Multiverses of Entertainment explores how Hollywood, technology, finance, and filmmaking can converge into a new entertainment ecosystem without sacrificing the human creativity that gives stories their power. What motivated you to write this book?

The greatest motivation came from pure love for the cinematic arts. Working in so many of the filmmaking arenas gave me arguably the most diverse experiences. The love for this industry grew like a garden growing a dozen exotic flowers, each one beautiful in its design and complexity. Work – from being an extra, to a stunt double, actor, screenwriter, Producer, Director, technology innovator, and mentor, to running a Mini-Major studio – gave me multiple perspectives I refer to in my books as Parallax View. The vision in 2016 that Hollywood, in its role to deliver the Power of Story, Hero’s Journey, and great performances in motivating films, would be burned to the ground motivated me to sacrifice ten years to deliver a separate Multiverse for the highest quality films and series. The books are the foundation, the tech innovation is the ROI for investors, the products are over 100 of the most valuable screenplays, and the payoff for Talent, crew, and audiences is symbolized in the Imagii Avatar. This does more than save Hollywood – Hollywood saves humanity.

The book combines material written around 2016 with your 2026 perspective. Which assumptions about Hollywood, China, streaming, and entertainment investment from that earlier period turned out to be most right, or most wrong?

Great question. Simple answer: learn from the past. First, let’s tackle the question as it relates to the past and why so many chapters feature China’s rise, which was happening at the same time Hollywood began its death spiral. Crystal-clear success and disaster examples were in motion from 2008-2018, when China was not only the biggest investor for Hollywood films but also the biggest investor in the world. At the same time, it was learning to improve filmmaking as an art. Hollywood would have starved for money without China’s tens of billions in investment and box office – yet the Industry was screwing over Chinese investors at an unprecedented level. My book began as tutorials on the sins and dire future of Hollywood and became a book. Barry London, who just left Paramount and was mentoring me so we could open our own Mini-Major using my formulas for success, gave me a lot of insight into what nobody is supposed to know about major Studio good practices and also their worst mistakes. Every one of my predictions came true. The most useful half of my book is the first half that presents the concept of the film Multiverse I created; however, the second half spells out what was leading to the collapse I saw as inescapable. So how do we go forward? We can’t assume anything we read is true today due to the skewing of news and information by technology. Most of Hollywood is too young to know what a great film requires. 90% of agents and entertainment lawyers have never spent one full day on a set. Not one of them could survive a day of decision-making. The veteran lawyers and agents have surrendered to the idea that the Earth of filmmaking revolves around the Sun of Streaming. That gravity keeps them in an orbit that only intersects what the Streaming Giants allow, and this includes AI replacing film artists. There is a place for that in the world of eyeball time, but not in the world of great filmmaking. The two cannot coexist in the same universe, so a Multiverse is formed. It obeys the laws of the greatest era of filmmaking. The gatekeepers to powerful execs are usually under 25, and they rely on AI to make decisions. It’s laughable. Here is an example from the past that shows how few graduates can handle production pressure to be excellent at a job, your position determined as a meritocracy: If I needed 4 Production Assistants when I was Producer-Director, I would hire 6 and fire all but one or two. Then go through the cycle again until I got my four. Today, I’d have to go through 50 wannabe filmmakers to find 4.

You argue that better movies require a business structure that works for both investors and artists. What is the biggest change Hollywood could make today to give filmmakers more creative freedom while still making projects financially sustainable?

Even in the best era, every production wanted more time and money. But they could justify it with who starred in the film and their foreign pre-sale value. There is no guarantee any film will hit a theater anymore because Streaming Giants lie to top talent like Gal Gadot and Jake in Road House about guaranteeing a theatrical release. Hollywood Studios cooked the books, faked costs for production and advertising, to screw investors out of a big profit. The big test to this, of course, for any veteran of the 80s, was Coming to America, based on the story pitch by Art Buchwald. Paramount first claimed it wasn’t, and then lied to say it never made a profit. Paramount lost and paid a huge settlement. Films were commonly thought of as a bad investment, but this was not due to revenue; it was mostly due to every system in the Industry agreeing to screw investors who don’t know enough. This was the Nash Equilibrium then. The only way to get longer shooting schedules to ensure fine cinematic moves is to guarantee a new revenue stream far greater than box office and tied merchandise. This is where the patented tech innovation and ability to tap into the next generation of social Apps, and Gamer and Influencer revenue and fanbase comes in. The deals and IP Event Horizon presents investors will hold pages of unimaginable legal language developed by me to guarantee Actors, Writers, and Directors get a share of Multiverse revenue, exactly like how Death Row offered pennies of every sale to rappers and made them worth $200 million in a year. New legal also includes massive revenue streams for each Mini-Major investor from the Next Gen Apps, which returns revenue even before a film or series is released. This makes the stock of the investor skyrocket more than how much they committed to spend on production. This is the future. This is how to get a shooting schedule long enough to honor the greatest Actors in Hollywood. And there must be enough IP to last 3 years so Actors cannot be blacklisted by Streaming and law firms, which they are now if they do not bend the knee to Streaming’s shitty pay and schedules that would turn the best performance of anyone into mediocrity (ask Affleck and Damon the weird changes forced on them in scenes for The Rip.). Every Mini-Major is a group of one television series that can get on air within 8 months and Apps with them so ROI begins within two quarters for the investor. And being on the first Multiverse guarantees billions. If they go for an IPO the investor makes several billion before the big payouts begin for production. This is the perfect investment model for entertainment for the next 5 years. It’ll take that long for any tech competitor to copy the model.

After decades around filmmakers, producers, actors, agents, and executives, what have you learned about the qualities that make a story powerful enough to endure across changing technologies and platforms?

So much of knowing winning material is a gut feeling – an ability to feel chemistry brewing, an ability to know original concepts that will win. A good example is Speed. This movie was the first to not follow the formula for action films where there were low points of action, for the audience to calm down like in Die Hard. Speed was nonstop action and tension. Romance was thrown in. Next major change was Apatow’s formula for breaking a film into 12 sets of scenes that can stand alone so they could be binge-watched by teens on phones. You had to be around then to “feel in your gut” what High Concept requires. At the same time, the power of the story to win over audiences had to tickle your senses with surprises, like in the unpredictable humor of The Hangover. The new generation of assistants, readers, law school grads, production execs, casting people – their gut was never trained, never forced into the field, never went through test by fire, never had a genius like Ron Howard and Brian Grazer to mentor them. And none of them understand the concept that films are often “made great in editing.” If you do not have the coverage, two shots, dolly shots, that great films need, it cripples editors. My Multiverse film financing and production requirements ensure we have the angles and sounds needed to deliver a scene that hits the audience on the three levels of great filmmaking: voyeuristically, vicariously, and viscerally. Great films have most scenes delivering two of those V’s. And then have at least 2-3 scenes that deliver all three at once. THAT is when a film story becomes its most powerful, successful, and impactful enough to improve people and society. It makes the fan believe in being his own hero, waiting for the right love, being the parent that protects, and saving someone for the sake of Integrity or Virtues. The technology and platforms are there in new forms simply because the audience for Influencers, Gamers, and Social Media is evolving and likes using these in Apps. The methods for outstanding filmmaking and stories they seek remain the same: devotion to “the film always comes first.”

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