Business is booming for a once struggling ice cream shop in Anacortes, Washington. And it's all because of Pokémon Go.

The owner of Mad Hatter's Ice Cream,Gary Dear, told KING 5 that he's had to extend hours and hire more employees since the game was released in early July.

"The Pokey light shines down on me!" he told the local news station.

Dear closed his shop in late June due to illness before suddenly reopening days later around the time that Pokémon Go was released in the App Store.

Players now flock to his shop because of its position near multiple Pokéstops on the game's map. They stand outside the shop and place items called lures on the stops to attract Pokémon to the area.

"I live here and the lures are almost always up till 1am or later sometimes," one Reddit user wrote on Thursday.

And this ice cream shop isn't the only business benefitting from the game. A recent survey by Slant Marketing found that 82% of Pokémon Go players had visited a business while playing the game. McDonald's Japan just reported a 27% jump in sales after partnering with Pokémon Go to turn its restaurants into sponsored Pokéstops.

Here's KING 5's video on the shop:

SEE ALSO: 'Pokémon Go' has completely changed where groups of certain Pokémon appear

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In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Paul McCartney opens up about his final years with The Beatles and discusses how the band felt "threatened" in the presence of Yoko Ono, John Lennon's wife.

"We were kind of threatened [then]," McCartney said. "She was sitting on the amps while we were recording. Most bands couldn't handle that. We handled it, but not amazingly well, because we were so tight."

Ono has long faced the ire of Beatles fans, many of whom allege that she broke up the group.

"We weren't sexist," McCartney continued, "but girls didn't come to the studio — they tended to leave us to it."

Today, McCartney's relationship with Ono is on solid ground — "It's like we're mates," he said — but back in the late '60s, he had to learn to accept her.

"My big awakening was, if John loves this woman, that's gotta be right," McCartney said. "I realized any resistance was something I had to overcome. It was a little hard at first. Gradually, we did."

Previously, in an interview with Al Jazeera, McCartney explained that Ono "certainly didn't break up the group."

"I think she attracted John so much to another way of life that he then went on to, very successfully, add a sort of second part to his career, writing things like 'Imagine' and 'Give Peace a Chance,'" McCartney told the outlet in 2012. "I don't think he would have done that without Yoko."

SEE ALSO: PAUL MCCARTNEY: I was frustrated that John Lennon became ‘The Beatles’ after his death

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Katherine Heigl responded graciously to Seth Rogen's recent comments about their long-running feud over "Knocked Up."

Earlier this week, Rogen appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" and expressed regret that Heigl's career had been adversely affected after comments she made about the Judd Apatow film she starred in being "sexist."

"I think that he’s handled that so beautifully and I just feel nothing but love and respect,” Heigl told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour on Wednesday, according to "Entertainment Tonight."

"It’s so long ago at this point," said Heigl, who stars on the new CBS legal drama "Doubt." "I just wish him so much goodness and I felt that from him too."

The controversy over Heigl's comments has followed her since her 2008 interview with Vanity Fair after "Knocked Up" came out. In the story, she disapraged the movie and her own performance in it.

"It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days," she said in 2008. "I'm playing such a b----; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."

There was one thing that Rogen felt his former costar owed him: a phone call.

"When I apologize to people, generally I don't take a public forum to do it," he said after saying that he had yet to receive a call from Heigl about the matter.

No word on whether Heigl is picking up the phone soon.

SEE ALSO: Seth Rogen revisits his 'Knocked Up' feud with Katherine Heigl: I felt 'betrayed'

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Every planet in the new space-exploration game "No Man's Sky" is generated by an algorithm, but don't make the mistake of thinking that that means they look dull. Some are peaceful yet totally empty, while others are teeming with aggressive animal life and beautiful, dense forests.

But one Reddit user found something that hasn't turned up very often yet: a planet that's almost entirely covered in a vast ocean.

SEE ALSO: The 10 most beautiful planets people have found so far in 'No Man's Sky'

Called "Sithlorina," this planet looks kind of like Earth from space.

But that all changes once you get a bit closer and realize that nearly the entire surface is covered in water.

There are some small islands peppered with tall trees, but the vast majority of the land seems to be completely submerged.

Around the time when Daniel Radcliffe first read the script for his new movie, "Imperium," Dylann Roof had just shot and killed nine Charleston, South Carolina, churchgoers in the hopes of starting a race war.

Radcliffe's character in the film, Nate Foster, is an FBI agent who goes undercover in a white-supremacy group and finds himself talking with fellow extremists about starting a race war of their own.

"My dad's from Northern Ireland — he grew up during the Troubles. I grew up with an awareness that terrorists come from everywhere and have all sorts of motivations, and so it seemed like that was a very relevant thing," Radcliffe recently told Business Insider before a TimesTalks event to promote "Imperium," which is out on August 19. "But I don't think either of us envisaged that white supremacy might take this sort of bizarre jag toward the mainstream or rather that the mainstream might jag toward that by the time it came out."

The idea of white supremacy in the mainstream also came up at the TimesTalks event, and New York Times culture reporter Melena Ryzik said that either Radcliffe or "Imperium" director Daniel Ragussis was prime for making a joke about Donald Trump. But both refrained from overtly commenting on the Republican presidential nominee.

Instead, Ragussis said that a feeling of victimization and oppression is "the seed" of totalitarian movements that is "far more prerequisite of it than a figure like Mussolini or Hitler."

Radcliffe told Business Insider that, in the process of making the film, he decided that talking to people on the fringes of politics is the most important way to move forward:

"Somebody's life who prior to that had no meaning suddenly feels like they are engaged in something meaningful, and I think my biggest takeaway from this film is that, as much as we want to demonize these people and in a way demonize their views, we should try and find a way of getting them into this conversation, unfortunately as awful as that sounds, because the more you ostracize them and aggressively dismiss them, the more it just plays into their worldview that everything is a conspiracy against them."

Ragussis, who joined Radcliffe in an interview with Business Insider, agreed, saying that catchall terms like "monster" aren't helpful.

"They don't give you any access as to the mechanism that's going on there and why the people are behaving the way they are," Ragussis said. "I think if you're going to try to dismantle that or change it, you have to understand what's going on and what's happening."

The actor's and director's thoughts back the idea that living in constant fear that others are out to get you will cause a person to act out violently, which a former FBI criminal profiler told Business Insider in 2015.

Watch the full TimesTalks interview with Daniel Radcliffe and "Imperium" director Daniel Ragussis below:

SEE ALSO: Daniel Radcliffe thinks we should consider calling all gun crimes 'a form of terrorism'

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Michael Moore is at it again.

Always up for stirring the pot, the Oscar-winning director has been busy this political season with his comments on how women in US politics have "fake power," standing outside of Trump Tower with a sign that read "We are all Muslim," and now he's written an open letter to the presidential Republican nominee's daughter, Ivanka.

For the site Alternet, Moore tells Ivanka, "I'm writing to you because your dad is not well," and says the elder Trump needs an "intervention."

"I believe only you can conduct it," Moore wrote.

He goes on to say that Ivanka's father "has encouraged and given permission to the unhinged and the deranged to essentially assassinate Hillary Clinton," following the Second Amendment comment Trump made earlier this week.

"I say this with the utmost kindness, care, and concern for you, and I know you will do the right thing," Moore said. "Bring him in, off the road, away from the crowds. Now. Tonight."

Moore then included the below script that he says Ivanka should use when talking to her father. Moore states that his good friend, a former counselor and social worker named Jeff Gibbs, suggested he include it in the letter:

"Dad, we need to have a chat. Are you feeling okay? Do you have a minute? Please sit down. Because this isn’t going to be easy. No, I am not pregnant. No, what is going on is… is… I am really, really worried about my father. About you.

"Dad, I owe everything to you. You’ve built an empire, a brand and a business for the ages. You have taken care of me, inspired me and, through your example, have made me who I am: a self-confident, honest-to-a-flaw, woman.

"But Dad, I am deeply worried. You haven’t been yourself lately. The father I know is not a hater, not someone who encourages violence. Dad, you used to be A LIBERAL. You raised me as a liberal! The Clintons were your friends—Chelsea is one of my best friends! And now you’re joking that Hillary should be assassinated? Really?

"Dad, I hate to say this, but you’re making me scared, you’re making my friends scared, and you’re scaring the whole country.

"Dad… Dad, sit down! They’ll wait. I am not finished. Don’t get angry. Try to listen.

"Yes, I know they love it, the crowd goes wild. But not for YOU. They don’t love YOU. They love the show that you put on. But people who hunger for red meat will turn on you in a minute. No, they don’t love you. I love you. I will always love you. And I see you hurting yourself—and you’re hurting ME, Dad.

"Don’t get upset! You’re still the handsomest billionaire I know. I will always love you. Melania will always love you. Vladimir will always love you… OK, maybe that wasn’t funny. But you get my point. This running for president thing is destroying the dad I have known and loved. And honestly, you and I both know you didn’t really want this job to begin with! You just wanted to make a point. OK, well, POINT MADE! You did it! Now, let’s stop and get some help.

"I am asking you, right now, to give it up. To leave the race. Let that nice man from Indiana run things. Your place in history is secure. You need to withdraw. Move on, for your sake, for the country’s sake, for my sake.

"The man who raised me was the man who, for no charge, built a huge ice rink in Central Park for all the people to use! You struck deals with some of the biggest assholes on the planet in finance and politics and yet remained friends, mostly. You built a family that loves you. I want that dad back! And I worry that, if you don’t stop now, neither you nor the country will ever recover.

"There, there, Dad, it’s okay, let it out. Let it out, because I know beneath that gruff, tough, handsome exterior is a little boy who just never got enough love. And that little boy needs some time to find himself again.

"Let’s you and I walk out there right now. The cameras are all set up and waiting. You can make up whatever excuse you want. You can blame whomever you want. You’re good at that! I just know this can’t go on, and you know it, too.

"Take my hand, let’s end this. And by tomorrow you and I will be sipping martinis on our yacht in the Hamptons with Chelsea and the friends we still have left. I love you, Dad. Let’s do this. That’s right, take my hand, here we go…"

SEE ALSO: Michael Moore: "I think Trump is going to win"

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On the surface, David Lowery seems like the latest independent film wunderkind to be plucked by a major studio and thrust into the blockbuster machine.

But the journey Lowery, 35, made to directing "Pete's Dragon" — Disney's reimagining of the 1977 live-action/animated musical about a boy and his best friend, who happens to be a flying dragon named Elliot, premiering this weekend — is a little different from filmmakers like Colin Trevorrow ("Jurassic World") and Gareth Edwards ("Rogue One: A Star Wars Story").

Those directors made low-budget calling-card movies to prove their competence, but Lowery's indie roots are deep. He's made movies ranging in budget from $12,000 ("St. Nick") to a few million ("Ain't Them Bodies Saints") and has over 30 editor credits.

"I felt I had found my niche," Lowery recently told Business Insider. "If I had spent the rest of my career making movies like 'St. Nick,' I was OK with that."

But sometimes opportunities arrive and seem more like fate than good circumstance. For Lowery, that happened when he got an agent off of "Ain't Them Bodies Saints," a Sundance Film Festival award winner.

Lowery rejected a lot of writing and directing jobs (mostly remakes), but in December 2012, the agent finally struck gold with an idea Disney had for one of its older titles.

"I wasn't interested in the remake game, but I remember while editing 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' my agent emailed me that Disney was interested in remaking 'Pete's Dragon' using only the title," Lowery said. "Outside of that title, they didn't want to have anything to do with the original, and they definitely didn't want it to be a musical. If Disney truly wanted to use the title of the original as a means to get an original movie made, that appealed to me."

While at Sundance in January 2013, Lowery and his producing partner, Toby Halbrooks, got on Skype at their condo with "Pete's Dragon" producers James Whitaker and Adam Borba about the potential of being screenwriters on the project.

"We found Jim and Adam were far more interested in hearing about the tonal aspects of it than plot or story," Lowery said. "But I remember a big idea from that call was that Pete would spend a lot of time with the dragon in the woods."

Disney was impressed and hired the two to write the script. After Sundance, Lowery and Halbrooks began making trips to Los Angeles to start an outline. Lowery wanted the movie to have a mythical quality that he successfully pulled off in "Saints." (Lowery admits that no one at Disney had ever seen "Saints" until months into he and Halbrooks writing the script.)

They placed the movie in the Pacific Northwest and, in one early draft, during the Great Depression. They later changed that to a more 1970s feel. (It's not specified when exactly the movie takes place.)

But one thing Lowery drove home in the early drafts is that Elliot the dragon would be furry.

"I drew pictures of a furry dragon and brought them in and said, 'This is what he's going to look like,'" Lowery said.

He felt the only way a kid would gravitate to a large dragon and create a bond is if the dragon looked like something they'd want to cuddle up to, grabbing inspiration from the luck dragon Falkor in "The NeverEnding Story."

By Christmas 2013, Lowery and Halbrooks handed in the script, and Disney couldn't have been happier.

The new "Pete's Dragon," with a reported budget of $65 million, is a tearjerker family movie that doesn't try to be anything more or less than that. Pete survives a car crash that kills his parents deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

The dragon, also displaced from his family, comes across Pete, and the two live in the woods for years. (Are you crying yet?) Then, one day, a park ranger discovers Pete in the woods while, at the same time, workers at the local mill discover Elliot the dragon, leading to a journey to find who Pete really is and a race to help save Elliot.

The cast includes Bryce Dallas Howard as the park ranger; Robert Redford as her father, who has a past experience with the dragon; and Oakes Fegley as Pete.

Disney was so impressed by Lowery's script that the studio asked him to come on and direct the movie.

Lowery immediately turned down the offer.

"I thought it wasn't the right idea," Lowery said. "I didn't think it was going to be a movie that I could excel at, and I didn't want to wind up being one of those indie directors who makes a big studio movie and find it's compromised."

But after some talks, Lowery realized he had put too much into the project to hand it off to another director.

"The script had become incredibly personal and something that I felt was mine and something I should make," he said.

By the middle of 2014, Lowery and the cast and crew of "Pete's Dragon" were off to New Zealand to shoot the movie.

Indie filmmakers who make the jump to studio movies might assume that all the hardship and struggle of making a movie suddenly disappears thanks to the embarrassment of riches that comes with being backed by a Hollywood heavyweight. Lowery certainly thought that would be the case.

"I expected there to be a moment where the magic of the studio process revealed itself and the largeness of the entire machine kicked into gear," he said.

But that turned out not to be the case. Though Lowery had crane shots and could helicopter at any moment to get the right shot at a far-off location, the process was generally no different than on his earlier low-budget movies.

The biggest difference, and what took the biggest toll on him, was the length of production.

"'St. Nick' was 14 days. 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' was 28 days. This turned out to be 89 shooting days," said Lowery, who compared the experience to a sprinter transitioning to a marathon runner.

"You just have to physically and mentally prepare for the endurance test that making a movie on this scale will be," he said.

For every good day, Lowery was hit with a slew of challenges the next.

But that hasn't turned him off the studio system.

"It was grueling. It was really, really tough," Lowery said. "But the second the movie wrapped, all that pain and early mornings and cold nights all fell by the wayside, and I felt a great sense of peace. If they had asked me to shoot another 10 days, I would have said yes."

Now he's ready to do it again.

Lowery has signed on to direct Disney's latest live-action version of "Peter Pan." Like "Pete's Dragon," he and Halbrooks are taking their time writing the script with no plans of making the movie anytime soon. (Lowery will likely make two independently financed movies before "Pan.")

But Lowery insists he's going to deliver a "classic Walt Disney Pictures version" of "Peter Pan."

A filmmaker who was content with an audience much smaller than the one that will see "Pete's Dragon" this weekend, Lowery has taken time in the past few years to reflect on his career — and he's confident that he's right where he should be.

"The reason I got into making movies was I fell in love with 'Star Wars' and wanted to know how lightsabers worked," Lowery said. "Then my interests expanded, and I saw myself as an independent filmmaker, but I still carried that flame of wanting to do something big that would set imaginations the same way mine had been watching 'Star Wars.' So there is part of me that always wanted to do this."

SEE ALSO: Why Hollywood hasn't learned anything from a miserable summer of box-office bombs

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The vulgarity of “Sausage Party” does not end with the title, but what do you expect from the minds of Seth Rogen and his producing partner Evan Goldberg, who gave us “Superbad,” “This Is the End,” and the “Neighbors” movies?

The two have a talent for offering more than laughs, however. Would you believe it if I told you religion, including the issues between Israel and Palestine, is a major theme in “Sausage Party?”

Ten years in the making, this animated comedy is filled with incredible talent and an enormous amounts of laughs, but the cleverness of the story stands out most.

We are in a world where food products are living things and inside a grocery story, the stock wakes every day hoping to be plucked by the “Gods” (humans) and taken outside to the great beyond where everything is magical. Or so they think.

Rogen voices Frank, a sausage whose only goal in life, outside of leaving the grocery store, is to get inside Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a bun. But life gets interesting when Frank, and his other sausage friends Barry (Michael Cera) and Carl (Jonah Hill), start to question their beliefs when a honey mustard jar (Danny McBride) miraculously returns from the great beyond and reports the horrific truth: the Gods eat them.

This begins a journey through the aisles by Frank, Brenda, Lavash (David Krumholtz), and Sammy Bagel Jr. (Edward Norton) to find some answers.

The laughs keep up with absurd moments, including a sequence in which food being dropped from a shopping cart is made to look almost shot-for-shot like a scene from “Saving Private Ryan.” Or the clever feud between Lavash flatbread and Sammy Bagel because the Middle Eastern food aisle is next to the kosher section.

Then there’s the villain of the movie (Nick Kroll in his best Jersey Shore accent) who wants to pummel Frank for ruining his dream of getting outside.

Meanwhile, Barry makes it outside, where he sees firsthand his friends getting slaughtered when a woman cooks a stew.

But nothing will prepare you for the ending of this movie. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it, but what I will say is if you are a Rogen/Goldberg fan, you’re going to love it. (And figuring out which stars are voicing which characters is also part of the fun.)

“Sausage Party” will lure people in with the raunchy humor of the Judd Apatow clan, but they'll discover a respectful commentary on theology. And by that I mean directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon make sure to pick on almost every religion and ethnicity known to mankind.

And that’s a good thing.

“Sausage Party” opens in theaters on Friday.

SEE ALSO: Why Hollywood hasn't learned anything from a miserable summer of box-office bombs

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Despite having moved on from late night to Hulu specials, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, is still owned by NBC Universal. And the company has been making money off the hand puppet and his projects all along.

Since debuting on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in 1997, Triumph has appeared on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," TBS's "Conan," and Adult Swim's "The Jack and Triumph Show."

But the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, Robert Smigel, is quite comfortable with sharing the wealth with his old bosses.

"I had worked something out years ago that even though NBC owns Triumph, they would never control what I could or couldn’t do creatively," Smigel told Business Insider.

"In other words, I’d be free to make any movie with anyone I wanted to, any TV show, any book, record, but they would just have to be some sort of profit participant," he continued. "But they can’t exercise any authority over what I would be allowed to do."

It's a pretty sweet deal for NBCU and Smigel, especially as Hulu premieres its second special this year with the foul-mouthed puppet, "Triumph's Summer Election Special 2016," on Thursday.

It should also be pointed out that NBCU's parent company, Comcast, is a part owner of Hulu, which gives it another slice of profit if Triumph does well on the streaming service.

Other comedians aren't as lucky as Smigel. Recently, Comedy Central and owner Viacom apparently put a stop to Stephen Colbert's use of his conservative alter-ego from "The Colbert Report" after he brought it back for "The Late Show's" live airings during the national conventions.

Smigel, though, called the injunction against Colbert "a gift."

"I’m happy for Stephen. It’s great publicity for them," he told us. "It was a gift that Comedy Central did that. In fact, I thought they were doing it as a conceptual joke to help Stephen. I know the people there and they’re great people. But they just walked into it."

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Actors sometimes take keepsakes from their sets — an outfit their character wore, or a cool prop.

But after starring in a movie that turned out to be a colossal failure and almost ruined its studio, Jeff Bridges thought bigger. 

Bridges starred in the now-infamous 1980 Michael Cimino movie "Heaven's Gate," an over-three-hour epic that looks at the Johnson County War in Wyoming. When filming wrapped in Montana, Cimino offered up the whorehouse set, known as the Hog Ranch, to his cast.

Bridges jumped at the chance to own the fake whorehouse.

"Every couple of years we'll watch the movie and it's like watching home movies, seeing the ranch on-screen," Bridges told Business Insider recently while doing press for his new movie "Hell or High Water" (out Friday).

Bridges went into a little more detail about the purchase back in 2010:

“We disassembled the buildings, numbered the logs, put them on a flatbed truck, and drove 200 miles south to my and [wife] Susan’s ranch.

“Since that time we’ve added to the buildings a bit, but the core of the main house is built around the Hog Ranch. The bullet holes [from the film] are still in the walls.”

The Hog Ranch was a major location for the movie. The main character, James Averill (Kris Kristofferson), had a relationship with the house's madam, Ella (Isabelle Huppert). It's also the setting at the end of the movie when Bridges' character John and Ella are killed. The gunmen riddle the log cabin with bullets. 

The movie went on to become a box-office disaster that went down in the history books, earning only $3.4 million on a $44 million budget (a large chunk of money back in 1980).

Cimino, best known for the classic "The Deer Hunter," passed away in early July of this year. Bridges also worked with the director on "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot."

Though Bridges admits he hadn't talked to Cimino in years before his death, he believes "Heaven's Gate" has finally become accepted by audiences.

"He got a bad rap on 'Heaven's Gate,'" Bridges told us. "That movie, people are appreciating it more and more as time goes on."    

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bridges says he's all for starring in a "Big Lebowski" sequel: "It's a great idea"

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Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, seemingly predicted the downfall of Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz months before the DNC email leak.

In an interview for the puppet's last election special on Hulu, Triumph interviewed Schultz about her favoring of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

In July, DNC emails were hacked and released publicly, showing top staffers considering leaking negative information about Sanders. Schultz resigned from her position.

For Robert Smigel, the puppeteer and voice of Triumph, the apparently prophetic interview with Schultz was just the result of good research.

"It was before the leak, but it was a fairly common criticism of Debbie Wasserman Schultz," he told Business Insider this week. "If you’re going to talk to Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the time, it seemed like that’s what we had to ask her about."

What really felt unique to Smigel was that Schultz was a fan of Triumph, which resulted in a fairly lighthearted interview and, later, a huge save for the production.

"It’s funny, sometimes they’re just fans," he said. "And sometimes that’s a problem, because you want to be a troublemaker. But other times it’s great, because you get access that you wouldn’t normally get. She really wanted to talk to Triumph. As a matter of fact, our cameraman checked in late to the debate and Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s people went out of their way to get him in. As the debate was starting. I was, like, 'Is this really happening?'"

Smigel told us he's more used to being thrown out of places when he arrives with Triumph.

For his new special premiering Thursday, "Triumph's Summer Election Special 2016," in which Triumph hits the national conventions, Smigel wondered if he should poke fun at Schultz in light of what she did for his team previously.

"I feel bad, because I was very grateful for all the access and all the candor when we had that video," he said.

"I hesitated momentarily and then thought, 'This is silly, this isn’t about you, this is about the character.' And it turns out what the character would do is put fusilli pasta on his head and confront the Bernie Sanders people. It’s like 'Hillary needs me'-type stuff."

Watch the trailer for Triumph's new election special, which features the Schultz gag, below:

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NOW WATCH: Hulu CEO explains the biggest problem for cable companies

Outrageous, dramatic, instructional, and even touching reality shows have grown into a huge business in the past two decades.

According to National Geographic Channel's numbers, there were 350 new primetime unscripted series on cable television last year.

Clearly, interest in reality TV isn't going anywhere, but critics of the genre are quick to dismiss these hit shows by calling them "scripted" or "fake."

"I've never worked on a scripted reality series. Good luck trying to get f---ing reality talent to do anything scripted, because they're so difficult. So I don't even know what that means, that accusation," one producer of several reality shows, including Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchise, told Business Insider on condition of anonymity.

"There is a cliché that the truth is stranger than fiction. And on reality, I have consistently found that to be the case," Sean Dash, who has produced nonfiction series, including Discovery Channel's "Bering Sea Gold" and "Deadliest Catch," told Business Insider.

"I think the issue often is your viewer cannot believe what they're seeing because it can be so ridiculous or so absurd, but it is actually, literally, exactly what had happened," Dash said.

The issue often is your viewer cannot believe what they're seeing because it can be so ridiculous or so absurd, but it is actually, literally, exactly what had happened.

"I certainly see that plenty of times on the shows that I've worked on, and I go see the comments and I just laugh because yes, that did happen. That genuinely was a father and son rolling around the dirt fighting. That's them; that's not us."

That doesn't mean the shows just stand back and film. The producers we talked to say there is definitely a story they're trying to tell. That can take skill to pull off, and some maneuvering when things don't go as planned.

"As a reality producer, you're dealing with real people with their own minds that have their own images that they want to control or they want to be seen. We don't always know what we're going to get," said producer Rahel Tennione, whose credits range from "Real Housewives" to dating shows like "Tough Love," competitions shows including "The Real Gilligan's Island," and serious docuseries like FX's "Black. White."

Business Insider talked to producers about the behind-the-scenes secrets that go into creating the drama you see on successful reality shows. Here are some of the trade secrets behind TV's most popular reality shows.

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It all starts with casting.

Obviously, a reality show hinges on the people involved. That's where a show can be made or broken.

"We look for people who have really interesting stories to tell who won't shut down on camera, who are outgoing, dynamic personalities, or willing to expose themselves a little bit, for lack of a better term," the anonymous producer said.

Dash said that not everyone on a show gets equal footing. Many times, the cast needs someone who shines above and beyond the others.

"Frankly, you're looking for a star," he said. "You're looking for somebody to hang the show on. And that is such an intangible quality, because people can be incredibly dynamic when you're sitting with them across the table, but they fall flat on screen. And the opposite can happen. You really have to put them on camera to know. But you're looking for somebody that you just cannot take your eyes off of."

Producers are prepared to cut a cast member.

Many reality shows with ensemble casts will bring in more people than they need, because it's hard to tell if someone will fall flat. In those cases, producers try to help the struggling cast member out.

"One thing I like to tell my casts sometimes is, 'Look, I want you to have a story and if so-and-so is showing up for more scenes, they're going to naturally get more screen time, and they're going to tell your story and you'll have less of a voice to tell your story. It's better to be present and show up and have some screen time. The last thing you want is for someone else to tell your story,'" the anonymous producer said.

"You do everything you possibly can to try to bring out the best of them," Dash said. "You try to see who it would be good to pair them up with, who do they bounce off with naturally, what tends to spark them."

But sometimes it's a lost cause. "Real Housewives" is known to bring in extra women who attend shoots alongside the other ladies. And by the end of shooting, it becomes clear whether they've earned a place in the opening credits.

"If somebody just doesn't deliver, they just begin naturally to fade because the edit bay, honestly, is a meritocracy," Dash said. "The best characters win out and the best stories win out. People who don't deliver just end up on the cutting-room floor."

You have to get inside the reality stars' heads.

In Lifetime's hit "Unreal," which parodies the production of a "Bachelor"-like reality show, producers constantly coax their contestants. The truth is that's a very big part of creating the drama you see on reality TV.

"I like to be like an assassin. I'll try to subtly get the story way before the scene," the anonymous producer told us. "I'll put it into their heads so they think about it organically. I'll trick them. Basically, I'll sort of give them story beats a couple days in advance or remind them what's happening in real life and what we want to see in a subtle way, so they don't know I'm doing it."

Sure, that sounds underhanded, but it can actually turn out to be cathartic for a cast member who may not want to handle confrontation, or who's trying to figure out what's bothering them, according to the producers.

"You simply prompt them and you say, 'Hey, so-and-so, I know you feel this way, tell him about that,'" Dash said. "In a weird way, you're doing on-camera therapy, but all you're actually doing is bringing out the tension that exists between these two people and letting them talk it out. I know this sounds bizarre, but I have seen relationships actually improve because of the intervention of the show in people's lives."

ESPN has been bleeding subscribers over the last three years. So, in a bid to stem the losses, the sports network is beefing up its coverage online.

It announced on Thursday that it is launching professional-wrestling coverage on its website, adding a vertical dedicated to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Contributors will write and report on the sports-entertainment company, ESPN said in a press release.

The move is a big step toward expanding ESPN's coverage of WWE, which in the past year has been working with the wrestling juggernaut to gain exclusive content.

In March 2015, Brock Lesnar, the former UFC world heavyweight champion, announced on "SportsCenter" — ESPN's flagship program — that he would end his career as a mixed-martial-arts fighter and return to WWE.

WWE's addition to ESPN also comes as the wrestling company looks to align its brand with national sports leagues that are widely covered by the channel.

But, as the wrestling blog Cageside Seats notes, the network's wrestling coverage may draw ire from sports fans who often criticize wrestling for being choreographed and having predetermined storylines and outcomes.

"We'll see how the so-called Sports Leader expands their coverage of our beloved pastime ... and sit back and enjoy athletic purists raging about sports entertainment polluting their pool," Sean Rueter wrote on the site.

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Moviegoing has long been one of America's favorite pastimes, with blockbuster box-office earnings serving as a reliable predictor of cultural staying power.

Using both IMDb's and Box Office Mojo's lists of the highest-grossing films by year, Business Insider has compiled a chronology of the biggest box-office hits every year since 1975.

We adjusted global box-office receipts for inflation through 2016 using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator. We've also included critic ratings from Metacritic (on a scale of one to 100) and fan ratings from IMDb (on a scale of 1 to 10) for each film.

Several franchises are represented — "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," and "Pirates of the Caribbean" each make multiple appearances — as are Academy Award nominees and winners such as "Titanic" and "Rocky."

We used '75 as the cutoff because we found that worldwide figures before then were spotty and inconsistent.

Read on to find out the highest-grossing movie released the year you were born:

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AND: RANKED: The 10 movies most likely to dominate this summer

2015: "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens"

Adjusted gross: $2.07 billion

Unadjusted gross: $2.07 billion

Critic rating: 81

Fan rating: 8.3

Plot summary: "Three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, a new threat arises. The First Order attempts to rule the galaxy and only a ragtag group of heroes can stop them, along with the help of the Resistance." 

2014: "Transformers: Age of Extinction"

Adjusted gross: $1.12 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.1 billion

Critic rating: 32

Fan rating: 5.7

Plot summary: "Autobots must escape sight from a bounty hunter who has taken control of the human serendipity: Unexpectedly, Optimus Prime and his remaining gang turn to a mechanic, his daughter, and her back street racing boyfriend for help."

2013: "Frozen"

Adjusted gross: $1.31 billion

Unadjusted gross: $1.28 billion

Critic rating: 74

Fan rating: 7.6

Plot summary: "When the newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally uses her power to turn things into ice to curse her home in infinite winter, her sister, Anna, teams up with a mountain man, his playful reindeer, and a snowman to change the weather condition."

"Saturday Night Live" has made stars we can never forget: Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler.

They're comedians who found their talents on the legendary NBC sketch show.

But it wasn't that way for everybody. Over the years, "SNL" has been notorious for quickly cycling through some cast members. Some even have horror stories about their time on the show.

These stars, however, made it out and found fame with their acting and comedy anyway.

Here are the most notable "SNL" cast members you probably didn't even know were on "SNL" (they all lasted for only one or two seasons):

Robert Downey Jr.

Seasons: 1

After putting in time in theater, Mr. Iron Man joined a younger "SNL" cast. But facing wide criticism of the cast and poor ratings, the sketch show axed Downey and most of the rest of the cast. Honestly, it probably helped him become one of the biggest movie stars in a generation.

Jim Belushi

Seasons: 2

The late John Belushi is synonymous with "SNL," but his brother joined after John's death. He didn't last long, however, before becoming better known for movies like "About Last Night..." and "Little Shop of Horrors."

Chevy Chase

Seasons: 2

An original cast member, Chase did a lot with his short time on "SNL," including making "Weekend Update" a staple. He exited for an ultimately successful run at movies and left in his wake Bill Murray, for which we're all grateful.

Disney just dropped the second trailer for the next "Star Wars" movie, "Rogue One," and we finally have our first glimpse of Darth Vader in it!

 "Rogue One" will take place in between "Star Wars" episodes III ("Revenge of the Sith") and IV ("A New Hope") and follow a group of misfits who attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star. They'll be led by Jyn Erso (Oscar winner Felicity Jones) and Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).

The film has a pretty stellar cast which includes Forest Whitaker ("The Butler") and Mads Mikkelsen ("Hannibal").

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" will be in theaters December 16.

Check it out below:

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There aren't many people in the world who can captivate like the German filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Known best for his captivating documentaries ("Little Dieter Needs To Fly," "Grizzly Man") and narrative films ("Fitzcarraldo," "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"), he also has a distinct voice that is both poetic and extremely frank.

So who better to provide a commentary on Kanye West's now-infamous music video for "Famous"? The shaky, handheld-shot, 10-minute video shows imitations of some of the most famous people in the world all naked in bed together, with West and his wife, Kim Kardashian, alongside Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, Rihanna, and Bill Cosby.

"I've never seen anything like this," Herzog told The Wrap. "It shows us that the internet can be well beyond 60-second cat videos, although I like them as well."

Herzog's next movie, "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World" (in theaters August 19), looks at the good and bad of the internet. He sees West's "Famous" video as a perfect commentary on how celebrity is mediated on the internet, what Herzog calls the "inventive self."

"Understanding of self has deeply and radically changed," the director said.

Watch the NSFW "Famous" video below with Herzog's commentary.

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Join the conversation about this story »

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Hugh Grant revealed a surprising fondness for Donald Trump on Thursday's after-show of Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live."

A caller asked Grant, who was on the show promoting his new movie "Florence Foster Jenkins," which is worse: Donald Trump or Brexit?

Grant then explained that Trump had appeared in his 2002 movie "Two Weeks Notice," and had made quite the impression on the actor.

"He was very charming to me and made me a member of his golf club afterward, so I won’t hear a word against him," Grant said. "I can’t pretend I share all his politics."

He didn't have the same loyalty to his country, which voted to leave the European Union earlier this year, though.

"Brexit was a fantastic example of a nation shooting itself full in the face," Grant said. "And we’re very silly."

Watch Grant answer the question below:

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Jay Z's music streaming service, Tidal, is always at the center of some drama.

From constant executive shuffles, to acquisition rumors, to debates over whether exclusives are good for the music industry, there's never a dull moment. But most people don't know the full story of Tidal, which actually began in the 90s in Scandanavia — long before Jay Z took over in 2015.

Here's the tale of Tidal's transformation into the streaming service it is today.

Additional reporting by James Cook, Bryan Logan, and Abby Jackson.

Jörgen Adolfsson, Christer Månsson, and Klas Hallqvist, who went on to create Tidal-precursor Aspiro, met in 1995 while they working at Europolitan, one of the biggest telephone networks in Sweden.

They founded Aspiro in 1998, which sold a bunch of different services like interactive games, ringtones, horoscopes, and a system to send fax messages from your phone. Aspiro didn't sell direct to consumers, but instead sold its services to mobile networks that could include it as part of their bundles.

Aspiro's big advantage was partnerships with European phone manufacturers like Ericsson and Nokia. They allowed Aspiro's products to reach millions of customers.

It's rather astonishing that in six years of a reality competition show, only one major meltdown has occurred on "The Great British Bake Off."

By American reality TV standards, it's unheard of. Which is perfect because "The Great British Bake Off" is nothing like what you'll see on American reality TV.

"The show is sort of the opposite of everything that television is meant to be," executive producer Richard McKerrow told Business Insider. "There’s a basic, real kind, goodhearted nature which is at the center of the show."

"I think unfortunately, a lot of television, whether it’s in America or Britain, has a poor notion of the audience," he said. "They think they know what the audience wants. Let’s spoonfeed them reality shlock, and it’s just sort of the lowest common denominator and in a way that’s why a lot of television is struggling."

"The Great British Bake Off" certainly isn't struggling. In fact, it's thriving — so much so that its season-five finale beat the 2014 World Cup final match in ratings by 1.4 million viewers. The show airs its season-six finale in the UK Friday night (and the season-three finale in the US the same night).

How could a baking competition beat one of the biggest sports events of the year? Let's break it down.

First, you might be confused about the name. On BBC, the show is called "The Great British Bake Off," but on PBS, it's called "The Great British Baking Show." McKerrow had a simple explanation:

"It’s because Pillsbury has the trademark," he confirmed.

There have been a total of six seasons of "The Great British Bake Off," but only the last three have aired on PBS as the first three seasons of "The Great British Baking Show." That's the complex stuff, but now it gets simple.

Hilarious and innuendo-loving British comedy duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins host the 10-week competition among 12 amateur bakers who are competing for nothing other than the glory of triumph and a fancy cake stand. There aren't any prizes hidden in the big white tent that the competition is held in, located on various grand British estates. They also vie to be each week's Star Baker, a title that means you were the best for the one week but doesn't necessarily guarantee you are safe the next.

Although, if you are Star Baker, you get a nice little toy sheriff's star to wear for the weekend. The badge almost goes entirely unnoticed.

Judges Paul Hollywood, an artisan baker, and Mary Berry, a beloved cookery writer, assess the bakers' skills after three challenges:

• The signature bake: The contestants are given a specific bread, cake, pudding, etc. to bake, but they are allowed to design and complete the recipe on their own accord and with their own flavor choices.
• The technical bake: The judges assign a more difficult recipe for the bakers to follow, though certain aspects are left out, such as the oven temperature or desired texture of the batter. 
• The showstopper: The bakers go all out in attempting to impress the judges with their creative and technical skills. Consider this when amateurs try to be a little like Buddy Valastro of "Cake Boss" or Duff Goldman of "Ace of Cakes." 

Probably the most raved-about showstopper came from "Bake Off's" sixth season, when contestant Paul baked a fabulous "Bread Lion," seen below.

Even when nothing is technically at stake, the show is profoundly dramatic and entertaining — more so than cooking, McKerrow said.

It might be puzzling to think that baking can be dramatic, but watch an episode and you'll be on the edge of your couch waiting to see if the pattern turned out right or if the Swiss roll has enough layers. It's somehow very intense.

One key component of the drama is the way "Bake Off" is filmed. McKerrow described his team's style as "documentary sensibility."

"The frame of the program is artificial but what we’re about is it being completely real, not fake," he said. "It’s almost set up and plays out as proper reality rather than contrived reality... Then in the edit, you’re really treating it like a drama."

That's where McKerrow's "crumb cam," the close-up on the dishes, and that lovely string quartet come into play. Are there any other reality programs that sound like a ballet or classical orchestra concert? Didn't think so.

"I sometimes watch it and it’s like endless foreplay," he said laughing. "I think great television has to be simple but then within that, all the complications can play out."

"Bake Off" also receives high marks for how, well, pleasant it is. The judges aren't like Gordon Ramsay, who screams and curses at his contestants on "Hell's Kitchen." Instead, they're more like teachers. They carefully explain that a certain pastry needs to have a golden crust or that the dough must be kneaded in a certain way to turn out properly.

They still honestly say if something is dry or has an infamous "soggy bottom," but they do so in an uncruel manner. 

"Paul and Mary, they’re delighted in the first place that people are baking, and they want to encourage them and make them better and help them develop their baking skills," McKerrow said. "You know if a teacher is cruel and strict and shouts at your students, it’s not the best way to learn and to improve."

But the education isn't solely for the contestants. Viewers too pick up on some tricks of the trade and come to understand how a proper macaron should look.

"We’re time-poor so I’m only going to watch something if I learn from it and yet I also want to be entertained, so it’s trying to get that balance between programs which have real content where you feel like that was an hour well spent ... [and] feeling like you’re entertained," McKerrow said.

The hour is also splendidly spent because no baker is trying to tear down a fellow contestant, unlike the common antics on "Cutthroat Kitchen" or just about any other American reality TV show with the "I'm not here to make friends" model.

The grandmas, photographers, doctors, single dads, young students (and even one body builder) aren't the typical competitors seen on TV.

"We took a decision early on that the bakers, they don’t leave their job for four weeks to come and shoot this series. They stay in their real life and their jobs," McKerrow said. "We shoot it every weekend because we figured then we’d just be getting people who want to be on television, and we’re not interested in people who want to be on television. We’re interested in people who want to bake. So again, it’s about making it much more real."

If McKerrow had to describe the show with one pastry, it would be a "proper" British Victoria sandwich: "creamy, fruity, [and] a family-pleasing classic that seems straightforward but actually with the slightest error, can break your heart."

It also happened to be the first technical challenge from the show.

SEE ALSO: 19 behind-the-scenes secrets from the hit 'Great British Baking Show' revealed

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