🎧 AI Warning Signs — How Hollywood Invited the Enemy InsideTilly Norwood is the headline. The real story is the jobs collapse already underway
Subscribe on Apple PodcastsWatch on YouTubeHollywood had its eyes on Web Summit Lisbon this week, where Tilly Norwood creator Eline Van der Velden joined Ankler Media EIC Janice Min to showcase her AI “actress.” But Wild Sheep Content CEO Erik Barmack, our Reel AI columnist, tells Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey that the fixation on Tilly misses the far more consequential story: the unmistakable warning signs of AI’s encroachment and the decades of strategic drift that have left Hollywood uniquely exposed to Big Tech’s ambitions. Which jobs remain genuinely AI-proof? Which ones are already dissolving beneath us? And what does it mean for a creative economy when the apprenticeship ladder that produces future writers, directors and executives is sawed off at the base? Barmack offers a rigorous, unsentimental map of a crisis now unfolding faster and more decisively than the town wants to acknowledge. Plus: David Ellison hosts Paramount Skydance’s debut on Wall Street, and Richard Rushfield charts the steady disappearance of dramatic films from America’s movie screens. Ankler Agenda Weekly Poll: Vote now
Got a tip or story pitch? Email tips@theankler.com ICYMI from The AnklerThe Wakeup Apple goes mo’ Momoa, NBA on NBC dips again Ghosts in the Balcony: A Cross-Country Trip to 58 Theaters Fighting to Survive Introducing Crowd Pleaser, The Ankler’s new newsletter in partnership with Letterboxd: In the worst October for moviegoing since the ’90s, Matthew Frank crossed 20 states to hear the primal screen from people keeping film alive — even when Hollywood won’t $100 Million Hate-Watch: Inside Hulu’s ‘All’s Fair’ Trainwreck — and How It Turned Around Lesley Goldberg has scoop on the budget, cast paydays and behind-the-scenes drama from Kim Kardashian’s critically-savaged series that’s gone ‘zero to hero’ Film Crowdfunding 2.0: An Indie Studio Got 60,000 Fans to Invest $25 Million. How? Ashley Cullins reports on how players like Legion M, Bleecker Street and Eli Roth’s Horror Section are turning to ‘fan-vestors’ to finance films and activate audiences The Death of Dramatic Films: Hollywood Fades into Emotional Flatline Richard Rushfield asks: Are we really okay with just white men making action comedies? The Art of Hooking Audiences: Execs From a Disney-Backed Microdrama App Tell All DramaBox’s creative team came from traditional Hollywood. Now aiming for $3B in revenue, they tell Elaine Low how they’ve had to unlearn almost everything The Women at the Heart of Making Sinners How artisans Ruth E. Carter, Hannah Beachler and Autumn Durald Arkapaw helped turn Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster into an Oscar fave 🎬 Mike De Luca & Pam Abdy on Making Box Office History in the Face of ‘Surreal’ Criticism The Warner Bros. bosses are wrapping the greatest year of hits in Hollywood and explain to Richard how they did it: ‘I refuse to believe we are in the end times’ 🎬 Richard & Sean: Predator Kills It as Starry Indies Flop A bad weekend for Sydney Sweeney & Jennifer Lawrence, but Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You shows legs 🎧 Gus Van Sant: ‘You Have To Be Obsessed’ The Oscar-nominated director of Good Will Hunting and Milk is back with Dead Man’s Wire, his first film in almost a decade More from Ankler Media
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Andy Lewis’ latest IP picks: A Descent into LA’s Dark Underbelly & A Southern Gothic Mystery
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🎧 AI Warning Signs — How Hollywood Invited the Enemy Inside
November 13, 2025
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