Jimmy Chin, Chai Vasarhelyi on making ‘Wild Life,’ WGA strike vs. Upfronts
The Business
KCRW
4.6 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Wild Life” directors Jimmy Chin and his wife Chai Vasarhelyi discuss mortality, making the film, and its uncanny parallels with their own lives.
Plus, guest host Matt Belloni of Puck News speaks with Lucas Shaw, head of entertainment at Bloomberg, about the stakes for streamers and striking writers at the 2023 Upfronts in New York this week.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business. |
| 0:05.9 | Married filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarelli make documentaries about risk takers. |
| 0:11.3 | They won Oscar for their harrowing 2018 film Free Solo and then took on the dangerous 2018 cave rescue of schoolboys in Thailand. |
| 0:23.8 | Their latest project, Wildlife, is in part about the love story of former Patagonia CEO Chris Tompkins and her husband Doug, who founded |
| 0:29.5 | the North Face Clothing Company. In the 1990s, the two launched an ambitious conservation mission |
| 0:35.3 | that they pursued together until Doug died in a tragic |
| 0:38.7 | 2015 kayaking accident, leaving Chris to push forward on her own. Like Tompkins, Jimmy Chin is an |
| 0:45.7 | avid outdoor adventurer, which at this point isn't easy for his wife. I think I have quite a healthy |
| 0:51.3 | relationship to us, but when I had kids, that relationship changed. |
| 0:56.5 | And I am quite aware of the life that fulfills Jimmy. |
| 1:01.2 | And of course, it freaks me out. |
| 1:03.3 | But I respect and love my husband and my filmmaking partner. |
| 1:07.0 | Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarelli talk to Madeline Brand, host of KCRW's press play. |
| 1:12.8 | But first a banter special with Matt Bellany, a founding partner of Puck News, and Lucas Shaw, |
| 1:18.1 | head of Bloomberg's entertainment team. |
| 1:20.4 | Stick around. |
| 1:21.0 | It's the business from KCRW. |
| 1:25.2 | I'm Matt Bellany, filling in for Kim Masters, and I'm joined today by my banter buddy, Lucas Shaw. Welcome. |
| 1:30.7 | Hey, Matt, glad to be here. |
| 1:32.0 | So you are in New York. I am in Los Angeles, but in New York this week, the annual television upfronts are going on. |
| 1:39.0 | And it is not your usual upfronts. This is where the ad buyers come and are wowed by the network |
| 1:46.6 | presentations of all the great stuff that they've got coming for the following season. |
... |
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