millions of people to go see Marty Supreme in theaters the rest of the time. So you win, you lose some. Timmy's going to be fine. Timmy, we love you. They'll never take Marty Supreme from us. If nobody else loves you, that's okay because, you know, that's the lesson of Marty Supreme.

And we'll get there. I don't know if he'll be nominated for Dune 3. It does seem like that's going to be, it seems like they're trying to make it an Oscars movie. You know what movie I thought of watching that trailer that is related to this? Braveheart. Okay. Because of that kind of war imagery and that, you know,

that Messiah character at the center of it who leads into battle. And did Mel Gibson get nominated for Best Actor for Braveheart? I don't think he did. I could be wrong about that. You know, the film obviously won, but I don't believe he was nominated. I don't think he's ever had an acting nomination. So sometimes in parts like that, it's a little bit more, it's a little bit trickier because you're just doing a lot of yelling and sword wielding. We did see some intimate moments with, with Chani, the Zendaya character in the film.

And I'm sure there will be some palace intrigue in that story as well. But as far as Chalmay goes, my only hope for him is that he continues to make interesting choices as an actor. I think he has had exceptional balance of prestige, genre, and franchise. I think he's really, you know, pursuing Dune is very smart. Pursuing Dune over playing a villain in a Batman movie is very smart. And I hope he continues to do that for the big stage stuff. I hope he continues to work with hauteurs like Josh Safdi. I hope he, you know, I don't like Wonka, but that was smart.

Yeah. Aren't they doing Wonka too? That I have not heard. Wonka, too. Let's see. You know, my opinion about that is I hope not. No, there's no official confirmation. Okay, wonderful.

His next movie apparently is... Started crying when he started singing pure imagination. That's just one woman's experience. I thought I was going to vomit. And he helped that little girl, you know? Sure. And they met the giraffe. Yeah, I remember.

It was okay. I think his next movie is a James Mangold, crime movie? Sick. Which sounds great. Yeah. So I'm hopeful for that. I do think, Van and Rachel asked us about this when we were on higher learning earlier

this week. Did the Academy make him pay for his hubris, essentially? And I, a little bit. I think it's a series of factors, right? It's a unlikable character you've been pointing out in a movie that not everybody connected to. It's certainly his campaign. You know, I think Kyle Buchanan had an interesting piece in The Times this morning about

some of the specific things he did during the campaign that maybe the voters didn't like, for example, not going to the Governor's Awards. Okay. That's a place where you're sort of meant to be seen and to shake hands, you know, showing up at the lunch, the nominees lunch, like, very late and not connecting with a lot of people. Oh, you know, kind of like waiting until the last minute to show up and to be a part of the photographs. And, you know, he's a big star, and a lot of big stars do that. Leo did the same thing at that luncheon.

So it's not like it's totally out of bounds, but when you consider the fact that he's, He's so young that he hasn't quote unquote paid his dues. Right. Yeah, maybe he might have gotten slapped on the wrist a little bit by people out there. But we've been saying throughout this season and others have been pointing out this is typical for young actors in specifically men in Hollywood. They do not do the ingenue thing. They don't give people. It's weird.

The couple of times when they've done it, like they did it for Eddie Redmayne and they did it for Rami Malik. Those are two examples of two under 40 guys who won best actor. But they were such like... Well, and Michael B. Jordan is also under 40. He is... But he's been working for so long, right? Yeah, it feels different for him. But those two guys, you know, they weren't unknown, but they were much less known than Timothy Shalemite.

They were not stars. They didn't open movies. They were considered fine actors. You know, the Romi-Malek Award, I'll never understand that. But Eddie Redmayne famously, famously, went to every single event and kissed every baby on that campaign. Was it the theory of everything? Is that what he wanted for? And so, you know, that's kind of the opposite of what Chalemay did.

You know, Redmayne was all humility. He was all presence. He was all, I will work hard to get this. So, you know, we'll see. We were joking around about how he'll have to wait until 52, and now the meme is going around about having to wait for his son of a woman. He could win in two years. Yeah.

We don't know. I mean, he also posted the first Dune 3 image, like 12 hours after the Oscars, which once again, shout out to Warner Brothers, who just has this all lined up, very, very ready, and he was ready as well. And I think that was the right move. Yes. I also like the Oscars relative to the success of a movie like Dune Part 3

is actually meaningless. Like Dune Part 3 is bigger than the Oscars in many ways. So more people will end up seeing that movie over time than we'll watch the 2026 Academy Award. So I think it's kind of a drop in the bucket to his career at large. Okay. That mailbag question was brought to you by Volkswagen. Like all the nominees and winners, if you want to make waves, you have to follow your own path. Take action. Take chances because when you get in the driver's seat of life, who knows what you'll accomplish. Learn more at VW.com. Jack, what is our next question? With sinners, Frankenstein, and weapons, all taking home Oscar wins, have we witnessed a permanent shift in the Academy's official stance on horror and genre films? Jack, your voice sounds so different. Oh, you are there. Okay, the camera is blocking you.

I was like, was this recorded, hi, buddy. Van in the booth. That was great. That was very exciting. Van, what's your producer persona? Like, are you more Dr. Dre, more DJ premiere? Like, who do you, who you vibe with? Bro, I'm Jay Dilla, bro.

Yeah, okay. You know what I'm saying? God bless. I'm Jay Dilla. God bless the dead. Okay, that's an interesting question and interesting to hear it from Van. No. My answer is no.

Yeah. You know, I don't really... I think it's cool that those movies got... I think it's really cool that Amy Madigan won, but like Ruth Gordon won for Rosemary's Baby in 1969. Like, I don't... You know, what does that mean? Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs. It's not...

I would say that sinners, Frankenstein, and Frankenstein are definitely prestigious horror. And I think Frankenstein in the categories that it was rewarded, production, costume, makeup. Those were old-school, very, like, hands-ed. on. Yes. You know,

even the costumes are like gowns, beautiful gowns. So there are horror elements of it, especially the makeup, but I don't know if that's really what's being rewarded. Sinners is a horror movie,

but it's also a musical, and it's, it's an action movie. It's all sorts of things. So Amy Madigan weapons is cool. Yeah. That's the only nomination that it got.

It did not get screenplay. It did not get best picture. If it got picture, I think you could make a stronger case because you be like, is a really gnarly witch movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That got a Best Picture nomination.

You know, even by Rosemary's Baby, you know, from a European otore, like, you could see there was a kind of, there was a kind of prestigious quality to that movie. Weapons is like a witch gets her guts torn apart by cursed children. And spooky children are running around. Yeah. It's a crazy horror movie. So, I don't really feel that way. That being said, you know, Lucas Shaw had a piece.

about neon in Bloomberg this weekend because they uncovered some financial information around neon and how solvent or not solvent that business is because it's changing hands now a new company is buying neon. And in the piece, they characterized like the financial wins as like just horror. And I thought that it was sort of like horror movies

that overperformed. And I was like, this is what it's been for 25 years. Like horror movies are fandom and franchise movies. movies. Like, they are at the center of the business and have been for a very long time. So I think to underestimate them in that way is slightly mischaracterizing them, whether or not the Academy can get their arms around that, I think specifically I've been excited about this year because this year, I don't know how many of these movies you're going to connect with

or even want to be on the episodes of. But, you know, Leviticus out of Sundance obsession, Curry Barker's new movie, which is upcoming backrooms, Kane Parsons, you know, YouTube to A-24 film. There are several more. There's Sebastian Vanichick taking over the Evil Dead franchise. There's a Lee Cronin making a mummy movie. Like there's a big wave of filmmakers under 35, under 40, who are coming into studio filmmaking

and kind of like premium mini studio filmmaking that represents something bigger about the genre. The Philipo brothers have been doing it the last couple years of A24. Like something's going on with the genre that is simultaneously commercial and artistic. one of these filmmakers that isn't Jordan Peel is going to get over the line and is going to get to the place where I think the genre is going to get what this question is trying to get to the bottom of. And weapons winning and acting Oscar, I think, is like a link in the chain.

It's a step towards something impressive happening. You know, you could say like, oh, it felt that way when M. Night Shyamalan came along, right? Because the sixth sense got a lot of love. But like that happens and then goes away. I mean, the other thing that you're describing and that particularly sinners and weapons achieved, and we know that because we have. box office receipts, is that those, all the films you just named were crossover sensations, right? And some of that is just that they made a lot of money in the box office and they were seen. But they are genre movies, but people who do not show up for every single horror movie

went to see all of those films. And that's, they just got, they broke containment of, of, of horror. So I think that all certainly centers and weapons are evidence. of the, you know, the genre finding bigger audiences. And I think that's some of the reason they were, they showed up at the Oscars. But that does happen from time to time. Yeah. I think Eggers, too, is an interesting person to think about

because he hasn't crossed that Oscars threshold yet, even though I thought, if you told me Nosferatu in 2025, was in 11th place, I would not be surprised. And when we went on to be a big hit, I've heard that the Werewolf script is like incredibly violent and gnarly, like really, like, the nasty eggers thing. Nostarato being a huge hit.

I just would like a case study on it. You were out for that. Yeah, I remember. No, but I did see it. Yeah. And I think even you, I listened to your podcast with Chris and Rob Mahoney and you guys all admired it, but didn't love it. Yeah, true.

And I wouldn't say that experientially it was like a laugh riot. I'm so glad I saw it in theaters type thing. In fact, I think I took a quick nap, which, Like, please, I was four months postpartum. Don't judge me. Not even. But, but... Yeah, not even four months.

Yeah. Like, I was sleep deprived. But so I would like to understand. I would like a breakdown of how that was such a big hit because it is resistant of basically every trend or... That I understand with audience horror going except for that it's a horror, it's a quote-unquote horror movie? I thought it was more in the tradition of a lot of del Toro movies. Okay.

And I think it actually has a lot of... in common with Frankenstein. And Frankenstein didn't go into theaters, but I think it would have been a hit in theaters as well, Frankenstein. And I think probably in a similar zone. Not Svratu made $182 million worldwide. One of the reasons why it's considered such a big hit is, one, the budget, which is about $50 million reportedly.

And two, it was focus and not universal. So it had the focus, you know, it was a really good marketing campaign, but it had that. So you take that plus the PVOD that we were talking about. And it seemed like a lot of people saw it and liked it. And, you know, it had a lot of big stars and supporting parts. and, you know, it was like Iron Taylor Johnson's in it for 20 minutes. It wasn't...

It was funny. It was very funny. I think that that movie also is one of those links in the chain, like weapons, where it's like something is evolving. Frankenstein is a link in this chain. Right. Something's going on. Whether or not it will continue, it probably depends on whether or not horror stays in the place of centrality in movie going right now, but it is in that place. Good question.

And as everybody who listens to the show knows, I'll look forward to tracking it very closely over the next 20 years. of my life. What's the next question? Next question comes from Jordan. It really bugged me how aggressively winners were played off during their speeches this year. With the Oscars heading to YouTube in 2029, do you think that change could actually fix some of that? More broadly speaking, what other things could the Oscars experiment with on YouTube that broadcast television never allowed? Yeah, I think it was quite bad at the show this year. And I don't think it was a well-produced show. We talked about that a little bit on Sunday night, but it was pretty rickety in, you know, the moment where Conan didn't know that he was on air.

And there were some camera angles and things that they didn't quite have nailed down. A microphone disappeared on a winner. Right. Though I thought that that was part of the playing people off strategy that they didn't think through at all. I don't know that YouTube is going to have, I don't think this was a time. time limit thing, is what I'm saying. They clearly seem to have agreed back in the room that only two people get to speak or something and then otherwise you get cut off and then the communication between the booth and the orchestra was not existent or responding in the moment. Obviously,

the K-pop Demon Hunters, the Golden win was the absolute disaster. And the way that the broadcast handled K-pop Demon Hunters and Golden in general, I think, indicates how little they understood their audience and how little how little they understood what they had. I agree. Making everyone wait for three hours for Golden. When I got home, the first thing my son said to me this morning, the morning after the Oscars was it was good. We had to wait a long time for Golden.

We were saying when we were watching the show. Yeah. It was insane. And then I don't really think they, they, they, I think that the singers and the performers did a great job, but the production of that performance was not what I wanted. And then playing everybody but EJ off after making everyone wait three hours and not understanding how significant those performers are

and how significant that moment is to the Oscars. That was the most seen movie for anybody watching the show. Yeah, that was bad production. And that doesn't have anything to do with time limits that has just to do with not understanding the material that you're working with. So I... But that's on the producers. Yeah.

That's not on ABC. You know, that's on, the Academy participates in that decision. And I'm not sure what role YouTube specifically will play there because YouTube has never done anything specifically like this before. The Academy guides who is going to be producing the telecast in conjunction with who is airing the broadcast. And they have a lot of say over who is doing that work. So this was the first year for the producers of the show on the show. And it's a hard show to produce.

Like it's not easy to do this. But there were a few too many mistakes this year. They were very obvious to the lay person, the naked eye while watching it. And that wasn't great. The speeches thing is always a challenge. I don't really know what the solution is. There are 24 awards. We praised how wonderful the In Memorium section was.

One of the reasons why it was so good was because it was long. And they let people speak. They did. And that was a good choice. But that means you've just tacked on seven more minutes onto the broadcast. than you normally have. So where do you cut? How do you keep the show under four hours?

That's what they're thinking about because they know that they are not going to be able to retain audience over a four-hour period. Almost nothing on television at this point runs four hours aside from your epic tennis match here and there. So I don't know what the solution is. It's a long-ass award show. For me, I'd watch nine hours, but most people wouldn't.

Yeah. And the awards thing in particular, they just clearly didn't have a good plan for the fact that there are some awards where there are many winners. And including a tie. Yes. And they didn't communicate, I guess, to the winners or the people where there are four or five listed winners that there's going to, you need to have a designated speaker or time limits or what.

It was a mess. And I was disrespectful and hopefully they'll do better next year. I'm with you. What other things could the Oscars experiment with on YouTube? I've already said this when the news was announced. I think that YouTube TV needs to just have an Oscars channel and like, honestly, call me. Like, I would love to help because I think that there is a whole world of engagement that you could create around your award show to make it a 12-month-a-year thing. And, like, I see what the Oscars is doing on YouTube right now.

Some of it is cool. I think getting Amelia de Maldenberg involved a few years ago was very smart. I think they're going to continue to lean into the creator path. But there is so much archive that they have. that they have of so many interesting things. Like the clip shows alone that you could make based on the telecasts over the years are fascinating. It's true. I mean, you could just rerun old shows as they do on TCM and for people, you know, who can't sleep at

three in the morning and suddenly you're watching the weirdest, you know, 1983 opening number or a presenter. I mean, it's a great idea. Yeah, and you could do all the musical performances. You could do all the craziest speeches of all time. You do the most shocking wins. Like there's so much raw material to work with there. You just have to invest in it. You have to spend the time to curate it and make it viable

because it's not just Oscar history. It's just movie history. And when we think about movie programming, like look at what performs on YouTube. Look at what people actually watch. They actually watch 20-minute videos of people breaking down shots in Sergio Leone movies. Yeah. Those videos have millions of views. This is valuable stuff.

So I hope that they take that seriously. I hope they really lean into that. The other thing that YouTube allows is that it is available internationally. And there's no licensing or whatever is going on stuff. You can watch it in one place at the same time. And I think many non-American Oscar nerds have talked for years about what a pain it is to try to watch the Oscars. So there's obviously stuff that you could do in the lead-up and you could do watch part. do all sorts of funny things of just making it more available.

Also, call me about the game show. Yeah. I'll host your game show. I'm ready. I've been waiting my whole life. There's so much programming that they could do. It's honestly, they have more at their fingertips for movie history than any other organization in the world and they have money. Yeah.

Exploit it. Do something cool. Okay. That's my plea. What's the next question? Next question comes from Daniel. Would you like to see Conan back as host next year? if he took himself out of the running,

who would you like to see replace him? And what would you think of Kumail Nanjiani? I would like to see him come back. I would as well. We're fans. Yeah. I thought he wasn't as good this year as he was last year, but he's really good at just guiding the show.

I thought he had a similar skill as Kimmel in that, like, weren't a safe pair of hands, right? He knows how to make a joke. Or, you know, you pointed out when Autumn Donald Arkapal won, that he announced this was the first woman to ever win this award because most people who don't follow these things closely, didn't know that. I thought he had a deaf touch with some of those things. The pre-written bits I thought were very funny. And that's his staff and his writing team and, you know,

his people who've been producing with him for years and years. So that cold open, the YouTube gag, the closing gag with Jim Downey, all that stuff was really funny. I would like to see him be back. However, we did just see Kumail host a show. He hosted the DGA's. He was fantastic. So funny. His opening monologue was amazing. And we also saw, live on this year's broadcast that Kumail can keep the show running because he was presenting the tie moment. And did we get any clarity? Did we find out whether he was tipped off? It sounds like he was. Okay, good. I heard that he was. But still, even if he was, he knew exactly what to do. He kept it moving. We've seen instances in the past where people don't keep it moving.

That's right. Fade down away and Warmbady. And was also very funny. His bit was good. his bits of the DGAs were really great. So I'd love to see him. The other person that comes up in the context of people we have seen do great bits at the Oscars, who could do the whole show is obviously John Mullaney. Field of Dreams Forever. I wish John Mullaney had gotten to present Amy Madigan with her Oscar now that I think about it. Yeah, it would have tipped it off, but it would be very funny.

Yeah, I'm still hoping that Mullaney will do it one of these days. It sounds like he was offered it and he turned it down at one point. I mean, it does seem like a lot of work. Also, he tours all the time. And makes a lot of money doing that. I mean, I understand that. Yeah. I mean, Conan, even, you know, we spoke with Conan's producing team when we were at the DGA's.

And, you know, they were like, he's been working on this show for months. Like, it sounds like he starts in the fall. So he's got a six-month window of prepping and writing jokes and kind of knowing what he needs to know. So it is a lot of work. But it's also a great honor, you know. I will say when Billy Crystal came out to honor Rob Reiner, I felt safe. I felt like, oh, this is like my childhood. And, like, he just has any.

ever been more comfortable speaking to that audience, both in the crowd and to us on TV. He's so good at that. Conan is definitely taking a page from him. The opening where he and the weapons kids were running through all the movies is straight out of the Billy Crystal Playbook. And again, I felt safe and also old because the nostalgia is now directed directly at me. I know. I know. But that's a bridge. Like that's a bridge from our parents. You know, like Billy was my parents' Oscars host. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we got introduced to the show watching him. So I honestly think Billy Crystal could come back and do it.

Like he seemed like he was doing great. Yeah. Okay, what's the next question? Can I throw out a potential one? Sure. We have a question later asking about the 100th Academy Award, so not to step on that too much,

but I was texting a buddy about what they need to do for 100. Mm-hmm. What would you think about Matt and Ben? Mm-hmm. I don't know if it's worth it to them. Yeah. No, they should...

But a dream for us, no? They should present. But the thing is, is if they have to keep the show running, then it's kind of, it's like CR on the watch where it's like sometimes when he has to be the straight man, he doesn't really get to shine, you know? And you need, you need to really let them roam free. So I think they should get in the Ben Matt equation, who's C.R. and who's Andy? Oh, well, I think, okay. See, I think Andy Ben. You do. I was going to go the other way.

Because I think Ben is more the takesmith. You know, he's more, and he's the intellectual, right? He's the one who's got a grand theory of everything. Yeah. Right? And Matt's just getting off jokes. You know, Matt's just like, I'm in the Thor movie. I'll show up for a good time.

I'll cameo. I'm like in any one's movie. I'll be a Euro trip. Mad Bad would be fun. I think it would be interesting to see if they lean into a higher wattage of celebrity or a safe pair of hands because that's going to be a big, big, big show. That's going to be a really big. I hope the movies are good that year. Because if they're not good, that's going to be tough. Because we have dud years all the time. And if we have a dud year, like, Anora wasn't a dud year, but it was a much smaller movie.

It was a much smaller field of movies. What year is that? It's going to be airing in 2020, right? Because this is 2026. It's the last ABC year. So, Avengers Secret Wars. Definitely, top of the list. I don't know. What's actually, what else is on the I have. Beekeeper 2! Yes! I've got my 20-7. 27 list open right now.

Okay. Cocoa Mellon, the movie. Wow. Frozen 3. Michael B. Jordan's Thomas Crown Affair? Mm-hmm. Batman 2. Spiderverse 3.

Okay. Only the franchise movies have claimed these dates. Well, I know. None of the other movies that... Quiet Place Part 3, allegedly. Yeah. Shrek 5?

Superman Man of Tomorrow. Shrek 5 got bumped all the way to 27? It's it. Wow. That's tough for... It's tough for your generation. Yeah. I don't know. The Lord of the Rings, the hunt for Gullum. Okay. Where are you out on Ghalm these days? Good guy, bad guy.

Have you ever told you that my mother did this with both babies that when they were really little and she would hold them and she would just call them, my precious? But was that from reading Tolkien? No. Okay. That was just from my mother being my mother. And I had, I just. My precious, my precious daughter. I know. But also she did once lock me in a room. and make me read The Hobbit in one day for summer reading. So at some point, she locked you in? They were like, you can't go back to school until you've read The Hobbit.

Your mother said this? Yeah. That sounds like something I would do. Well, and I did it. And it sucked. Ooh, oh, December 25th, 2027. Nancy Myers film. That's right.

That's right. You're excited? Yeah. Listen. I mean, so I saw they recast it, Aaron Doherty of adolescence, but also Princess Anne from the Crown, real ones now. So it seems like... She went into the Emma Mackey role.

I think so. I mean, she was originally... Scarjo? Is that right? I don't know. So, yeah. Okay. We'll see.

But it seems like they're back on track to be filming again. Again, I'm protecting my heart. Let's go to the next question, Jack. Next question comes from D. On the show, Sean and Amanda have mentioned how rare it is that their favorite movie of the year

actually wins best picture as one battle did this year. That had me wondering, exactly how rare is it? Has their favorite movie of the year ever won before now, if so, which year or years? Well, it's very rare. I could count three. Nope, four.

I count four. Okay. Do you have yours? Yeah. I'm scrolling back. I've got two right now. And this is in the modern era, right? I did the whole Oscars.

Okay, so I've got three. With the understanding that I haven't seen the full slate of 1930s films. Yeah. But I've seen plenty of Academy Award-nominated movies from the 30s. Okay. Now, to me, 34 and 35 are two great winners. One has it happened one night. That would be one of mine.

Which is one of the all-time Oscar winners, one of the three films that have won the five major awards. 35 is Mutiny on the Bounty, which is a movie I love, and I have been doing a bit with my daughter, and I'm going to do it right here with you, where Captain Bly, has played by Charles Lawton in the film, has my favorite line reading in the history of movies,

where he's been cast off by Christian Fletcher onto a boat and sent to the island. The mutant he has occurred, and Lawton is standing up on the rowboat with the other men who have been cast off with him, And he says, you're sending me to my doom A? Well, you're wrong, Christian. I'll see you all of you hanging from the highest yard arm in the British fleet.

Did you do it that loud? I do, and she laughs every time. I'm just completely blown out my voice. I mean, I applaud you for your commitment. Thank you. We're working on volume control of the other residents of my home right now, so I don't really know whether we could bring that. It's not the best thing to do at bedtime.

Yeah. You know, she gets a little fired up. Yeah. So those are my two picks from the 30s. Then you have to go all the way to 1962. Damn. Just absolutely skipping over Casablanca? Maybe I missed that.

Let me take a look at that year. Yeah, no, you're right. Casablanca would be on there for me for sure. Is there anything after Casablanca between that in 1962 that you would clock? So you got sunset Boulevard over all about Eve? That's exactly right. I picked sunset. But that's a close.

race, but that's one of the people... I understand that. It's not that all about Eve. It's just that Sunset Boulevard. It's just the one I prefer. Sure. Okay. Anything over the apartment? Psycho. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay. So that's a tricky one, but yeah, I went psycho.

What about... Oh, you don't... Do you know, you don't like West Side Story? I like it, but I don't like it more than the hustler. I like it more than the hustler. So that would work for me. Okay. And let's see. What else? So 62 is Lawrence of Arabia. Okay. Yeah, hard to argue with that.

Hard to argue with that one. There's some good movies that year. The remake of Mutiny on the Bounty is that year. To Kill a Mockingbird is that year. But that was pretty easy. And then I think it's pretty easy to go through the 60s and not have to pick one. I like a man for all seasons quite a bit.

I would take Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf over it. Mike Nichols' his first film. And then in the 70s, of course, you have the Godfather. Now, 72 is not, is among, I would. would say the weaker years from this glory period in the 1970s. Seventy-four, however, for the Godfather Part 2. You're doing Chinatown over Godfather Part 2. I think so. I think so. I don't... That's hard. I don't know where I go on that. Chinatown has been... I think I like Godfather Part 2 more than you do.

You always say you like Godfather more than Godfather Part 2. And I think I'm too over Godfather. Godfather. The first Godfather film to me is... Perfect, obviously. No, I know. Listen, it's splitting hairs. It's a... Okay. It's a Mexican Coke on a sunny day.

It is just, it is always good. It never, never doesn't work. Okay. 75, we just came up. You know, of course I would take Jaws and Nashville over one float of the cuckoo's nest and probably Barry Lyndon and dog day. Same. I think it's, I agree. And I like one flip of the cuckoo's nest.

And I've been thinking about Milose-Forman and I kind of want to do a Milosch-Forman episode. Okay. But, because he only had 12 movies. It's five for me. Okay. 76. Rocky, not my favorite out of that year. No. I might take all the other four.

Maybe three of the four. Annie Hall? Star Wars. Can take Annie Hall. Yeah. Deer Hunter? Interesting one? I prefer coming home.

I do too. Kramer versus Kramer in 79. Close. However. Apocalypse now. And all that jazz. Yeah. The 80s is kind of a mess.

Not a lot of great 80s wins, in my opinion. No. A lot of fusty stuff. wasn't very difficult to make this choice. Now, maybe Amadeus? Yeah, but Ghostbusters is also 84. That's the problem. When you get outside of the nominees in the 80s,

there are a lot more popcorn movies that I much prefer. So it's a very good point. I mean, some of that is also just because then we've seen more movies of the 80s than we have 30s. So we probably could go if we had seen everything in 40 and 41 and 42. Silence of the Lambs? Over JFK. No, I would take JFK. I'm asking.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Not for me. I wanted to talk about Demi really quickly. You know, the win for one battle after another reminds me a lot of the silence of the lambs win for a variety of reasons. Jonathan Demi widely revered amongst filmmakers, especially at this period in history. He makes this movie in Philadelphia back-to-back, which are two very big Academy films. Tom Hanks wins for Philadelphia.

But in general, when you look at the totality of Demi's career, and as a filmmaker who I was turned on to by Paul Thomas Anderson, repeatedly invoking his name when he was a young director and saying how much his movies meant to him, which led to me going back. back to explore all of Demi's movies, which I love. His career is super similar to PTA, and this one is super similar, where it was like, okay, this is the guy who's been doing it for 20 years, we really like what he's doing. You know, he comes from a certain tradition of filmmaking. Every once in a while, he gets material that is right for the moment, and then he'll go back to making his stuff. And I think when you look at the Phantom Thread and one battle experience, we're like really

big academy movies, but then everything else. else he's done is like liquor's pizza and her advice. Right. Like it doesn't totally match up with what they expect. I've just been thinking a lot about how. I think Demi would have enjoyed one battle after another. Okay. Let's keep going.

I mean, I can't take unforgiven over a few good men. I just can't. Yeah, no. Absolutely not. Schindler's list? No. You would take the remains of the day. No, I'd take the fugitive or Jurassic Park.

Yeah, Jurassic Park, of course. I would too. 94, of course not. Yeah. 95 of course not. No, absolutely not. 96, no. No.

97. Now, I, of course, would take L.A. confidential. I was an L.A. confidential boy. Titanic is incredibly important, but I would take Goodwill hunting. Oh, okay. I mean, that was... Goodwill hunting, extremely important to me. Speaking of Matt and Ben.

Shakespeare and love, perhaps you would. I never would. I never in my wildest dreams would. 99 is a car crash with American Beauty. Absolute disaster. Now, 2000 is Gladiator. I think many people would choose. that I personally have both traffic and crouching tiger over Gladiator, though I like

Gladiator quite a bit. And this is just of the nominees. It's the easiest way to manage this, right? Yeah. I think I prefer Brockovich to Gladiator, so. And you have this run here. Yeah. A Beautiful Mine.

Chicago Return of the King. I like Return of the King, but it might be my least favorite of the three Lord Lerings movies. Lost in Translation Forever. A million dollar baby, Crash, the Departed. Yes. Devil Wars Pada should have won this year. Thank you. Well, no, it's fine.

Martin Scorsese won. That's great. Like, The Departed wins. That's great. What's my favorite movie of 2006? Is it the departed? That's wonderful, if so. Is it? What were Ebert's favorite films of 2006? That's a useful metric.

Let's see. Oh, it's Children of Men. Oh, yeah. That should have also won. And also, you know what was in 2006? The Da Vinci Code. Yeah, that movie stinks. I noticed no one's meaming my Da Vinci Code moments.

That's fine. I'm going to start my own blog. Yeah. Just saw Lucas pointing in the booth. Panz Labrances. Casino Royale? Is that year? I mean, fine.

It's not skyfall, but it's pretty good. More of a skyfall guy. Okay. I know. That's why despite everything. We're together. Yes. No country.

No. There will be blood. And probably Michael Clayton, too. 2008 slumdog It's not slumdog I don't know what it is from that year There's another movie that year That I like more than slum dog

Which I think is solid Movies This is just fun to Google It's yeah I mean that was the year Of Dark Night and Wally So you probably like those more I certainly do 2009 the Hurt Locker

Of course I would go Serious Man and glorious bastards And glorious bastards 2010 King's Beach no 2011 the artist Absolutely not 2012 Argo No I would take a link in over Argo

eight days a week. I might take Argo on that one. It was funny. When did you and Bill and Chris have your Lincoln fight?

Which rewatchables was that also Zodiac? Sure, that sounds right. Yeah, and you guys were yelling at him and he was like nobody cares about Lincoln, which I agree is a strong take. However, like I wasn't there

E Rustic when you guys just watched Lincoln silent on the screen for whatever. It's a good movie. I like it a lot. It's an American classic. Important. Just the man?

Yeah. Yeah, sure. I agree. Thumbs up. Abraham Lincoln. Yeah. I think I liked other movies from 2012 more than any of the nominees, though. Skyfall.

Skyfall. Sure. 2013, 12 years of slave, no. I would take Wall Street. 2014 Birdman, no. I would take Whiplash. 2015, spotlight, no. I would take the Martian.

I just want to say I'd take Grand Budapost. hotel in 2014. I would as well. 2016, Moonlight. Hmm, moonlight. I really love Arrival. Speaking of Denisov. Moonlight. Well, I was making lists in 2016.

Oh, brother. Shall I pull it up? Yeah. Will you vamp for me? Yes, let's see. This is, so, Moonlight, Arrival. Moonlight wasn't my number one movie of 2016.

There's no way. Manchester by the sea could be in there. It's kind of like too depressing to be your favorite. favorite movie of the year. This was a pretty strong year. This is obviously Lala Land or Gaga Land. It's known in my house. Handmaiden.

Oh, yeah. It's a great one. We were still considering OJ Made in America film at that time. Sure. I think that's gone. I love 20th century women. Love. Yeah.

Now my favorite Mike Mills, but that's okay. Hell or Hot Water. Nominated. Nice guys. Oh, sure. That made it into Sierra Month, right? It did. It just recorded it.

That's exciting. Okay. Let's keep going. We'll finish this very quick. quickly. 2017, absolutely not. Not the shape of water. 2018,

Green Book. No. 2019, I put Parasite at number one. I know it that it was not. I did. I did not. I called it. I had once upon a time in Hollywood.

But listen, that was also the year of the Irishman, little women and marriage story, along with once upon a time in Hollywood. Banger year. Used to be a proper country. Yeah. 2020 Nomad Land. No, that was pretty high on 2020 list for me. I mean, mine too, but sure. I just, oh my God.

I just remembered the father. Yeah. 2021, Cota, no. 2022, everything ever all wants, no. 2023 Oppenheimer? No, Killers of the Flower Moon was both of our number ones. That's right. Because we have taste.

2024, Anora. Yes, actually, Anora was my number one, but I was out for a chunk of the year, so I didn't say everything. The Birdless is my number one, so no. Yeah. One battle after another is the first time in God. I mean, it's got to be, we're going all the way back to. I mean, back to the 90s. Okay.

Back to... No, we're going back to the 80s. Did you put a bigger splash as your number one movie of the year in 15 or 16? I did. Listen, every once in a while, you're still a real one. Thank you. But that's it. Dee, thank you for asking the question that just had us listing movies for 20 minutes.

We appreciate you. This is what it's all about. Yeah. This is what podcasting is all about is people naming some stuff. I we have to go God, all the way back Am I going back to the 70s for my pick? I think I'm going all the way back to the Godfather for the last time my favorite movie of the year

won best picture. Okay. Wow. Congratulations. What a historic win that was on Sunday for me. All right. What's the next question, Jack? Next question comes from Brian.

We had a largely awesome awards night with worthy winners and a jarringly positive Sean. This got me thinking, what would have been your, quote-unquote, darkest timeline for the big six? Picture, director, actress, actor, and screenplay. Which choices would have left you with the worst taste at the end of the night? Frankenstein for picture. Yeah.

Close you out for director. Yes. Actress, probably Kate Hudson. Sorry. And she did a nice job on the circuit. Not her fault. You know? I like her.

After doing the baby Yoda bit, the Grogu bit, excuse me. And then it would just feel a little to industry-e. Actor, there are no bad answers. Yeah. There were no bad answers. I don't, you know, what is the darkest timeline? All five of them are awesome. Well, I think probably the darkest experiential timeline would have been Timmy winning

and just getting in everyone else's face. You and I would have enjoyed it, but everyone else would have had a full meltdown. I know. And we would still be in a very dark timeline right now. Imagine. I know. What a troll that would have been. I know.

It's fine. He'll get there one day. Screenplay? Darkest timeline is anyone but Coogler winning. In original? Yeah. And Chloe Jow and Maggie Farrell winning and adapted over PTA. Yeah.

The Frankenstein is up for Adapted too, wasn't it? Yeah. That also would have been rough. Yes. What's next? Next question comes from Gabe with Shob. With Sean Penn winning his third acting Oscar, who do you all think will be the next actor

to join this exclusive list? I think Emma Stone will surely win another, but is there hope for Timmy? Does Tom Hanks or Denzel have one more in the tank? Well, let's look at the list of two. Yes. There's a lot of people who've won two acting Oscars, many of whom are not with us anymore.

So let's talk about who's still with us. Kate Blanchet? Kate Blanchett, sure. Seems very possible. Let's just do the whole list of who's on the board because there's some people who are alive who will never win another one. For example, Kevin Spacey. Yeah.

He won't win again. Adrian Brody? I wouldn't take bets on Adrian Brody. Christoph Waltz? Probably not. I would agree. You never know. Quentin Tarantino has one more film in him.

You never know. So he says. Mahershala Ali. I think that could happen. It could happen. He's 50. Because they were so closely grouped together. Two years.

He's such a wonderful actor. Yeah. Need a good movie from him soon. Yeah. Hillary Swank? That was a moment in time that I think is over. What about Diane Weist? That would be nice.

The right late career. Though again, that late in a career, you tend to get the it's time and it's not really time. That's right. So I think that would be a bit harder. Surprising to me that both Diane Weist and this other two-time winner, Sally, field are not even 80 years old yet. Still work to be done. Okay.

Renee Zellweger. Well, I was kind of surprised by the first two, so you never know. Yes. Glenda Jackson is still alive. Wow. She's 87. Okay. She has not acted in several years.

So it seems unlikely. Emma Stone. This seems like a great bet. It's going to happen. Yeah. It may not be 20 more years before it happens, but it's going to happen. That's what happened with Meryl, right? It's going to be Meryl, Catherine Hepburn, like, she's in that lineage for sure.

Jody Foster. You know what? Jody Foster is so great in every movie that she is in. And you watch the movie. I haven't seen the most recent one. I haven't either, and I want to see it. I'm going to watch it before we do our movies that we missed. But basically every time she's in something, whether it's good or bad, you're like, you know what?

Jody Foster. We're on the exact same page. I think her choices have been bold but poor in the last 15 years. I think she's taken some interesting risk because she clearly likes to challenge herself. The movies just haven't worked out. Remember the Mauritanian? Yes, with Shailene Woodley.

Yes. That was so strange. And that was like meant to be an awards film and it didn't really get there. But she was just wonderful in Nyad. I thought she was so good in Nyad. Incredible. So yeah, you could see that.

You could see her having a performance in her 60s or 70s where she gets in. Okay, Jessica Lange. I think if it's going to happen for, like, one more time for a great Hollywood icon, even though this person doesn't work that much anymore. She does TV. No, no, no, not Jessica Lange. I think it's going to go to Jane Fonda.

Oh, wow. But she's pushing, like 85, right? She is still fucking out here protesting. I know. And ripping for Redford. And given amazing quotes about CNN. and Redford and everything else. She was like, why did Barbara Streisand get to present?

She did one movie with him. I did four with Robert Redford, and I was in love with him. And Jane Vana hasn't won an Oscar since 78, since coming home. Controversial figure. That's true. Michael Kane? He's retired, right? He's not keeping me updated on that.

Anthony Hopkins. I don't think we can do it again after the father. Okay, Tom Hanks. I would love it. I would love nothing more. And I could see this. You know, if he finds the right part, one last go to an American treasure. Dustin Hoffman next year at the Oscars for Fawker-in-law.

The Dustin Hoffman scenes in Megadoc are amazing stuff. De Niro. You could see it. But he was nominated for Irishman, Irishman, right? He was. And it didn't happen. No. Irishman blanked.

What a mistake. out three is interesting. Not since... Jack with three and De Niro with two. Well, it's not over. And Pacino with one. Yeah. I don't know what that's about. Pretty weird.

Denzel's got two. It could happen. It could happen. And it would be wonderful. Yeah. I think that's it. I think that's a list. Okay.

Everybody else has passed on. You mentioned Cape Lanchette definitely seems like that's a possibility. Yeah. And I think Merrill will get to four. You do. I do. For Devil We're Prada too.

No, I just think before all is said and done. For Narnia? Who is she in Narnia? I don't know. I made that up. Someone told me that you pronounced the lion in Narnia in a different way than I have been producing it, but now I can't remember how you produce it. Anyone in the booth, no?

Oslan. No, that's not it. Wait, how do you say it? I'm saying Aslan. I'm saying it, you know, as a dumb American. Asslan? Yeah, that's what it is. I have no idea.

I don't either. And someone even spelled it out for me phonetically. I'm going to need the year. UK people to weigh in at some point. But now I'm psyched out. Now I can't remember what's correct. I don't care. I think you're going to care.

Come Thanksgiving. When the magician's nephew comes to town. Yeah. When the plumber's niece visits Narnia. What's the next question? Next question comes from Nelson. What would it actually take for the Academy to release vote totals? Obviously, the reason they have never done it is because theoretically, it may hurt a

nominee's feelings. But vote totals are released for basically every award in every major sport, and non-winners are rarely, if ever, publicly aggrieved. I know the casting or stunt Oscars are actual industry awards for professionals. But do you think a similar sustained push for releasing the votes could lead it to happening? No. It'll never happen. I don't follow the sports voting very much. You know, every once in a while someone posts like, oh, well, there goes MVP, or that's decided or something or other. And I'm just kind of like, that's a black box to me. Sure.

But my impression is that people do have feelings about MVP and being voted for or not voted for. They're usually voted on by the press. Yes. So journalists vote. And then you do see the tallies. Yeah. But then I see a lot of athletes like weeping when they get it.

And all I see are conspiracy theory is, about Kevin Durant's burner accounts. So I do, maybe that doesn't count as public. I'm not sure if those things are related. As we've previously discussed, if you're posting on the internet, we see it. How many burner accounts do you have? I don't have that kind of time. Here's something I think about, honestly, when I am, when like a mean comment or something

makes its way into my orbit is I, except for what I am posting for my job, I just do not post on the internet, I'm just almost never commenting, typing into that comment box. And I don't really know anyone who is. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know that many people who are doing it. I don't know. I don't know that many people who are just like, now it's time for me to log in to my comment box. It's always people who have the most fulfilled and complete lives. People who feel that they are loved and can give love and people who have kind of realized their potential as men and women. And I find common union with them. Jack, you in the comments a lot? Absolutely never. I don't, I don't understand. It's like, it's not, you're not a real person. You're a robot. What is the impulse

is you just click in and take the time? I mean, I know what it is. I deserve to be heard. Sure, that's right. Make your own page, you know? Agreed. Next question. For the record, I like nice community building comments. Listen, we have a lot of nice comments. You know, thank you for everyone for asking where my dress is from. But like, you know what I'm saying? Of course. I don't really spend that much time. Anyway. Next question comes from Cameron. There seems to be a positive energy surrounding the general state of cinema this year, culminating in an Oscars that felt optimistic, exciting, and a bit unpredictable. Most importantly, there was a meeting of movies people actually saw and liked original ideas and quote unquote good films. How do movie studios keep this up and build on what feels like positive momentum?

I mean, I try to take some lessons from whatever Pam and Mike we're doing. You know, I think if you feel like coming out of this, that taking chances on great artists and letting them have a little bit more so you can get their movie, yeah, fucking do it. What else can I say? Don't pay David Zazloff $800 million? Well, I don't think we can stop that, unfortunately. That seems to be transpiring.

I don't even think the studios can stop that. But, you know. I think it's just investing in artists. I think that's the most important thing. I think it is finding people who have good ideas, putting them in supportive environments, making sure that the other parts of the studio system that really matter to the movie industry, the marketing department, business affairs, how the productions are run, that all of those pieces of the puzzle are still getting,

are being fed and getting the attention that they need so that they can best serve the movies that are being made. Because they're always good movies. Good movies are always coming out. I have no trouble making a best-up list every single year, even during COVID. it's the way that those movies are platformed and how they're sold to people and then how they go up into the conversation. No guarantee that Seners was going to work.

No guarantee that it was going to work at the box office. No matter how good it is, it's got to be sold properly to the world. Ryan Coogler did a smart thing by taking the reins on that movie and coming up with his own marketing plan and getting out in front of it and being like, here's how you should see my movie

and here's why it's important. That helped a lot. I think that also educated audiences about what moviegoing is all about. This can be done. just sit down and think about it and don't treat people like they're five years old don't treat people like they just want to

fucking eat garbage all the time we don't want garbage we want good stuff we know what's good we can tell we're sophisticated I promise just listen to us and listen to the people

who are making your stuff okay rant over okay next question comes from Chase now that Leonardo DiCaprio has headlined three best picture winners with Titanic that departed in one battle something that I believe

only Dustin Ha Hoffman has ever done. Where do you view him all time in the pantheon of great stars? Do you put him alongside a Brando or Nicholson? If not, what else would have to do to get to that level?

Hoffman is not the only one. Clark Gable also did this. Speaking of the 1930s, in 1934, he was in and happened one night. In 1935, Mutiny on the Bounty, which just blew my voice out, and in 1939, gone with the win. Within six years,

he was the lead of three best picture winners, which is extraordinary. And Gable, I think, doesn't have the same stranglehold on Hollywood history that some of his some of the people

who directly followed him you know you're Jimmy Stewart's but he was he was Leo before Leo I think Leo was pretty clearly on the Nicholson level

at this point Oh yeah You know I think in terms of star power and his acting skills and kind of representing generationally what the movies are I was going to say he is the generational guy Right for sure

Brando's different Brando Brando was a great star, but Brando is first and foremost a great actor who transformed acting and transformed what people thought acting, American acting could and should be. Leo has not done that. I think he's a wonderful actor, but that's not his person. That's not what he's known for, and he probably never will be known for that specifically. And then Brando also very much rejected a lot of the public understanding of him and

or expectation of what it means to be a movie star. Yes. And Leo has handled it very differently than Jack Nicholson. And I wouldn't quite say that Leo has. a statesman of Hollywood and doesn't have any interest in it, but he is very, very deliberate in what he chooses and who he works with and how he is going to be perceived. And then wanted his time to promote a movie. Like, he shows up. He was on this podcast. He was there throughout award season, even if he was stuck on a yacht. He's also throwing gas at the Oscars.

Yeah. He just like, I was like, oh, yeah, he's back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mustache looked cool. He looked cool. He played along with all the bits. Like, he just kind of lived up to the moment in a way that Nicholson would have. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, I love Leo. We've been saying for 10 years, Leo, he's the guy of the generation without question. I do think that he has a very similar thing, too, which you learn about the more you talk to people who make movies, that when a big star becomes involved in a movie, they have a lot

of opinions. They have a strong point of view about what is a Leonardo DiCaprio movie, and then they collaborate with the filmmaker, and they make sure that the character that they're playing in the film at large kind of works with that persona. that it fits who they are. You know, if you look in the 90s, you see Will Smith doing this, you see Nicholas Cage doing this, of course, Hanks and Cruz do this.

They have a really, because of all of the power that they've accumulated, they get to collaborate more than your, you know, run-of-the-mill movie star. And I can tell that his influence is very strong and that he is so deliberate, as you say, because he also likes working with people who know how to collaborate with him. So I think Nicholson's a very good comp. Nicholson kind of bent movies around his will because he had such a strong personality

and that personality, very few of his performances could be considered subtle. But the movies were almost always better because he was in them. So that's a unique thing that Leo, I think for the most part, has got his arms around, especially as he's gotten more comedic over the last 10 years.

He's really gotten to be a skilled comic actor and you can feel him almost infusing that personality into the movies. This is my favorite thing to think about, so I love that question. What's next? Next question comes from Alex. Can the Oscars help save movie theaters? No.

And do they, like, is it their job? No. Well, okay. Well, but like, here's they could do. Yeah. If your movie does not open on X number of screens for X number of weeks, you're not qualifying for best picture. I don't know if they can do that because small movies,

like the Secret Agent, might not never be able to, And that punishes also small movies and that punishes. It does. It does. That punishes movies rather than helping movie theaters is sort of the issue. And I think that... It would help movie theaters. It would help movie theaters if they broke Netflix as will. If they told them either you're signing up or you're getting out of this race entirely.

You're either giving up your whole fight for not putting movies on 5,000 screens or you have to do it. And then once you start doing it, there can be no... there can no longer be Guillermo del Toro's $150 million dream project that you can only watch at home. That won't happen anymore. It won't make sense. It won't be logical.

It would have to go into movies onto thousands of screens, but it would hurt the secret agent. It would hurt sentimental value. It would hurt it was just an accident. It would change the Oscars again dramatically. So I don't think that they'll do it. But if they wanted specifically to work with exhibitors,

that would help. Then you wouldn't be able to sneak around and be a streamer and get to compete for these awards. But you know what? Streamers still haven't won. Only Apple has won one for CODA in a COVID year. Yeah.

So I don't. Is there anything else? What else could they do? I mean, you really do have to limit that to Best Picture because then otherwise you're absolutely kneecapping documentaries and international features, as you said, but even some of the smaller craft movies that don't have any chance of making it. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I have a complicated relationship with the ideas of the, of the movie industry and its attendant parts, quote unquote, saving movie theaters, which are a dependent but separate business and have not adapted in their own ways to serve either the movies or the customer.

So, you know. I know, and I respect where you're coming from on that. And I think you're right that the exhibitors can always do more to make it just better for all of us. Yeah. The thing is, is if you're too hardline about that, then baby goes out with bathwater. Right. You know? I mean, it's both ways.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Okay. Good question. What's the next question? Next question comes from Matthew.

Piggybacking on your conversation of what legendary active filmmaker has yet to win an Oscar, what actor or actresses have never won or even never been nominated that you'd like to see win someday. Harrison Ford. I mean, we... Tom Cruise. Real one. Not honorary. Who's never been nominated?

Because Ford was nominated. Once. But he was nominated. Once. Cruz has been nominated. In 1985. I didn't prepare for this question. Who's the most talented, deserving person who's never been nominated for an Academy Award?

Rachel McAdams got nominated for Spotlight. So that's out. I was just thinking of people I've seen recently who don't have Oscars. I'm just thinking of directors. Like who's a director who's been nominated for? who has never been nominated. Such an interesting question. Yeah.

Denny has been nominated. Denny's got a win soon, by the way. He's not going to win for Bond. It would be really interesting to see if he's really competing for director. That could happen. I could see that happening. Oh, I would assume that it would. Yeah.

Denny versus Nolan in 27. Yeah. It's pretty sick. It's exciting. John Goodman? Grade one. He's never been nominated. John Goodman's never been nominated?

I mean, I just Googled it. I can do a second fact check. That's a great call, Jack, and many people have pointed that out over the years, and he has a supporting part in Digger. Oh, okay. Here we go. It's time. So it might be time. Another guy who you've never seen him pop up in a movie and think I wish he wasn't there.

Makes everything better. Walter Sobjack, of course, the goat. I like that. Let's go with that. Never nominated is tricky. There are a lot of people who we like who've never won, but never nominated it is rare. Okay, let's do two more, two and a half more. Sounds good.

Next one comes from Dean from Australia. The 100th Oscars are fast approaching. What would you do differently during the show to celebrate a century of film? I mean, Sean's earlier point slash pitch was correct, is that you've got to build it out over a year so that you're not stuck trying to cram in three and a half,

like 100 years of Oscar history into three hours. I think this is a place where clips could work but clips of previous awards, acceptance speeches, and great Oscar moments as opposed to movie moments. I think you can't honor 100 years of film in one television broadcast, but you could focus it on the Oscars. And I think this is one place where it's okay to be a little navel-gazy.

You've got to walk a fine line. But use the history of the ceremony itself. use all the great tape that you have. So interesting. I don't know a single one of our quote unquote guys or gals who are going to be making movies for 2027 and the 2028 Oscars. Going on the list of all of our faves. Okay. I can't think of a single one who's going to have a movie out that's going to be competing.

Maybe Jordan Peel. Maybe. Sophia, you never know. You never know. But it might be smaller. There's nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's still a little bit of time.

It's early 2026. Not all movies need to... Yeah. But Tarantino, Fincher, Soderberg, PTA, Spike. Nancy Myers. Yeah, but I know. It's not. I know. That's a total commercial play, that movie. Yeah, I agree.

Which is great. That's something wrong with that. It's just, you know, Secret Wars is also a commercial play. Sure. I don't think that will be competing. But there's not even like a Dune Part 3 where you're like, oh, an event film that is prestigious, but probably will be in the awards conversation or an Odyssey. all of the, all of the franchise stuff that's been announced is money-making stuff, and that's it. So, and as far as I know, is there a Chazelle movie coming?

You know, I'm trying to think of who are the prison movie. You know, like, there's not a lot. We don't know because there's these things change over the course of 20 months, but as I think about that race, whatever it is and how it is reflected in the show, does the show have to be more history than contemporary, too? It's an interesting question, right? And maybe you're right, maybe it's kind of how they celebrated. Here's what they should do.

Maybe it's how they celebrated SNL 50. Oh, okay. Night before, you have a separate event that is televised. You know, it was a music concert on SNL 50 the night before, which also had plenty of bits and famous people and people who were part of the cast and history of it. And then the second night was the proper SNL 50 performance of the show. You could do something like that. And then also maybe you'll have six attendance. documentaries that are associated with Oscar history

the same way that SNL did. I would probably take a page out of that book because I think by and large SNL 50 was very successful. I'm sure they're already deep into planning a lot of the things that are going to be happening around that, but maybe a film festival. I would probably try to start a film festival

that gives you a seven-day run in the January or February before the Academy Awards, which then can work also as like FYC events. I should be being paid for this. Right. I mean, I like, why are you still? I don't know. Yeah.

But if you'd like to call me, you can. What's next? If this is our last question, I'm going to jump down to Ken. Right. Just Ken? Just Ken. Picture this. It's 2036.

What are you looking back on from this year's Oscars that turned out to be an indicator or an omen for how the Academy Awards or Hollywood in general would change over the next few years? What from this year represents a turning point? Is AI involved in showmaking? I mean, you know, I was going to say, I hope it's not. a capper on the Warner Brothers as a, you know, existing historic studio and or the original filmmakers, you know, making big budget blockbuster works of art that also compete for best picture. I don't think that will be the case.

There's definitely a reading that this is, this was the last day of the good times, right? You could definitely say that this is, you know, the funeral pyre for the end of studio filmmaking and its primacy in terms of prestigious filmmaking at scale, but probably not because the Odyssey's coming out. You know, it's like, it's not over. Universal is not going to stop making great movies. In fact, I think studios like Disney and Amazon kind of got to get with the program and they got to start making more mainstream, you know, real adult movies with a real.

original material or adaptations, like Project Hill Mary is three days away. I think that a movie like that is the future of this stuff. And it's not original. It's based on something that exists. But it's based, you know, on a book. It's based on a book. That's a tale as old as time. Yes.

Or at least Hollywood. And it also has a lot of touchstones that we're familiar with, which we'll get into at large later this week. But it feels familiar but different. I'm going to keep saying that. And that you can't just make the same franchise movie. You can make a movie that is in the same vein as something, but it has to have a spin on it. And I think Project Hail Mary is successful in that regard.

And so I don't think that when we look back at this show, we're going to be like it was the end of something specifically. Yeah. I do think it's going to seem like an outlier, though, that PTA got $100 million to make a movie. And then he got to the mountaintop and is invoked with like it happened one night and silence of the lambs on a podcast. I would never have predicted that. Even if he was like going to get an It's Time Oscar, I would have thought, okay, original screenplay. Right.

Maybe director in a split. Never would have thought. I guess so. I mean, it does seem like this will look like 93 did for Spielberg and 2006 did for Scorsese, which was they finally get like, you know, a great generational or cross-generational director like gets, gets their. moment. He gets to be considered in that vein. Now you're right. And I think also that we'll probably look back on this as the year, hopefully we'll look back on this as the year that, you know,

Coogler really did become a major presence at the Oscars. I, you know, I was joking about him as, you know, the new Merrill Streep of the Oscars from a reaction shot. But like a fixture, someone in the audience, someone who is regularly nominated, someone who has a connection to a lot of people working because what Ryan Coogler has done in addition to, you know, creating centers winning his own original screenplay Oscar starting a whole movement is he has brought up a whole generation of filmmakers with him, right? Like everyone below the line has won Oscars with him or, you know, one started whole careers on his sets.

So I think he's going to be there a lot. And that has been happening at Oscar's previous, but this is the year really Chris. Stylized. Yeah. What I hope for him, he can lead his career however he likes. But what I hope for him is he makes more sinners. You know, his next two projects are the X-Files and Black Panther 3. I love Black Panther and I love the X-Files.

I'm looking forward to both of those projects. I don't think of them in the same way for me personally as someone who loves film, the same way I think about something like sinners. And I hope that that is the direction that he goes. And if he continues to pursue that direction, he'll be there every time he makes a movie. Yeah. You know, he will be Nolan. That's, Nolan is now in that place or every time a Nolan movie comes around, you're like, well, this is the event of the year.

And that's where you want to go when you're a filmmaker with that much power and that much skill and that much insight. So it could be, it could be the announcement of him. I mean, you could say the announcement of him was Black Panther. You could say the announcement of him was Creed, you know? Like, it's hard to say, like, what was the pivot point? Totally. But he won his first Oscar to, like on Sunday night. And the camera kept finding him because everyone, many people associated with him also won Oscars.

Yeah. And it just... He goes from up and comer to ambassador now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're right about that. Okay. Any closing thoughts?

We're done. Yeah, good Oscars. Moderate Outlook. You want to do anything on 2027 before we go? Sure. What are the... Odyssey, Dune. Yep.

And then everything that's going to be a can. There's more than that. Disclosure day. Yeah, I wonder. I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. Sorry to our third chair, Steven Spielberg, for not putting that in the first sentence. There's got to be odds right now.

There's got to be odds on this. Okay. Oh, great. I'll say, I mean, Josephine from Sundance. Right. I think we'll be in consideration. If you're looking for an It's Time person, Martin McDonough, his new film, Wild Horse Nine, is coming later this year from Searchlight. Of course, we have Digger.

Right. From Tom Cruise and Alejo Gonzalez Inorritu. We have the social record. from Aaron Sorkin. Okay. I'm getting a little... We have Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic. Okay.

We have Jack of Spades from Joel Cohen. Right. We have the aforementioned Project Hail Mary. Yes, we do. Anne Hathaway season. Multiple Anne Hathaway films. I hope she gets at least one Oscar nomination. God bless her.

Fjord? A lot of speculation about Fjord. You know who looked very good at the Academy Awards is Renato Rinesva? She really did. That was one of my favorite. She was wearing Louis Vuitton. My word. Yeah.

The red. You see the after party? That was also, listen, she's very, very hot. I preferred the ceremony look, but I understand

what you're responding to. And I think that's great. I carumba. And then, of course, Doomsday. Yeah. Right? Jackie Pumpped for Doomsday?

I could not care less. I don't know. I'm still kind of excited. I want to see it. Show it to me. It's done, definitely. They figured everything out.

You think they'll call me in? So they'll definitely let you see it. Their shitty bit at the Academy Awards was just like everything for me. I'm just like, I cannot wait for this to be over. I know. That was rough. Well, I can wait for this episode to be over. It's ending right now.

Okay. You feel good about it? Yeah, sure. Thanks to Jack Sanders. What a run by Jack Sanders. He's been cranking out content with a big picture, multiple days in a row. Content never sleeps here on the show. Thanks to Lucas Kavanaugh for his production support on the show.

We'll be back on Friday to break down one of the biggest movies of the year so far. our Project Hail Mary. We'll see you then.