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This episode is brought to you by Warner Bros. Pictures. Presenting Sinners, written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Hailed as the best picture of the year, the New York Times calls Sinners a big screen exultation, a passionate, effusive praise song about life and love, including the love of movies. And Time out says Ryan Coogler's bold vision makes Sinners a true event. An exuberant widescreen experience that stirs the soul, Sinners is awards eligible in all categories including Best Picture, Best Best Director and Best Actor. This episode is brought to you by AMC. You do not want to miss Rise of the 49ers the limited series event found exclusively on AMC and AMC. Executive produced by Tom Brady, the docu series charts the legendary rise of the San Francisco 49ers from underdogs to five time Super bowl champions in the 80s and 90s and how they became a cultural force amid the Bay Area's seismic transformation. It features interviews with hall of Fame icons Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott as well as never before seen archival footage. Visit amcplus.com to start your free trial. Now, Before we get started, I have an announcement to make the Town is going on tour. Yes, we're going to three top film schools around Southern California. Craig is driving the town bus, going to Chapman, going to usc, going to afi, and we're going to bring some special guests along with us. Unfortunately, tickets are only for people that go to those film schools or alumni, but we're going to post the episodes on Spotify, YouTube and all of the other platforms so you will be able to listen and if this is successful, maybe we'll do more. I'm looking at the Aruba, Bahamas film schools. All right, let's get to the show. This episode of the Town is presented by 20th Century Studios. Fire and Ash don't miss the Movie critics are raving is epic and exciting and gorgeous and heartbreaking and stands as one of the greatest films ever made. It's got incredible visuals, jaw dropping action and a cinematic achievement. Avatar Fire and Ash, now playing in theaters and now nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. It is Monday, February 9th. It's been a pretty wild week in the saga of what's going to happen to Warner Brothers Netflix, which is in the process of buying the studio and HBO Max for $83 billion. Its co CEO Ted Sarandos was summoned to a surreal hearing before a U.S. senate subcommittee in Washington alongside the top strategy executive for Warner Discovery. This was supposed to be about whether Netflix buying Warners was bad for consumers. But it was mostly a forum for political grandstanding about culture war stuff. At one point, Ted Cruz asked Sarandos if he thought they were sitting on stolen land, which was a reference to something Billie Eilish said at the Grammys, which of course air on CBS and have nothing to do with Netflix. The whole thing was pretty embarrassing. But amid all that, there were some legitimately skeptical questions about how this consolidation would change Hollywood. And Ted predictably said the Warner's deal would, quote, strengthen the American entertainment industry. He pointed out that about 80% of HBO Max subscribers also have Netflix, which means they're, quote, complimentary. And Netflix plans to increase its production spend to $26 billion this year, most of it in the US at the same time, the Wall Street Journal reported that the DoJ has launched a wide ranging inquiry into Netflix's business practices. And Paramount, yes, they're still around. They're trying to convince Warner Discovery shareholders to reject the Netflix deal and instead go with their offer for the whole company. They're now scrambling in this country and in Europe to get their competing bid approved by regulators to so they can better lobby those shareholders, especially if Netflix is having problems. And on top of that, Donald Trump, of course announced that he's going to stay out of the whole thing and let his regulators deal with it. Do we believe that? Lots going on. So we got Lucas Shaw from Bloomberg back in here to discuss. We're also going to go into a little more on the new Disney CEO and some early tea leaves on what he's up to. But mostly today it's Netflix on the hot seat. Can they get this Warner's deal approved? From the ringer and Puck. I'm Matt Bellany and this is the town. All right, we are here with Lucas Shaw from Bloomberg. Welcome back. Lucas, how jealous were you and your fiance of the couple that got married with Bad Bunny during the halftime show? I mean, you have connections in the music business. I would think that you could have swung that.
