Scott Frank on Netflix, the future of Hollywood, and Dept. Q

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scott Frank used to write great movies, like “Out of Sight.” Now he’s a Netflix guy, and a super successful one: he made “Godless,” a horses-and-everything Western for the streamer, then had a pandemic-era phenomenon with “The Queen’s Gambit.” Now he’s back with “Dept. Q”, his take on the British mystery genre. You can find that one on Netflix’s top 10 lists in the U.S. and around the world. I like talking to Scott on this show — something we started doing way back in 2017 — because he’s happy to talk about the mechanics of his work, and the economics of Hollywood, and how they intersect. And that’s what we’re doing during this chat too. We discuss the backstory behind his newest show, his take on the history of the streaming bubble, why he’s pretty sanguine about AI in Hollywood but very nervous about its new tech overlords — and the industry he’d get into if he was starting his career in 2025. (Hint: it’s also something that gets consumed on screens.) Help us plan for the future of Channels by filling out a brief survey: ⁠⁠voxmedia.com/survey⁠⁠. Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:40.8	channels with Peter Kafka that is me I'm also the chief correspondent at Business Insider.
1:46.9	And today I got to do one of my favorite things. That's talk to Scott Frank. The writer and
1:52.1	director who's had an excellent career in the movies and is now doing the same thing on streaming.
1:57.5	Scott's the guy who wrote out of sight. It's one of my favorite movies, Full Stop, and wrote lots of other great stuff like Logan and Get Shorty and Minority Report.
2:05.6	And for the past six years or so, Scott Frank has become a Netflix guy.
2:09.6	He made godless for them with Steven Soderberg.
2:12.6	He had a massive hit with the Queen's Gambit during the pandemic. Now he's back with Department Q, which is a great take on the British crime story.
2:22.3	That one's also a hit.
	...

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