Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley.

I'm Zoe Schiffer, Wired's director of business and industry.

Today on the show, we want to share with you one of the best conversations that happened during our big interview event in San Francisco last week.

Our senior culture editor, Manisha Krishan, sat down with John Chu, the director of Wicked, to discuss what made the film franchise such a success.

Even if you're not a fan of musicals, it's a fascinating conversation about the power of viral marketing and how forward-looking filmmakers like Chu are trying to navigate the AI era without compromising their creative vision and their execution.

Here's that conversation.

Hi, everyone.

John, thank you so much for being here.

Of course.

Great to be. Unless you're Aludite, which I doubt anyone here would be here if they were.

You've probably heard of John and of course the wonderful world of Wicked.

Wicked was the highest grossing adaptation of a Broadway musical in box office history.

It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.

Wicked for Good, which is in theaters right now,

opened number one at the global box office. John also directed the wildly successful phenomenon,

Crazy Rich Asians, which I love. And you are slated to direct the upcoming Britney Spears biopic

based on her memoir, The Woman and Me. So we have tons to talk about.

Let's dive in.

Okay, you worked on Wicked for five years.

And this moment right now is kind of the culmination of that.

Are you relishing this?

Are you feeling like you want to be done with Wicked?

...