David Ellison’s Paramount is off to a loud start, rolling out a James Mangold/Timothée Chalamet crime drama and a $7.7 billion, seven year UFC deal . Will the studio’s bold strategies play out as intended? Kim Masters and Matt Belloni break down Paramount’s next act. Plus, Masters talks to documentarian Petra Costa about Apocalypse in the Tropics, a follow-up to her Oscar-nominated 2019 film The Edge of Democracy. What started as a look at Brazil’s COVID response became an investigation into how religious fundamentalism, conspiracy theories and foreign influence have undermined democracy in her home country. She also recounts documenting the rise and fall of Jair Bolsonaro and the risks her crew faced while covering the country’s January 8th attempted coup.
