Producer Marc Platt talks 20+ years of ‘Wicked’; Ad for Texas production hits Hollywood when its down

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star in an ad asking Texas legislators to create incentives for productions to shoot in their home state. What’s behind the decision to drop the video, which pulls no punches against Hollywood, as Los Angeles seeks to rebuild after the devastating fires? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni investigate.

Plus, Masters speaks to producer Marc Platt about his Oscar nominated film, Wicked. Platt shares how his career as an entertainment lawyer led to running studios like Orion Pictures, Tristar, and Universal Pictures. He also talks about producing the original broadway production of Wicked, and the long journey that led to him hiring Jon M. Chu to direct the show’s film adaptation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.
0:05.8	Wildly prolific producer Mark Platt has been involved with Wicked,
0:09.8	with its many lives on stage and finally on screen, for more than 20 years.
0:14.7	He says the musical carries an enduring message.
0:18.1	That compassion and understanding can triumph over bigotry and tyranny.
0:22.8	I waited and saw what time would do to the story. And as the world evolved in the best sense of
0:28.9	things that remained timeless, people responded to wicked. It still made them feel things. And no
0:34.2	matter what the country was going through or the world was going through, it seemed always to carry something with it.
0:40.3	Mark Platt walks us through a long career in show business that has earned him multiple Tony's and Academy Award nominations.
0:47.3	He explains how he's decided which films to produce, a list that includes Lala Land, Bridges Spies, and the Oscar-nominated
0:55.3	adaptation of his Broadway hit, Wicked. But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from
1:01.6	KCRW. I am joined by my companion in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, as you know, Matt, we've talked
1:12.1	about this before in recent weeks, especially after the fires. There's an ongoing push to try to get
1:17.0	the state of California to do more to keep production in L.A. And we now have a petition signed by
1:24.5	15,000 odd people, including Keanu Reeves and Bet Midler.
1:29.5	This is called Stay in L.A. That's the initiative.
1:32.6	And they are asking that the tax incentive for productions that shoot here should not be capped for the next three years as part of the disaster relief effort.
1:41.7	And they want studios to pledge at least 10% more production in LA
1:46.3	over the next three years. We know that this is extremely important to this community.
1:51.2	Absolutely. And I think this is a smart way to take advantage of some of the momentum that we've
1:57.7	had since the fires to bring that production back because this is a financial
2:03.7	issue. This is not anyone saying, oh, we don't want to shoot in L.A. People would like to shoot here,
	...

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