Matthew McConaughey, a diehard Texas Longhorns football fan, visited practice this week and gave the team a motivational speech, Deadspin points out.

He talked about the value of practice.

"I've found that when I've done my best work as an actor it was only after I pushed myself to be better than I ever thought I could be. And I have a pretty high idea of how good I can be," he said.

"Some of you may play because you love football. Some of you may play for your grandmother. Some of you may play for your older brother, your dad. Some of you may play for the coaches. Some of you may play for the university. At the end of the day every single one of you has really only got to be playing for one person."

(He leaves it open minded, but we're guessing that one person is "you.")

Near the end of the speech McConaughey gets the team to do the humming routine from "The Wolf Of Wall Street," and then tells the players the story of how it ended up in the movie (Leonardo DiCaprio saw McConaughey warming up with the routine before the scene and asked him to do it on camera).

The players were slightly confused, but eventually joined in:

Here's the video of the speech (the humming thing comes at 3:25):

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Brian Williams took over the NBC Nightly News Facebook page Wednesday night to answer fans' questions.

After two hours of Reddit AMA-style back and forth, one of the most interesting things we learned about the 55-year-old news anchor is why he doesn't drink:

Williams also addressed a common question from Nightly News viewers — why the show covers entertainment.

He revealed that he's very different at home in his "normal" life than from what viewers see on TV.

And gave advice to aspiring journalists.

Then Williams' NBC colleagues Matt Lauer, Willie Geist, and Savannah Guthrie started having some fun with the Facebook chat.

And finally, a farewell:

SEE ALSO: The Incredible Story Of How A Bankrupt And Unemployed Brian Williams Got His Big TV Break

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Hedge fund Starboard Value wants to buy RealD, the company that makes 3D movies happen. 

If Starboard Value sounds familiar, it might be because Starboard Value is the hedge fund that published a 294-slide presentation on Olive Garden that included suggestions from how the company should cook its pasta to how it should serve breadsticks.

Now, the hedge fund founded by Jeff Smith wants to be in the 3D movie business.

In a filing with the SEC disclosed on Wednesday evening, Starboard offered to acquire all of the outstanding shares of RealD it does not already own for $12. 

Starboard currently owns 9.9% of RealD. 

Following the news, RealD shares were up more than 25% on Thursday.

In a letter sent to the RealD board of directors, Starboard wrote, "Although we share much of your excitement and enthusiasm about the future of the business, we also believe that, as a public company, RealD will not be best positioned to execute against these opportunities."

Starboard added that ie believes it, "can be a good long-term partner for RealD given our deep knowledge of the technology markets as well as our expertise in strategic refocusing, improved operational execution, and more efficient capital allocation."

So, not as exciting as telling the company it's take-out containers are too expensive.

Here's the full letter from Starboard to RealD's board:

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"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Joe Giudice, husband of Teresa Giudice, has just been sentenced to 41 months in prison on conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud charges.

Joe was also ordered to pay $414,588.90 in restitution and enter an alcohol treatment program in prison.

Sentencing for his wife, Teresa Giudice, has yet to be announced.

Giuseppe Giudice gets 41 months in prison - court to resume at 2:00pm for sentencing of Teresa Giudice

— NJ US Attorney (@USAO_NJ) October 2, 2014

District Court Judge Esther Salas said that if Teresa is sentenced to prison, he will stagger the sentence so at least one parent will be available to take care of their four daughters. Teresa could get 21 to 27 months in prison.

The couple had pleaded guilty in March to hiding assets from bankruptcy creditors and submitting phony loan applications to get around $5 million in mortgages and construction loans.

"They both looked serious and sad," an E! News eyewitness observed in court today. TMZ adds, "Both Joe and Teresa dissolved into tears as the judge tore into them."

Meanwhile, Teresa's Instagram account is filled with happier family moments:

SEE ALSO: 'Real Housewives Of New Jersey' Couple Admit To Financial Fraud

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Thursday morning, Netflix announced Adam Sandler signed an exclusive four-movie deal with the streaming site. 

Earlier this week, Netflix announced its first venture into original films. It will release a sequel to "Crouching Tiger" next summer, at the same time it will debut in theaters.

According to Netflix, Sandler's films are among the most viewed by subscribers not only in the U.S., but across its nearly 50 global territories from Brazil to the U.K.

The deal makes sense for Sandler, whose films haven't been making as big of a splash domestically as they have been internationally.

His last movie, "Blended," which reunited the actor with Drew Barrymore, was an overall box-office disappointment, and one of Sandler's lowest opening box-office weekends ever. The $40 million film made $46.3 million domestically, but a whopping $80.5 million overseas.

After more than 30 movies, the actor's films have arguably gotten considerably worse and wackier (Sandler played both himself and his sister in 2011's critically panned "Jack and Jill"). Despite 19 Razzie nominations and five wins, Sandler's movies have amassed more than $3.9 billion worldwide.

We've taken a look at his biggest hits based on worldwide gross adjusted for ticket price inflation. Through all of the actors serious and wacky roles, it's clear that the zanier the role, the bigger the cash grab at the box office. Left off this list are animated Sandler films.

11. "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" (2008)

Estimated Budget: $90 million
Worldwide gross unadjusted: $199.9 million
Adjusted for ticket price inflation: $227 million
Rotten Tomatoes:37%/45% 

Sandler plays a man who fakes his own death to live out his dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York City in "You Don't Mess With the Zohan." 

(Box Office Mojo)

10. "Mr. Deeds" (2002)

Estimated Budget: $50 million
Worldwide gross unadjusted: $171.2 million
Adjusted for ticket price inflation: $240 million
Rotten Tomatoes:  22%/60%

The remake of Frank Capra's 1936 film followed Sandler as a pizza shop owner named Longfellow Deeds who comes into a great fortune of money. The film received three Razzie Award nominations including Worst Actor but is one of Sandler's most successful hits.

(Box Office Mojo)

9. "Bedtime Stories" (2009): $242 million

Estimated Budget: $80 million
Worldwide Gross Unadjusted: $212.8 million
Adjusted for ticket price inflation: $242 million
Rotten Tomatoes:25%/56% 

The family film opened during the 2009 holiday season against animated picture "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Marley and Me," easily beating out the first film. The film also edged out "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the box office when it debuted.

(Box Office Mojo)

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Pixar released the first teaser trailer for its next big film "Inside Out."

The movie looks like a huge risk. It will explore how an individual processes experiences by personifying five emotions in one's brain — Fear (Bill Hader), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black). 

Pixar has an excellent track record though making us fall in love with everything from animated cars to a lonely robot left on an abandoned, polluted Earth.

The majority of the trailer takes you through Pixar's lengthy list of successful films before teasing its next film.

Watch it below:

Variety's Peter Debruge was already impressed with footage shown from the film during a presentation at the Animation Film Festival in France in June.

Here's the full synopsis for the film via Disney:

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.

"Inside Out" will be Pixar's 15th movie and will be in theaters June 19, 2015.

SEE ALSO: Pixar director squashes fan theory that suggests all of the movies take place in the same universe

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Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" is fast approaching, and full details of the film's release strategy have finally been revealed.

Despite the fact that 35mm is almost dead, Nolan, along with directors like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, J.J. Abrams, and a few others, vow to keep the format alive by continuing to shoot on film the old-fashioned way. 

Nolan's campaign to save the ailing format picked up steam when Paramount announced Wednesday that theaters equipped with 35mm and 70mm projectors will get the film two days early.

"We are taking a moment to acknowledge the huge heritage of film ... filmmakers like Chris and J.J. want to make sure that film is a part of the business going forward," Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore told The Hollywood Reporter.

In an interview with the Director's Guild of America magazine, Christopher Nolan himself outlined why he prefers film:

"For the last 10 years, I’ve felt increasing pressure to stop shooting film and start shooting video, but I’ve never understood why. It’s cheaper to work on film, it’s far better looking, it’s the technology that’s been known and understood for a hundred years, and it’s extremely reliable. I think, truthfully, it boils down to the economic interest of manufacturers and [a production] industry that makes more money through change rather than through maintaining the status quo. We save a lot of money shooting on film and projecting film and not doing digital intermediates. In fact, I’ve never done a digital intermediate. Photochemically, you can time film with a good timer in three or four passes, which takes about 12 to 14 hours as opposed to seven or eight weeks in a DI suite. That’s the way everyone was doing it 10 years ago, and I’ve just carried on making films in the way that works best and waiting until there’s a good reason to change. But I haven’t seen that reason yet."

35mm and 70mm film can look brighter and clearer than digital projection, though the latest IMAX and 4K digital projection technology comes close. Digital projection has caught on because it's cheaper to distribute, among other reasons.

"Interstellar" will be released in six different formats: IMAX 70mm, traditional 70mm, traditional IMAX, 35mm, 4K digital and standard digital. It will open in 70mm IMAX, 70mm film, and 35mm film on the evening of Tuesday, November 4th — two days before its official release date. 

Paramount has set up a website outlining the various ways that you can experience the film and sent out this handy graphic to sum it all up.

Watch the film's final trailer below. 

SEE ALSO: 7 Things We Know So Far About 'Interstellar'

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"Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice has just been sentenced to 15 months in prison by a federal judge on multiple fraud charges that she pleaded guilty to earlier this year. 

The ruling comes a few hours after her husband, Joe Giudice, was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Judge Esther Salas said the sentences would be staggered, so when one is in prison, the other can take care of the couple's four children.

"Teresa was hysterical... she made a plea to the judge to give her house arrest instead of time behind bars so she could care for her kids," reports TMZ. "Before sentencing, Teresa begged the judge for leniency, saying she is in a deep depression and her life is now ruined.  She says all she cares about is her kids and she has no interest anymore in TV shows."

Teresa addressed the court before sentencing, at one point breaking down in tears, saying: "Thank you for letting me address the court today. I wrote this last night because I get nervous when I speak," she began. "I speak as a wife, a mother, and a daughter. Today I am blessed but I am also humbled. I hear you and what you are saying, and it is time for me to wake up."

Teresa has to surrender to authorities on January 5 next year, but things could have ended up worse for her.

According to the sentencing guidelines, the reality star should have received a sentences of 21 to 27 months in prison. "Prosecutors recommended 21, but the judge went way more lenient," says TMZ.

At his sentencing, Joe told the court that he was “humiliated” by his actions and also took “full responsibility” for the consequences. 

The couple's prison sentences stem from bankruptcy, bank, and mortgage fraud charges totaling more than $4 million. 

Meanwhile, Teresa's Instagram account is filled with happier family moments:

SEE ALSO: 'Real Housewives' Star Joe Giudice Sentenced To 41 Months In Jail For Fraud

SEE ALSO: 'Real Housewives Of New Jersey' Couple Admit To Financial Fraud

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Leonardo DiCaprio won't be playing Steve Jobs in Sony's next biopic of the Apple cofounder, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

DiCaprio wants to finish his next project, "The Renevant," and then take a break from acting.

The Reporter didn't say what's motivating DiCaprio's flight from the screen. 

This isn't the first time Sony has produced a Jobs biopic, though it is the first such film with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

Sorkin wrote the screenplay for "The Social Network," which chronicled the early days of Facebook.

He's also written "The West Wing" and "The Newsroom."

Sony's biopic is based on Walter Issacson's biography of Jobs. The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Danny Boyle will be directing the project since David Fincher declined the job.

With DiCaprio out of the picture, Sony will need to find another A-list Jobs lookalike. David Fincher reportedly wanted Christian Bale for the role.

Sony is also considering Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Bradley Cooper.

SEE ALSO: The Beer Machine Marc Newson Designed Looks Just Like A Mac Pro

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Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, the hosts of Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters,” were keynote speakers at Thursday’s Evernote Conference.

Although not the typical guests you would expect at a tech conference, Savage and Hyneman said Evernote reached out to them because they’re both “esoteric makers” for many different kinds of projects. They’re working on a future collaboration project that will be revealed to the public in the near future.

After the speech, Business Insider caught up with the “MythBusters” hosts to ask what was the single coolest tech myth they’ve ever busted on the show.

“Using a cellphone will not blow up the gas station,” Savage said, referring to the common myth that you could accidentally blow up a gas station with a cellphone.

He said it’s not the cellphone, but static sparks created when drivers rub themselves on the car that cause most of these fires. A lot of times, the drivers talk on their phones when the spark happens, so it just looks as if the cellphone is the cause of the fire, when it’s actually irrelevant.

“When you’re moving in and out of your car, you’re generating static electricity. If you feel a spark, that’s usually between 10 and 20,000 volts of static electricity — and that’s plenty strong enough to make gas fume,” he said.

In fact, this is something the cell phone industry acknowledges, too. According to an ABC report, two industry studies have concluded there’s no evidence that cellphones are a hazard around gasoline. Instead, it notes drivers should avoid static fires.

Savage said his show might have actually helped raise awareness of this problem. Since that episode aired nearly 10 years ago, the American Petroleum Institute told him, “the number of fires at gas stations has dropped by two-thirds.”

You can see part of that episode below:

NOW WATCH: Domino's Vs. Pizza Hut: Who Makes The Best Pizza For Your Money

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It may be too cold for the Ice Bucket Challenge but there's a new game in town: male celebrities (and regular folks, too!) are grabbing their testicles in photos and Instagram videos to raise awareness for testicular cancer.

It even has its own hashtag: #feelingnuts.

Check out this photo of Hugh Jackman and Nigel Barker:

Similar to the Ice Bucket Challenge, the #feelingnuts challenge comes with that same script-like nomination system. On the photo above, the comment reads:

I accept @sambranson. #feelingnuts raising awareness for testicular cancer. Nominating @ActuallyNPH@michaelstrahan @rickygervais

Gervais immediately followed suit:

I accept the @RealHughJackman#feelingnuts challenge for testicular cancer. I nominate @WilliamShatnerpic.twitter.com/yarfYDZKWN

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) October 1, 2014

 You can see more of the #feelingnuts challenge photos and videos over at Buzzfeed.

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On Thursday, Netflix announced that four original Adam Sandler movies would be coming to the streaming site.

It may seem like a strange deal for Netflix to take on, considering Sandler's more recent films including "That's My Boy" and "Blended" have been critically panned.

However, it's probably one of the smartest moves Netflix has made to date.

Critics aside, most of Sandler's movies do extremely well at the box office, and if they're not hits domestically, they perform well overseas.

With the exception of the "Grown Ups" series, Sandler's movies have been performing progressively worse stateside. On the flip side, his movies have slowly been making more overseas than at home.

Here is a look at Sandler's comedies from 2006 to 2014.

Four of his films since 2011 have made more money at the foreign box office than domestically.

So it's not a surprise Netflix says Sandler's films are among the most viewed by subscribers not only in the US but around the world in its 40-plus territories including Brazil and the UK.

The Sandler films available to stream vary by country.

If you look up Adam Sandler on Netflix in the US, you'll find an even smaller selection of films. The biggest noticeable difference here is that the US version of Netflix contains more serious Sandler roles like "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Reign Over Me."

"People love Adam’s [sic] films on Netflix and often watch them again and again. His appeal spans across viewers of all ages — everybody has a favorite movie, everyone has a favorite line — not just in the US but all over the world,"” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in Thursday's press release.

According to Vulture, the budgets for the four films are similar to those of Sandler's previous works. Sandler's most recent films have average budgets of $75 million to $80 million, while his less-expensive films like "Blended" cost $40 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports one film is expected to be put out per year. 

Regardless of what anyone may think of a Sandler film, it's clear people go out to see his films. According to Netflix, it's clear that people enjoy rewatching his movies over and over, and if not here, then elsewhere around the world.

That's where Netflix sees the payoff with Sandler. 

Will these movies be awful in the eyes of critics? If history is any precedent, surely. Will they have crude humor that will make you roll your eyes? You can probably bet yes.

Regardless, will you secretly stream the films in the comfort of your home while trying to maintain that Sandler films are not funny or at least amusing? Probably. 

Netflix probably thinks so, too. 

SEE ALSO: Here's How Much Money Adam Sandler's Movies Make

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Everyone has that one movie that reminds them of home.

We set out to name the most famous movie in every state — a challenging and subjective endeavor. Some states were more obvious than others. While there's no place like Kansas, New York has inspired directors ranging from Martin Scorsese to Woody Allen to Rob Reiner.

To pick the most famous, we evaluated the state's prominence in the movie and leaned toward movies that were filmed in that location as well. The movie's lifetime gross, its critical acclaim, and testimonials by our geographically diverse staff also influenced our decision.

Click to see a map that shows the most famous movie in every state »

Additional reporting by Kirsten Acuna, Melissa Stanger, and Sara Bower.

ALABAMA: "Forrest Gump" (1994)

Even though "Forrest Gump" took Tom Hanks from Vietnam to the White House, home was always the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama. Plus, Forrest was an All-American for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Source: "Forrest Gump"/Paramount Pictures

ALASKA: "Into The Wild" (2007)

"Into The Wild" follows Chris McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, as he heads to Alaska to find his place in the world. The journey would bring McCandless to many places, but his ultimate destination was the Land of the Midnight Sun.

Source: "Into The Wild"/Paramount Vantage

ARIZONA: "Raising Arizona" (1987)

The Coen brothers' cult classic follows H.I. McDunnough and his wife as they attempt to have a baby, either naturally or through kidnapping. The Coens made the pair all the more real by incorporating a vernacular that Joel called "a mixture of local dialect and a vocabulary we imagined from the likely reading materials of the characters."

Source: "Raising Arizona"/20th Century Fox

There's no place like home.

And the movies that take place there are as central to a state's subculture as its dialect, landmarks, and industries.

We recently set out to name the most famous movie set in every state, a challenging and subjective endeavor. In order to pick, we evaluated the state's prominence in the movie and leaned toward movies that were filmed in that location, as well. The film's lifetime gross, its critical acclaim, and testimonials by our geographically diverse staff also influenced our decision.

How many have you seen? Check out the annotated map below.

Click for the full feature on the most famous movie set in every state »

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A couple of weeks ago, star ESPN columnist/talking head/"shadow president"/podcaster Bill Simmons called the commissioner of the NFL a liar and challenged his ESPN bosses to punish him for it.

They did.

Simmons is currently serving a three-week suspension without pay.

He's apparently pretty upset about it, and now people wonder whether he's going to stay at ESPN for the long term.

We've spoken to a few executives at several old and new media companies about the situation.

Here is the scuttlebutt:

• Simmons' contract is up next year. 
• He's not cheap. ESPN is currently paying something like $3 million per year.
• In response to a story that said Simmons and ESPN both wanted to renew, Simmons' best friend tweeted: "I've known Bill since we were 18 years old. That is the funniest thing anyone has ever written about him."
• A CEO at a digital media company with lots of sites catered toward men says that when news broke of Simmons' suspension, people from CBS and FOX called him to ask if he would be competing with their bids for him.
• In some quarters, there's skepticism that Simmons is worth so much money. ESPN executives apparently gripe that Simmons' pet project brands on the web — Grantland and FiveThirtyEight — aren't doing very well.
• One digital media CEO said Grantland writers were completely shielded from traffic data and that there was little pressure on them to attract new readers.
• There's gossip that the blogging platform Medium, the company run by former Twitter CEO Ev Williams, approached Simmons about joining it in a role similar to the one carved out for former Wired and Newsweek writer Steven Levy. Medium sources do not deny this rumor. (Neither will they confirm it!)
• The people who run Turner/Bleacher Report assume that Simmons will end up staying at ESPN. "Nowhere else for him to go," says a source close to the thinking over there.
• Vox Media, which runs SB Nation, might be a natural fit for Simmons. Vox CEO Jim Bankoff has a habit of poaching stars and building sites around them (Josh Topolsky/The Verge and Ezra Klein/Vox).
• "All I've heard is that he wants to go it alone," says one digital media executive.
• "I heard he might just want to go independent but get investment, promotion, sales, tech platform from a partner," says another. If that's true, the Medium rumor makes a lot of sense.
• Yahoo media boss Kathy Savitt should be calling Simmons' agent right now. Even if it's through a joint venture, he'd be a better fit for them than Katie Couric.
• Tim Armstrong should also email Simmons — if only because AOL is where the "Sports Guy" got his start and because he still uses an @aol.com email address.

NOW WATCH: We Got An Inside Look At ESPN's SportsCenter Studio — And It's Awesome

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It may seem strange that "BoJack Horseman," a cartoon featuring an alcoholic talking horse and occasional bestiality, made it so big.

Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, a young comedian who had zero experience in Hollywood, got former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's Tornante Company to pick it up, signed on "Arrested Development" favorite Will Arnett and Aaron Paul while he was filming "Breaking Bad" to highlight an all-star cast, and sold the show to Netflix as its first-ever animated project — and got his bizarre creative vision through the production almost entirely intact, which is very unusual.

How this happened came down to a good idea for a show, the creator's exceptional ability to communicate his vision, and smart production companies in Tornante, animators ShadowMachine, and Netflix.

"BoJack" tells the story of the washed-up star of a 1990s sitcom who has a horse head on a human body and lives in a world of talking animals where this is normal. It's smart and funny, with compelling characters, tons of subtly hilarious animal gags, and fun animation and sound.

Bob-Waksberg, around 26 years old in late 2010, was a member of the loose comedy collective Olde English, and he was looking to break into TV. He got the idea for "BoJacK" based on drawings by his friend Lisa Hanawalt along with his own sense of despair in LA, as he told Business Insider:

It came to me from a couple different places. One is that I was friends with Lisa Hanawalt. We went to high school together and we'd known each other since we were kids. She's an amazing artist and I'd been looking for something I could do with her and kind of prop it off of her talents. She's been drawing these animal people, posting them on her blog, drawing little web comics and things like that, and I was trying to think of something I could do with her characters. As it so happened, I had just moved out to L.A. from New York, and I didn't really know anybody and I was living up in this house in the Hollywood Hills — it was a friend of a friend of a friend — I was staying in this tiny bedroom that was really more of a closet in this gigantic gorgeous house, and I remember sitting on the deck and looking over all of Hollywood and feeling like I was on top of the world but also that I'd never been more lonely and isolated. That gave me the idea of exploring this character who had every success he could have wanted and still couldn't find a way to be happy. I combined that melancholy with Lisa's cartoony animal characters, and that was really the genesis of the idea.

Bob-Waksberg had a good idea but it was very unusual, so he was skeptical when his manager set up a meeting between him and head of development Steve Cohen and head of production Noel Bright at Tornante, and he didn't even bring up "BoJack" until their third meeting.

But Cohen and Bright were impressed from the start.

"We had read Raphael and were blown away by his writing," Cohen said. "What is amazing about Raphael as a writer is he writes in a million different voices with different themes that really resonated, so when we read, we were just absolutely blown away."

As for his weird horse show, Bob-Waksberg made a compelling case when he finally got up the nerve.

"Raphael said I have this idea called 'BoJack Horseman,' and he was probably ready to be met with ..." Cohen said, trailing off. "But then he started talking and it really resonated with Noel and I, just the way he spoke about it, with such clarity, and frankly it is something that touches all of us. What do you do when you have a little bit of success. What do you do with the rest of your life."

Bob-Waksberg doesn't just write in a million voices, he also talks in a million voices, telling stories in long bursts filled with recreated dialogue and humor. His description of selling "BoJack" reads something like an episode of the show:

The very first step was just a general meeting. You go on a lot of those as a writer. You go in, you shake some hands, you shmooze for a little bit. You have a couple stories you tell at every general meeting, kind of like your first date stories. Kind of like "oh, this is the deal with this, this is where I come from, this is what I think about New York versus LA." You kind of do your bit and that's it. That's always the first step, and you go on a lot of general meetings, and usually they don't lead to anything, so I went on this like, "Who are these guys?" My manager was like, "Oh no, Steve has read your sample, he really loved it, he wanted some more of your writing, he really loved that, he wanted to know everything about you." So basically these guys had already read like everything I'd ever written. My script, short stories, web comics, they'd seen my earlier college sketch comedy, so they were experts before I even came in. We had a nice time and then I left, and then I got a call from my manager and he was like, "Those guys at Tornante really loved you, they want to maybe work on something with you." I was like, "Sure, I've heard that before." He was like, "They want to set up another meeting with you." So I came in for another meeting and they pitched something to me. They had some property they were working on. They were like, "Oh, I think you might be interested in this." I was like, "Oh, no, maybe," and then my manager called me and was like, "do you want to do that thing?" and I was like, "ehh, not really," and then he was like, "well, they really like you so they want to know what you want to do," and I was like, "Oh great, now I've got to go to another meeting with these guys." So we had another meeting, which was a pitch meeting, and I pitched like five ideas and one of them was BoJack Horseman and at the end of the meeting, Steve was like, "which of them are you most passionate about?" and I said, "well, I really like this horse idea," and he said, "that sounds great, I'd love to see if you have any writing on that or anything else on it." I was like, "uhn, but I don't, but OK." I went home and my manager called and was like, "Those guys really loved that BoJack Horseman idea, you should write up a treatment." I was like, "I've got to write a treatment now?" Again thinking none of this is ever going to lead to anything, it's all work I'm going to do for nothing. But again I spent a couple weeks writing this treatment, which was a five-page document with character descriptions, a couple episode descriptions, I attached a bunch of pictures from Lisa's website ... and I sent it to them and then I got a call from my manager saying, 'Oh, they love the document,' and they want you to meet Michael Eisner, and I was like, 'now this is probably happening for real.' 

Bob-Waksberg convinced Eisner, one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, not only to buy the show but also to allow it to go forward without taking the Tornante founder's initial suggestions:

I was very intimidated, because for me I had used to watch him growing up introducing the wonderful world of Disney and I remember him from that, so for me it was a real starstruck moment to meet him, but I did my song and dance, we talked about the idea a little bit, and as I recall he was a little nervous about the idea of a show business satire because the general feeling is that's kind of done, but I talked about why it's interesting to me and said I'm open to other angles on it but that's how I want to do it and at the end of the conversation he said, 'yeah, you seem like a smart guy, let's do it your way.' That's an amazing thing to hear from Michael Eisner, so I was like, 'OK, we're in business together, let's make something.'

TV shows typically get revised significantly during development, but not "BoJack."

"That document that Raphael initially wrote, those initial characters — I don't think we've changed a thing," Cohen said. "Most of those original story ideas and episode ideas came right from the first page.

With Tornante on board, the next step was developing a presentation to pitch the show to a network, a process that took about a year. The team brought on Hanawalt to work supervising director Mike Hollingsworth and the animators at ShadowMachine. While they were fleshing out the world of "BoJack," casting director Linda Lamontagne recruited an amazing cast.

"We talked about who we saw as all our characters, and I can tell you who we saw as our characters is who we have as our cast today," Bright said. "OK, will Will Arnett really say yes to this? Yes, he said yes. Is Aaron Paul really going to do this? He was still shooting 'Breaking Bad.' Yes."

All along the team hoped to sell the show to Netflix, which had a reputation for buying projects whole, giving lots of freedom to show creators, and also offering useful insights, and which offered a platform that allowed for bing-watching without commercial interruption — perfect for the complex storyline that Bob-Waksberg had in mind.

"For us just the prospect of a serialized narrative was something new and different and I think the audience would agree it's really satisfying when you see that thread evolve over a season it's terribly exciting," ShadowMachine co-founder Alex Bulkey said.

Even if "BoJack" was made for Netflix, however, it was rumored that the company wasn't buying animations. Again, Bob-Waksberg had to convince people of his vision, and again he pulled it off.

"It was an hour-long pitch and Raphael sat there with no notes and went through 12 episodes in such great detail and for Noel and I to sit there and participate and just watch this performance of the creator of the show, it was really inspiring," Cohen said. "There was such clarity to each moment and I think Netflix, obviously they bought it, but I think executives there responded to the material in a way — they were such champions of the material — that we couldn't be at a better home."

Working with Netflix was everything they hoped it would be.

"I would say Netflix was hands-on in the best possible way," Bob-Waksberg said. "It's not like Netflix said, 'OK, go do your thing, we'll see you in 12 months with a show.' They were very much on-board with it and supported the whole way through. They didn't hamper us with notes or overload us with notes. They really got what the show was and was trying to be and they trusted us to make it. On every trip they had notes and thoughts and on every radio play and storyboard, they're very much involved and have a lot of input, but they're not trying to dictate the show into being something it isn't. You get the sense on some shows that the network buys one show and they're really trying to make it into another show and in this case it really felt like Netflix bought the show they wanted and they supported us and empowered us to make it."

"We think of them as a welcome partner," Bright said. "[F]rom the moment we went in there, they've been enthusiastic about the show and it has just built from every level up, from the people I mentioned to everyone in the marketing, the PR department, the social media department up to [Netflix Chief Content Officer] Ted [Sarandos] himself. It's just been a phenomenal experience for us, so having that's really important, knowing that we're setting out to make something really unique."

With Netflix's support, the "BoJack" team were free to develop a complex story that wouldn't have worked anywhere else.

"The thing that’s so great and so exciting about having a show on Netflix be a binge thing is that 'BoJack', unlike other cartoons that I can think of, is a linear story," Hollingsworth told Cartoon Brew. "It doesn’t reset at the beginning of every episode like 'The Simpsons' or 'Family Guy'; his house and all of his relationships are slowly destroyed throughout the season, and that was a unique and fun thing. It seems like something they might do in anime, but I can’t think of an American cartoon where the world keeps evolving."

Bob-Waksberg elaborated on in a Reddit AMA:

DON'T MISS: Why Netflix is betting on original content

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Netflix has emerged as an original video powerhouse through not only its willingness to spend but also its reputation as an ideal home for TV shows. Featuring critically acclaimed shows like "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," the company is known for buying projects whole, giving lots of freedom to show creators, and also offering useful insights. It also offers a distribution platform that lets shows be binge-watched without commercials on multiple platforms by over 50 million subscribers.

Just look at "BoJack Horseman," a recently released cartoon about the washed-up star of a 1990s sitcom who has a horse head on a human body and lives in a world of talking animals where this is normal.

The show is smart, funny, and innovative, and the show creators say Netflix was the only place it could have worked so well.

"I am SO happy to be on Netflix. I honestly can't imagine making this show anywhere else," show creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg said in a Reddit AMA.

Bob-Waksberg pointed to the Netflix viewing experience as the best part:

The coolest thing about their model to me, moreso even than the idea of people watching all the episodes together, is the idea that people are going to watch all the episodes IN ORDER. This is something I think we as audiences take for granted, but you CAN'T take it for granted when you're working on a show for a more traditional network. Traditionally, every episode needs to work as an entrance to the series even if you've never seen the show before. But here, we got to know that nobody's going to watch episode 7 unless they've already seen episodes 1-6, so we didn't have to constantly reintroduce the characters and the premise, AND we could have the characters and the premise CHANGE. This influenced EVERYTHING we did, from background stuff, like the burnt ottoman and the Hollywoo sign, to setting up jokes and stories in early episodes (like Vanessa Gekko, Dr. Hu, the Beast Buy receipt) that we knew would pay off MUCH later.

Talking with Bob-Waksberg and other people from the show, we heard more about how much they like Netflix.

"[Netflix was] the premier place to take content that was serialized, and we had the chance to do long story arcs and something that hadn't been done in animation before, and it was Raphael's vision from the beginning to tell this story in a unique way with that serialization," Steve Cohen from production company Tornante said.

"For us just the prospect of a serialized narrative was something new and different and I think the audience would agree it's really satisfying when you see that thread evolve over a season it's terribly exciting," Alex Bulkley from animation company ShadowMachine said. 

 "The thing that’s so great and so exciting about having a show on Netflix be a binge thing is that 'BoJack', unlike other cartoons that I can think of, is a linear story," supervising director Mike Hollingsworth Hollingsworth told Cartoon Brew. "It doesn’t reset at the beginning of every episode like 'The Simpsons' or 'Family Guy'; his house and all of his relationships are slowly destroyed throughout the season, and that was a unique and fun thing. It seems like something they might do in anime, but I can’t think of an American cartoon where the world keeps evolving."

Binge-watching isn't the only benefit of Netflix. The "BoJack" team also raved about working with the company. 

"I  would say [Netflix] was hands-on in the best possible way," Bob-Waksberg said. "It's not like Netflix said, 'OK, go do your thing, we'll see you in 12 months with a show.' They were very much onboard with it and supported the whole way through. They didn't hamper us with notes or overload us with notes. They really got what the show was and was trying to be and they trusted us to make it. On every trip they had notes and thoughts and on every radio play and storyboard, they're very much involved and have a lot of input, but they're not trying to dictate the show into being something it isn't. You get the sense on some shows that the network buys one show and they're really trying to make it into another show and in this case it really felt like Netflix bought the show they wanted and they supported us and empowered us to make it."

"I think Netflix — obviously they bought it — but I think executives there responded to the material in a way — they were such champions of the material — that we couldn't be at a better home," Cohen said.

"We think of them as a welcome partner," Bright said. "[F]rom the moment we went in there, they've been enthusiastic about the show and it has just built from every level up, from the people I mentioned to everyone in the marketing, the PR department, the social media department up to [Netflix Chief Content Officer] Ted [Sarandos] himself," Noel Bright from Tornante said. "It's just been a phenomenal experience for us, so having that's really important, knowing that we're setting out to make something really unique."

After the show aired on Aug. 22, Netflix made sure that people saw it, promoting it on its homepage in the U.S. and around the world.

"It's a trip to see characters you wrote speaking in four different foreign languages and thinking about how people are going to see this all over the world," Bob-Waksberg said.

Netflix also put money into advertising. We don't know how much, but we were impressed to see "BoJack" video ads in the New York subway and bizarre decals over the urinals in a club bathroom. According to the people at Zoom Media, which was contracted by Kinetic WorldWide as part of the campaign, those decals are in bars and other venues across the country along with coasters and talking posters.

"We've been bombarded with people saying they saw these things and they want to buy the things. Bars say people keep asking for their own," Patrick West at Zoom said.

Is "BoJack" a hit? Netflix doesn't share any viewer data, other than average star ratings, which put the show at 3.9 out of 5, but all you have to know is that the company signed on "Bojack" for a second season less than a week after its initial launch.

Meanwhile, the company continues to advance in its assault on traditional studios and exhibitors, announcing this week that it would co-produce its first film in the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel— to be released simultaneously on IMAX and Netflix. Soon it will take on late-night TV with its expensive Chelsea Handler show, and next year will see the release of "Daredevil" as the first of four much-hyped projects with Marvel, and between these and many other original shows it hardly seemed weird this week when Netflix also announced four original Adam Sandler movies.

DON'T MISS: How a comedian with no experience convinced such big names to join "BoJack Horseman"

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"Gone Girl" probably won't win an Oscar for Best Picture, though it's already getting buzz; it's too ridiculous and trashy for Academy voters. But David Fincher's new movie, which debuted last week at the New York Film Festival, is clearly the work of an auteur and in many ways represents the culmination of his past works.

Based on a book by Gillian Flynn, the movie shows Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) on the day of the disappearance of his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike), as the viewer is left to wonder whether Nick is responsible. Through a series of flashbacks and other narrative quirks, the movie also shows Amy's perspective, and it features a big twist in the middle.

Right from the rapid-fire opening titles, "Gone Girl" drips with Fincher's glossy, stylish aesthetic. Much like in "Dragon Tattoo" or even "Zodiac," the decidedly dark tone is offset by the efficient editing, but it also has a strong sense of humor as in "Fight Club."

There's a palpable distance between the characters on-screen and the audience, so what we get is a very detached look at the events. Fincher simply lays out information without bias, and the slow but steady reveal of key plot points ensures that the audience never knows what's going to happen next.

This procedural approach is typical of the director; films like "Zodiac" and "Se7en" are similarly cold and reserved. Even the more mainstream "Panic Room" and "The Social Network" have a certain clinical rhythm, a quality that has naturally evolved and become increasingly notable through his career. Fincher always finds a way to tell his story by emphasizing the facts, and he takes this concept to new heights in "Gone Girl" by disclosing the nasty details in a dizzying manner. 

The first tonal shift occurs with Amy's introduction, as her narration brings a heightened sense of humor and doesn't shy away from graphic depictions of sex. Amy narrates the story via her exquisitely detailed diary, and it's not long before the story turns into a tug-of-war between our two narrators. Pike turns in a stellar, scene-stealing performance as Amy — and she truly could be a strong contender for a Best Actress Oscar. As we stick with Nick in the present, Fincher entwines Amy's narrated flashbacks to provide a fuller picture, but we're never quite sure of what to believe.

The film exhibits a hallucinatory effect through its quick editing that is further accented by the abrasive but restrained score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who won an Academy Award for "The Social Network."

The film's structure is part of what makes it so unabashedly entertaining — it's a pulpy, trashy story dressed up so it appears more glamorous than it really is. The plot itself gets just as silly and hard-to-believe as an episode of ABC's "Scandal," but the material is elevated by Fincher's masterful direction and the fantastic cast. It's a rare joy to see something so dark and smutty make it to the mainstream, let alone directed by a two-time Best Director Oscar nominee.

Author/screenwriter Flynn sticks with the "he-said-she-said" composition of her novel, which limits the audience's knowledge and ensures that the filmmakers are always one step ahead. "Gone Girl" thrives on upending the audience's perceptions and expectations. The filmmakers intentionally misdirect us by exploring one side of the story just to throw us off guard with a completely new development a couple of scenes later.

The beauty of the misdirection is that it is all implied; we are merely flies on the wall, observing the character's actions and making judgments for ourselves. The audience is forced to make assumptions about Nick, which are either confirmed or rejected as Fincher weaves in crucial facts from alternate angles.

Fincher is no stranger to a good mystery ("Se7en" is still referenced as a benchmark for the genre), and "Gone Girl" takes his well-established skills to new heights. The gritty, in-your-face tone of "Se7en" is replaced by a quiet, underlying sense of dread that fills the screen with tension. Combined with a wry, sardonic wit reminiscent of "Fight Club", it's not hard to envision "Gone Girl" as a career-spanning highlight reel of Fincher's best qualities.

One of the more amusing aspects of "Gone Girl" is its slightly exaggerated but not too far off send-up of modern day journalism. At the press conference following the film's premiere at the New York Film Festival, Flynn referred to the media's presence in the film as a "a blown-up Greek chorus." She expanded on this by saying that the film is, at least partially, about the idea that in this age dominated by media, we are forced to become "consumers of someone else's tragedy." 

Fincher was quick to defend the media as a whole and singled out the "narrow bandwidth of tragedy vampirism" (think Nancy Grace) that, according to Flynn, casts a dichotomy of heroes and villains "against our wills" despite a lack of any actual evidence. Fincher and Flynn explore these ideas in a playful manner that leads to some of the film's biggest laughs.

Ultimately, "Gone Girl" works best when it's playing up its sleazy sense of humor and not taking itself too seriously. There's a lot more bubbling under the surface of the film, including a bitingly satirical examination of marriage and a questionable portrayal of feminism, but it'd be hard to elaborate further without spoiling anything, and most of the fun comes from watching the mystery unravel in real time. "Gone Girl" may not be the best picture of the year, but it's an enjoyable diversion and an intriguing choice for Fincher.

SEE ALSO: 9 Awesome Movies We Can't Wait To See At The New York Film Festival

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