#01 HOLLYWOOD EXTINCTION EVENT
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THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF STORIES. The stories are a record of the rides taken by a film director and an Uber driver. They talk about the end of Hollywood. The Uber driver says he knows why Hollywood died. The director wants to find out what the driver knows. The stories are based on real conversations I’ve heard.
If you miss a story, you can always come back here to see the rest of the series. (This is story #01, so you haven’t missed any so far!)
“What brought down Hollywood? Was there an extinction event?”
It was our first ride. I was going to the airport. I had a commercial to shoot in Denver. Quick turnaround. Corso was an A-rated driver in the app. He drove a new black Tesla with the air conditioning on high. We were talking about the business so I had asked the big question.
He didn’t answer it at first, responding with an answer to a question I hadn’t posed. “I’m driving 20 hours a week to make the payments on the vehicle, but I like talking to people.”
“What do you do when you’re not driving?” I asked.
That’s when he first told me that he recorded sound. I asked him if he’d worked with any directors whose names I’d know.
“Spielberg?”
“Yeah.”
“Tarantino?”
“Yeah.”
“Stone?”
“Yeah.”
“Campion?”
“Yeah.”
“Cameron?”
“Yeah.”
“Bigelow?”
“Yeah.”
“ Iñárritu?”
“Yeah.”
We played the name game for a while, but when I got to Coogler, Nolan, Gerwig, and some of the younger ones, his yes answers turned to no. He’d also answered no to any New York-based people. So he was a Hollywood guy, a certain kind of American male of a certain age. He knew what Golden Hour was and he was past it.
I asked again, phrasing it slightly differently, “Why did it end so ugly? The studios were always greedy. Bad movies always got made. But why now?”
He caught my eye in the rearview. “You’re expecting me to say something about AI?”
“Replacing actors, writers, scene designers, carpenters, yes,” I said.
“AI was the accelerant, but the rot was already there,” he said.
“So, streaming is the villain? Movie theaters going bust?” I asked.
“No, it’s not streaming. People will watch how and where they want to,” he said.
“Small screens? Phones are the evil monsters?” I asked.
“You’re getting closer. What airline?”
I said Southwest. Corso hadn’t named the extinction event and we were making the turn to Terminal 1. “Maybe it wasn’t one extinction event that killed Hollywood?” I sounded desperate, embarrassingly. “Maybe the event wasn't evenly distributed? You know, actors and directors are buying theaters and opening them up again. Doesn't that change things?”
He smiled at me in the rearview. “Oh, it was a single extinction event.” He stopped the car.
I always have trouble opening Tesla doors from the inside. I fumbled and scratched, wanting to get out and wanting to stay. “Tell me,” I begged. “You seem to know what brought down Hollywood.”
His smile got wider. “If I tell you, you’ll miss your flight.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT STORY. SUBSCRIBE.
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