The creators of ‘Industry': 5 choices that saved the HBO show from oblivion
Bill Goldman has a well-worn line about Hollywood: 'Nobody knows anything.' He meant that nobody involved in the making of a movie knows whether it's going to work, even if they claim to. As first-time creators of a TV show for HBO, we made good on Bill's words in the most literal sense: We knew nothing.
When we first pitched the show to Casey Bloys and the creative team at HBO, we said it would be 'glacially slow, with no big bang theory of dramatics.' Sit in the building that originated 'The Sopranos' and 'The Wire' and you feel a certain pressure to intellectualize your ideas, to overstress your originality. We should have just said, 'Sexy graduate 'Hunger Games' on a trading floor.' But we were determined to tell them that the show was more than this, that it had a soul. This was naive. We knew nothing because at that point there was nothing. We could only understand the show by making it.
So many choices that seem hard-coded into the show's DNA are accidents or evolutions of choices totally out of our control. We watch early cuts of episodes and worry. The show is baggy, dour and a little self-serious. We pace up the cut: we hack, nip, tuck. It becomes kinetic and engaging. We were given the latitude in postproduction to lean into the mistakes and make virtues of them — to cut the show at the breakneck pace that became its hallmark.
Luckily, we cast well — there was something undeniable about the young actors' freshness and charisma. They made you lean in. Ken Leung made you lean in further. Eric (Leung) and Harper (Myha'la) share a scene and something happens — we don't prepare for it, but we sense something: the touch-paper being lit. Next time we redraft, we lean into that feeling — a yearning — and it will sit underneath the words of everything we write for them going forward. Is that the show's soul? We never could have communicated it in a pitch. We knew nothing. Now we know something.
Likewise, its soundscape. The scenes feel a little inert. How to solve that? We hire Nathan Micay. He overlays them with his unique sound. It's a techno-forward, Michael Mann-coded balm for scenes that need juice. These scenes now seem to swell. Wait: There's romance in this universe after all. Why don't we write into that? What if the characters who people reductively call monsters actually love each other but are not incentivized to express it, so they can't? Have we fallen into saying something about capitalism? Maybe we found another piece of the show's soul.
We feel the show's sound design could be more immersive. We realize the show is too dry. We solve both problems at once. We decide that background chatter could be an avenue for comedy. We write a secondary ADR [automated dialogue replacement] script and lay it carefully so it falls between the lines of featured dialogue. Here we find Rishi's voice. We road test it in the background before pushing Sagar [Radia] and the character to center stage in Season 3. The arc on the writers' room wall gives you an illusion of control and intention, but the real road is unknowable. Unmapped. Where you land is an act of faith.
We write a two-dimensional finance bro called Robert. He's a cartoon who loves cocaine and thinks with his d—. We cast Harry Lawtey, who plays him with a boyish, broken quality, wide eyes looking for home. The Robert we initially wrote is dead. The actor — his sensitivity and skill — rewrites the story. Barely consciously, we find ourselves writing a story of escape. How quickly can Robert leave and at what cost to himself? People tell us they think this version of Robert, the one we didn't envisage and the one we don't fully control, is the show's soul. Maybe we are getting somewhere finally.
The making of 'Industry' over four seasons is a synthesis of many things. Our own development as creators: trying to be as impartial and brutal as we can, leaning into what we feel worked and doing away with what we think didn't. The hive-mind of our writers' room and cast: a back-and-forth that writes and overwrites the characters and their choices, enriching the psychological stock of the soup. The brilliant creative minds of our department heads, who use all their ingenuity to make a show that operates on a fraction of the budget of most streaming-era shows look like an HBO Sunday night event. Our producers at Bad Wolf and collaborators at HBO, who gave the series time and space to grow, to find an audience and find a soul. Bad Wolf's CEO Jane Tranter, who has shepherded the show from a bag of often contradictory ideas into its fourth season, always called 'Industry' 'the little show that could.' Somehow, we continue to prove her right.
We are so buried in the moment, the flow of problem-solving, the laying of track to the next shoot day and the next character beat, that we know we can never fully grasp the totality of the work. We will never see it with fresh eyes. We know the contours of every turn and every compromise, and because we never experience it cold, there is a very real sense that ultimately its meaning and its soul has nothing to do with us. It is its own thing, experienced by you.
It's a truism that working in TV is a collaboration, but the definition is usually limited to a collaboration between people, rather than between the people and the show itself — a living organism that will guide you as to how it wants to be written. It's constantly speaking; our job is to be alive to transcribe its lessons, metabolize them through our process and put them onscreen as best we can. We still know nothing, but now we have our faith. Things will be revealed in the making.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘The Gilded Age,' ‘A Minecraft Movie,' Haim's ‘I Quit,' and the best to stream this weekend: June 20, 2025
Welcome to , your VIP guide to the best of pop culture for the weekend ahead, curated by the Gold Derby team of experts. (June 20-June 22) It has been more than a year and a half since The Gilded Age did the impossible and made us all care about competing opera houses. Now, the Emmy-winning HBO drama from creator Julian Fellowes is back for what might be its best outing yet. More from GoldDerby Jason Isaacs spills all the tea, a reappraisal of Britney Spears, and what to read this weekend: June 20, 2025 'Arcane,' returning from a 3-year hiatus, leads early Best Animated Program Emmy odds The 10 most Lynchian items at the David Lynch auction - and how much they sold for In Season 3 (premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max), having won the battle for the Met, Bertha (Emmy nominee Carrie Coon) is poised to take over as the head of New York society while George (Morgan Spector) heads out west with the hopes of expanding his railroads to the California coast, a gambit that could revolutionize the industry and change the map forever. But those are not the only new happenings this season. Across the street, Ada (Emmy winner Cynthia Nixon) is now the lady of the Brook house following her marriage to the secretly wealthy Rev. Forte, a development Agnes (fellow Emmy winner Christine Baranski) struggles to accept despite the fact it's her sister's new fortune that has allowed them to keep their home. And it's a good thing they did, because Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry's (Harry Richardson) sweet budding romance definitely benefits from close proximity. As ambitions skyrocket, new relationships blossom, and the future is seemingly on the doorstep, the third season of The Gilded Age is the awards contender to watch this weekend. And if opera isn't your jam, there are plenty of other options are available. Other prestige picks include: The Waterfront: Kevin Williamson's latest series returns to Wilmington, North Carolina, the filming location for his groundbreaking show Dawson's Creek, to tackle a new story. Inspired by true events, the family drama follows the Buckleys, a family who has ruled the town of Havenport for decades thanks to their fishing empire. But things aren't what they once were, and as matriarch Belle (Maria Bello) and adult son Cane (Jake Weary) attempt to keep the family business afloat while Harlan (Holt McCallany), the gruff family patriarch, recovers from two heart attacks, their shortsighted plans quickly spiral out of control. All eight episodes are now streaming on Netflix. The Buccaneers: The long-awaited sophomore season of Apple TV+'s period drama is here at last. Based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, the show follows a group of young American women who have entered London high society in the 1870s and made it their own. Following her marriage to Theo (Guy Remmers), Nan (Kristine Frøseth) is now the Duchess of Tintagel and wields immense power, while Conchita (Alisha Boe) as Lady Brightlingsea has become a heroine to a new wave of American heiresses. But while the culture clash that dominated Season 1 is no longer the show's focus, there is still plenty of drama to be had, as the women continue to grow up and experience life's many changes. The Season 2 premiere is now streaming on Apple TV+. Surviving Ohio State: And now for something much more grim. HBO's new documentary tells the horrific story of the victims of Dr. Richard Strauss, a physician at the Ohio State University who used his position and power to sexually abuse male student-athletes for two decades, and the ongoing fight to hold the school accountable. The nearly two-hour doc is based on Jon Wertheim's Sports Illustrated article "Why Aren't More People Talking About the Ohio State Sex Abuse Scandal," and expands upon the original 2018 reporting that exposed the scandal. It is now streaming on Max. Our top pick this week, video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie, is unlikely to win any Academy Awards, but it's probably going to dominate at the Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday. Kids simply love this movie. They love Minecraft, they love Jack Black, and they love memes, especially participatory ones that annoy older people — and the movie's 'Chicken Jockey' is the defining one of the year. It may not be funny to you, but Warner Bros. is laughing all the way to the bank with nearly a billion dollars in box office gross. Black stars alongside Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. The latter four play people who get sucked into the cube-based alternate dimension known as the Overworld, where Steve (Black) has been trapped for years. Together, they team up to stop the evil piglin Malgosha (that's 'pig goblin,' for the uninformed) from taking over the Overworld and try to escape back to the human world. If you haven't seen any footage, be forewarned: there are way more cubes than you're expecting. You've never seen a movie where everything on screen is the same shape before. It's now streaming on Max. If you do not yearn for the mines, here are some other new movies to watch on subscription streaming platforms or VOD this weekend: : The Hit Broadway Musical: Disney+'s latest filmed stage production is the theatrical adaptation of the hit animated movie from 2013. Frozen tells the story of princess sisters Elsa (Samantha Barks) and Anna (Laura Dawkes). Elsa, the older sister, is powerful but temperamental, while Anna is ordinary but reliable. When Elsa ascends to the throne, she runs away rather than face her responsibilities, plunging the kingdom into permanent winter. So Anna sets off on a journey to find her, saving the kingdom and discovering her own power along the way. The stage version has 12 new songs, plus the favorites from the movie, including the show-stopper 'Let It Go.' A note for the pedants in the crowd: While Frozen did run on Broadway from 2018 to 2020, this film is actually the West End production, which ran from 2021 to 2024. : Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul star in this sci-fi head-trip from director Flying Lotus, who also composed the score (he's perhaps best known as an electronic musician, but he's starting to enter Rob Zombie territory as a musician-turned-distinctive horror filmmaker). Gonzalez plays Riya, an astronaut who wakes up on a ship with no memory of how she got there. All the other crew members are dead. The only living person is Brion (Paul), who says he has come to rescue her after receiving a distress call. She doesn't know if she can trust him, and as her memories start to come back, she isn't even sure if she can trust herself. It's a worthy entry to the space horror canon that's now streaming on Shudder. : There are some fun mash-ups happening in this Sony-produced Netflix Original animated musical action comedy. It follows a K-pop girl group called Huntrix who moonlight as slayers protecting their fans from evil, soul-stealing supernatural forces. When a boy band whose members are all demons in disguise becomes popular, the members of Huntrix — Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) — have to battle them. It's an anime-influenced madcap adventure, with a lead single performed by Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung of the popular K-pop group Twice. : These days, there aren't a lot of theatrically released comedy movies whose primary goal is to make you laugh so hard you shoot Diet Coke out of your nose, but Friendship is a special movie. Tim Robinson stars as Craig, a socially maladjusted man who strikes up a friendship with his new neighbor, a charismatic weatherman named Austin (Paul Rudd). But Craig takes things too far, and his obsession with maintaining the friendship threatens to ruin both of their lives. It's the psychological, A24 version of a 2000s bromance comedy. Robinson is a one-of-a-kind comedic talent, but if you're unfamiliar with his voice, Friendship might not be the best introduction. It's a little dark and cringey. Watch his Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave first, then watch Friendship — now available to buy on VOD platforms like Amazon — and marvel at how writer-director Andrew DeYoung created the perfect vehicle for Robinson's unique abilities. Timed to the release of their fourth album, I Quit, the trio of sisters from the Valley have released the video for "All Over Me," which features Will Poulter, Nabhaan Rizwan, and Archie Madekwe. Rock band Wednesday has debuted "Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)," the second song off of their upcoming album, Bleeds, which is set for release on Sept. 19. Best of GoldDerby Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2 Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews Click here to read the full article.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
'Sinners' coming to Max. Here's when it will release
The box office success and pop culture phenomenon "Sinners" is set to make its exclusive streaming debut on Max in a couple of weeks. The Ryan Coogler-directed film features Michael B. Jordan in a double role. Coogler's vampire horror film follows twins Smoke and Stack after they return to their small town in Mississippi from Chicago to start a juke joint in the 1930s. "Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back," the film's synopsis reads. Here is how you will be able to watch "Sinners" on Max from the comfort of your own home. When will 'Sinners' be available to stream on Max? "Sinners" will be available to stream globally on Max on July 4, Warner Bros. said in a news release. Apart from having a debut on the streaming platform, the movie is also set to debut on HBO on July 5 at 8 p.m. ET. How can I subscribe to Max? Max subscription plans begin at $9.99 a month with ads, while ad-free subscriptions cost $16.99 a month. The highest tier, which is $20.99 a month, includes the ability to stream on four devices and offers 4K Ultra HD video quality and 100 downloads. HBO also offers bundles with Hulu and Disney+. When does 'Sinners' come out on 4K Blu-ray/DVD? "Sinners" will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD at online and physical retailers on July 8. Warner Bros. said the digital, 4K UHD and Blu-ray version of the movie will offer special features such as the making of the movie, the creation of the characters and their costumes and deleted scenes, among others. 'Sinners' cast The cast of "Sinners" includes: Watch 'Sinners' trailer Contributing: Saman Shafiq and Brian Truitt, USA TODAY Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. Our team of savvy editors independently handpicks all recommendations. If you make a purchase through our links, we may earn a commission. Prices were accurate at the time of publication but may change.
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 – Release Date, Schedule, How To Watch
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors The Gilded Age returns to HBO and Max this Sunday, kicking off season three at 9:00 pm ET/PT. Starring Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Harry Richardson, and more, The Gilded Age takes place in 1880s New York, following the scandals of the old money elites. Morgan Spector, Carrie Coon, and Harry Richardson in HBO's The Gilded Age Season 3. Morgan Spector, Carrie Coon, and Harry Richardson in HBO's The Gilded Age Season 3. Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Season two aired in the fall of 2023, and now we return for a summer fling with the series, as the eight episodes play out from June 22 through to August 10. We've compiled all the information below on how to watch The Gilded Age season three, episode one, as well as The Gilded Age season three, episode one release time and The Gilded Age season three, episode one release date. The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 Release Date The Gilded Age season three, episode one, will be available to stream on Max on June 22, 2025. New episodes of The Gilded Age season three premiere on Max each Sunday through May 29, 2025. The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 – How to Watch The Gilded Age season three, episode one, lands at 9:00 pm ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. You will need HBO or a Max subscription to watch The Gilded Age season three. A basic subscription for Max with ads is $9.99 per month or $99.99 for the year, and a standard no-ads subscription starts at $16.99 per month or $169.99 annually. What Time Does The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 Come Out? The Gilded Age season three, episode one, will be available on HBO and Max from 9:00 pm ET/PT. With the evening streaming release in the US, the debut time in other time zones will differ. Here is when The Gilded Age season three, episode one will air in your time zone: June 22 BRT: 10:00 pm June 23 BST : 2:00 am : 2:00 am CEST : 3:00 am : 3:00 am IST : 6:30 am : 6:30 am JST : 10:00 am : 10:00 am AET : 11:00 pm : 11:00 pm NZDT: 1:00 pm The Gilded Age Season 3 Release Schedule Episode One: June 22 June 22 Episode Two: June 29 June 29 Episode Three: July 6 July 6 Episode Four: July 13 July 13 Episode Five: July 20 July 20 Episode Six: July 27 July 27 Episode Seven: August 3 August 3 Episode Eight: August 10 The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 Runtime Episodes of The Gilded Age typically run for one hour, as per IMDb. What Will Happen in The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1? The plot details for episode one of The Gilded Age season three read: Chronicles the societal shifts in 1880s New York as old money clashes with new, igniting a fierce rivalry that exposes a period of immense upheaval and transformation. (as per IMDb) You can also read the full season three synopsis: The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic and social change, when empires were built, but no victory came without sacrifice. Following the Opera War, the old guard is weakened and the Russells stand poised to take their place at the head of society. Bertha sets her sights on a prize that would elevate the family to unimaginable heights whileGeorge risks everything on a gambit that could revolutionize the railroad industry — if it doesn't ruin him first. Across the street, the Brook household is thrown into chaos as Agnes refuses to accept Ada's new position as lady of the house. Peggy meets a handsome doctor from Newport whose family is less than enthusiastic about her career. As all of New York hastens toward the future, their ambition may come at the cost of what they truly hold dear. (as per Warner Bros Discovery)
