Episode 1013: Bad Counselors — An All-American Made Film
Newt's World
Gingrich 360
4.6 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
For years, Hollywood executive Chris Fenton helped American studios chase the Chinese market — inserting pro-Beijing messaging into films, moving production offshore, and teaching China's own industry how to compete. Now he regrets it. Fenton joins Newt to explain how 60% of American film and TV production has moved overseas, costing Los Angeles alone more than 40,000 jobs, and why the US is the only major film-producing nation without a federal production incentive. His answer: Bad Counselors, a 100% American-made comedy — American cast, crew, and financing — shot in North Carolina, Tennessee, and California, hitting theaters nationwide July 22nd. Fenton also makes the economic case for a national film production incentive backed by a bipartisan congressional coalition, arguing that a simple 10% federal rebate could cut offshore production nearly in half and restore Hollywood's American identity.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:08.0 | Welcome to Neattsworld Podcasts on the IHeart Podcast Network. |
| 0:11.8 | I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Chris Fenton. |
| 0:15.7 | For 14 years, Chris served as president of DMG Entertainment, |
| 0:20.6 | a multi-billion-dollar global media company |
| 0:23.3 | headquartered in both Beijing and Los Angeles, |
| 0:27.3 | where he pioneered co-productions between Chinese and American firms. |
| 0:32.6 | In 2020, he authored Feeding the Dragon |
| 0:36.2 | inside the trillion-dollar dilemma facing Hollywood, the NBA, |
| 0:41.7 | an American business. Both during and after his time of DMG, Fent produced 25 films |
| 0:48.3 | grossing more than $2 billion worldwide, and he later led media capital technologies, raising a nine-figure |
| 0:56.7 | content fund that now co-finances all of Lions Gates movies. |
| 1:02.4 | He's a John H. Mitchell professor at the University of Southern California, an informal advisor |
| 1:08.7 | to Congress's Select Committee on China and a contributor to Real Clear Politics, |
| 1:14.9 | the South China Morning Post, and CNN. He's joining me to talk about his viral, Real Clear |
| 1:21.7 | Politics op-ed on Hollywood's retreat from America. His new film, Bad Counselors, produced entirely with American |
| 1:30.4 | cast, crew, and financing, and an effort he's part of to bring a national film production |
| 1:36.8 | incentive to Congress. Chris, welcome, and thank you for joining me again on Nutsworld. |
| 1:43.1 | Mr. Speaker, it's actually humbling to hear you say all that stuff, knowing how accomplished |
| 1:47.8 | you are yourself. So one of these days, I'm going to recite your biography. |
| 1:51.8 | Okay. I don't abhor our audience, but I appreciate the thought. |
... |
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