From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business.

When Tony McNamara took on the challenge of adapting a 1992 novel into the Yorgos Lanthamos film,

Poor Things, he found inspiration for Emma Stone's character close to home.

I was saying to Yorgos, you know what, my kids aren't nice.

They've sort of narcissistic sociopaths on some

level. And I told him the story of being at a restaurant with my son and a screaming baby. And he went,

someone punched that baby. And I told him, and he started a laughing. He goes, that's it. We should put

that in. McNamara talks about how he and Lanthamost managed to take a book about Scottish nationalism set in Glasgow and turn it into their own poor things.

Or not so poor things, the film is up for 11 Oscars this weekend, including McNamara's own nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

And the screenwriter behind the Hulu series The Great, as well as

poor things and the favorite, tells us he hears voices in his head. But first we banter. Stick

around. It's the business from KCRW. I am joined by my partner in banter. Matt Bellany.

Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, finally, the Oscar

weekend is upon us. I think we are in great suspense about what wins best picture. Just kidding.

But there are, you know, some very popular films in contention. And I think we have reason to think

maybe the Oscar presentation will rate better this year than it was like dying for years.

Maybe will it get a little bit better, you think?

Oh, absolutely.

I think that, first of all, award shows across the board have been up this season.

The Grammys and Globes were both up from previous years.

I think the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the number one indicator of whether the

Oscars rates well is whether there are movies people have seen

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