‘Lost’ and ‘Watchmen’ Showrunner Damon Lindelof and Fuzzy Door Productions President Erica Huggins Keynote Variety’s Power of Law Breakfast

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Ellen Stutzman, the Writers Guild of America West’s chief negotiator, was out early Monday morning taking part in the family-themed picket that drew big crowds of striking writers and their children — including a few furry family members — to the sidewalks outside Netflix headquarters at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue in Hollywood. Stutzman’s presence at the location that has been one of the most heavily trafficked picketing sites was praised by WGA members who feel that guild leaders are going the extra mile to provide support and communication on the strike that began May 2. Stutzman, who brought her young son Mateo in a stroller, said the next steps in the process of coming to agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are self-evident.

A group of top showrunners met today to discuss the WGA strike – a day after it emerged the studios told writer/producers were not excused from producing duties during the labor action.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor David Zaslav and his team could be forgiven for sounding a little stressed on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q1 earnings call. The company’s numbers were pretty grim for a CEO who prizes his free cash flow. The Warner Bros. Discovery chief was fired up about a number of issues affecting the studio behind the shield, and he fired off verbal volleys, pop culture quotes and metaphors, invoking everything from military terminology to Formula 1 racing to “The Blues Brothers.” But the liveliest moment of the hourlong conference call with Wall Street analysts was Zaslav’s discussion of subscriber churn rates and how they differ between HBO Max and Discovery+, the two streamers that are set to be married and relaunch as a joint product dubbed Max on May 23.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor It’s deja vu all over again for Patric Verrone, the former WGA West president who led the guild during the 2007-08 writers strike. Verrone, who spoke to Variety while picketing outside Fox Studios in West Los Angeles, sees a number of parallels to the dynamic that led to the work stoppage in November 2007 but also a number of important differences. He is a member of the negotiating committee that has been wrangling this latest three-year contract with executives at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “I would say the chief similarity is that in 2007, and in 2023, the management didn’t believe us, when we said we were going to strike and that our demands were genuine, and that we had the full support of our membership,” Verrone said. “There was skepticism on the part of the companies that this would actually happen.”

Writers Guild of America is settling in for a strike that could last weeks if not months. But Kay Cannon, creator of the “Pitch Perfect” film trilogy and member of the guild’s negotiating committee, feels that her union is ready for what lies ahead. “This is different than the 2007 strike,” Cannon said during a roundtable video discussion with TheWrap.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Big names from across movies and television are coming together to voice their support for the Writers Guild of America strike, which officially started on Tuesday. Notable creators speaking out include “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, “Dopesick” writer and director Danny Strong and “Mrs. Davis” writers and producers Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez.

Charlie Collier, who segued last fall from lengthy exec stints at Fox Corp. and AMC Networks to a top post at Roku, took the stage at his first NewFronts pitch Tuesday to invite advertisers to bring their messages to the stream.

Damon Lindelof has admitted he was told to stay far, far away from the Star Wars universe.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The New York Dolls’ wildly original debut album got Martin Scorsese through the making of “Mean Streets” in 1973. Years later, Dolls frontman David Johansen enlivened the soundtrack of Scorsese’s HBO series productions “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Scorsese is also a regular listener of Johansen’s Sirius XM series “Mansion of Fun.” Finally, after Scorsese caught Johansen’s career-spanning cabaret set at the Café Carlyle, the director-producer – a storied teller of New York stories – decided that the time was ripe for a documentary on the proto-punk scion of Staten Island. “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” which debuted April 14 on Showtime, chronicles Johansen’s evolution from the Dolls to the lounge-y pop of his Buster Poindexter period through his present day life as a husband, stepfather and eminence grise of New York’s music scene.

Damon Lindelof is in the limelight yet again thanks to the success of his most recent TV show, “Mrs. Davis,” on Peacock now.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Damon Lindelof’s exit from the Star Wars universe was not a mutual decision, the writer confirmed in a new Esquire interview. The “Lost” and “The Leftovers” co-creator boarded a new Star Wars movie in 2022 with “Ms. Marvel” director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attached to direct. Lindelof brought on Justin Britt-Gibson (“Counterpart,” “Into the Badlands”) to co-write the project with him. The duo exited the film in February. “I was in more than talks to join the Star Wars universe,” Lindelof told Esquire. “I joined the Star Wars universe and was asked to leave.”  Lindelof and Britt-Gibson were replaced as writers by Steven Knight, best known in recent years as the creator of “Peaky Blinders.” Obaid-Chinoy remained as director amid the screenwriting transition. Lindelof told Variety earlier this month that his script was “a true labor of love.”

William Earl Variety will return in-person with its TV FYC Fest on June 7 in L.A., featuring HBO/Max Chief Casey Bloys, Kerry Washington, Elle Fanning, Janelle James, Gina Rodriguez and Weird Al Yankovic. Fanning (“The Great”), James (“Abbott Elementary”), Rodriguez (“Not Dead Yet”) and Washington (“UnPrisoned”) will participate in a roundtable celebrating Disney’s TV female comedy standouts. Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content will offer his vision for TV storytelling with Cynthia Littleton, co-editor-in-chief of Variety, in what will be his first interview following the series finale episode of “Succession.”

collaboration with Brady, an organization empowering the creative community in the movement to end gun violence, over 200 writers, directors and producers, including J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow and Damon Lindelof signed an open letter to “lead positive cultur[al] change by modeling firearm safety on-set.”And in collaboration with that several creatives of the film and television, including actors Adam Brody and Piper Perabo, are traveling to Washington D.C. to discuss the #ShowYourSafety initiative.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Variety has hired acclaimed magazine writer Stephen Rodrick to be a chief correspondent for the publication. In his new post, Rodrick will write cover stories and longform pieces about Hollywood, movies, TV shows and important figures in the entertainment industry. His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, New York and The New Yorker. He has spent the past decade writing for Rolling Stone. “Stephen is one of the best magazine writers in the country,” say Variety co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “His arrival at Variety comes in a year where we are experiencing unprecedented digital growth. We are so excited to start publishing his beautiful, literary writing in the pages of our weekly print magazine and online.”

Sophia Scorziello editor The possibility of labor strife crippling the entertainment industry was the dominant topic of conversation at Variety’s Power of Law breakfast, presented by City National Bank on April 20 in Beverly Hills. The event honored veteran entertainment lawyer Craig Emanual, of Paul Hastings, and celebrated those profiled in Variety’s Legal Impact Report, which recognizes attorneys for their work in keeping the media and entertainment business humming. Claudia Eller, chief production officer for Variety, opened the event with a Q&A with Erica Huggins, president of Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door production company, to talk about their expansion in the industry. Immediately, the conversation shifted to the possibility of the Writers Guild of America going on strike next month. Huggins admitted she believes a work stoppage will happen, though she hopes it won’t.

William Earl Nicholas Stango has been promoted to executive producer of video for Variety, a role where he’ll oversee all editorial video production for one of the biggest brands in entertainment news. “Nick is a thoughtful, innovative leader who has created some of our most successful video franchises,” say Variety co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “Under his watch, we can’t wait for Variety to continue to grow as the No. 1 destination in the digital space for videos about the entertainment industry.” Since Stango was promoted in February, Variety‘s video team has been on a winning streak. In the 24 hours following the start of the 2023 Oscars red carpet, Variety notched its highest-ever day of social traffic, racking up 122 million video views across platforms. 

Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit in Los Angeles, marketing pros came together to discuss their challenges, best practices and triumphs. Here are the highlights from the event, held Wednesday at 1 Hotel West Hollywood. Competition for Attention Is Fierce In the summit’s opening session, moderated by Variety co-editor-in chief Cynthia Littleton, panelists spoke about dealing with trying to win viewers amid the flood of content across platforms. “We’re competing with everything… This is no longer a linear-timeslot thing,” said Margaret Walker, SVP, NBC brand strategy and audience growth. Domenic DiMeglio, chief marketing officer of Paramount Streaming, said that staying close with fans on social can help inform content-development strategy. For example, he cited “Teen Wolf,” which ended its run on MTV in 2017 but “had a really engaged, rabid social fanbase.” That led the company to develop a “Teen Wolf” movie for Paramount+ that premiered in January.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo embraces the wacky side of faith and technology with Peacock’s newest series, “Mrs. Davis.” Created by Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” “The Leftovers” HBO’s “Watchmen”) and Tara Hernandez (“The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon”), the show follows Simone (Betty Gilpin), a nun who has been tasked with tracking down the Holy Grail by an all-knowing and possibly evil artificial intelligence, referred to by many as, “Mrs.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor When it comes to entertainment marketing, TikTok is the new “ground zero.” That was among the views expressed by a panel of five top film and TV marketing executives held Wednesday as part of Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit at the One Hotel in West Hollywood. The lively conversation, moderated by Claudia Eller, Variety’s chief production officer, touched on the challenge of working with shrinking marketing budgets, the need to create bespoke content for an array of platforms and the thrill of scoring big with earned media and word of mouth. But the discussion became the most animated when the group discussed the outsized role that TikTok now plays in spreading the word on entertainment content.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Hollywood is a “uniquely American” construct that is deeply intertwined with the concept of the United States as a land of rags-to-riches opportunity. That’s the view shared by David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chair of investment giant Carlyle Group, after his visit to the Hollywood hills for an episode of his new PBS series “Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories.” “The whole culture of Hollywood is one that is uniquely American,” Rubenstein says on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” in discussing the episode of “Iconic America” that is devoted to the Hollywood sign. The series debuts April 26. “What we try to do in these so-called symbols of our country, is to talk about things that are really uniquely American. Obviously there’s Bollywood in India, but generally, if you think about making movies, you think about Hollywood, and a uniquely American kind of enterprise,” Rubenstein says.