Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot (2013) Movie Script

MACY: I remember

I walked out of my trailer one time, ha...

...and I saw four guys

walk out of a sound stage...

...and they were clearly Martians.

And they had white BVD T-shirts on...

...but from the waist down,

they had green scales and sort of fish feet.

And so they flopped over to a rail...

...and they had scales on their head

and sort of these weird noses.

And they all put a cigarette in their mouths,

carefully...

...and sat there smoking,

talking about their agents...

...in these fish feet

with white BVD T-shirts.

And I thought, "I love this business."

Only at Warner Bros.

are you gonna see that.

FREEMAN:

It's a great studio.

If you just go back

over the history of the films...

...that this studio has championed,

has made...

...many of them are classics.

First time I came on the Warner Bros. lot

was as a script reader.

I would come down, pick up my scripts

or my novel to read over the weekend.

They'd give you a pass

for a couple of hours.

I would walk around the backlot

and check out some of the famous sets...

...and just absorb

some of the great history...

...and dream about, you know, coming here

one day to actually make my own films.

There is a respect that you have,

that I have...

...when you walk into a place like this.

Like, how can you take it for granted?

All the people who would love to be in

your shoes, who'd love to be sitting here...

...or literally sitting here

talking about this studio.

Being on this lot and looking around

these streets and thinking:

"Wow, this is where they made those

movies that I was in love with as a kid."

I came over here in the '50s.

I was very impressed with the lot.

Its beautiful stages

all had a lot of ivy growing on them.

And there was kind of a certain character

to them that they didn't have across town.

When you come to the gate

at Warner Bros., you feel like--

Now you're really where they make movies,

real movies.

GILBERT: This is one of the biggest lots

in Hollywood.

We have 110 acres on our main lot.

We have a ranch facility

located five minutes from here...

...that's another 35 acres.

But the lot is rather densely packed.

We have 35 sound stages, total...

...which is the most in any studio

in Hollywood.

Thirty here on the main lot

and five at the ranch.

About 35 acres of backlot,

lots of office buildings.

It's a very densely packed 110 acres.

KAHN: Warner Bros. Studios is a studio

that has a great story.

And the story does start

with the four Warner brothers.

And a lot of people don't know

that there were four Warner brothers...

...four actual brothers,

that started this studio.

The brothers were Polish immigrants...

...that moved to the States in hopes

of new opportunities and education.

The first thing they did when they got here

was started getting into business.

The most inventive brother of them all

was Sam Warner.

Sam had traveled by train

to do other jobs...

...and in one of the jobs...

...he saw a movie being projected

on the outside of a building.

And he thought, "What is that?"

And then when he talked to the guy

who owned the projector...

...and found out what movies were,

he thought:

"Maybe this is the business

we should get into."

KAHN:

The films that people were watching...

...were really more or less

reality programming, I guess, if you will.

You know, there wasn't a plot, you know.

We would see people dancing on camera...

...or maybe gathering

by the train station.

These clips that would show people

in everyday life.

But the American populace

was just taken by this.

And the brothers saw this.

The family scrabbled together

enough money to buy everything...

...including selling the family horse,

and they bought this projector...

...and they traveled around

from town to town.

When they ran out of films,

they moved to the next town.

At that point in time, they also found

other people who were showing films.

And they would buy those films.

And then they thought,

"Maybe we should make films as well."

They did what a lot of other

moviemakers did in the early days.

They moved west.

Harry was the one who kept reinvesting

the money, kept making the money.

But is was Sam who really got the brothers

to the next level at every point...

...I mean, until he passed away.

Meaning, he's the one who got

the brothers into movies to begin with.

And he also is the one who convinced them

that they should do sound films.

Going back to the best of my memory,

it was 1925...

...when Western Electric

and Vitaphone...

...had the technology that they were trying

to convince studios to use.

Vitaphone was really,

for all intents and purposes...

...a disk with a needle

that was synchronized...

...to the belt drive of conventional

soundless projectors in that era.

So they would put the needle

on the start point on the album...

...they would put the film

on the start point...

...and lock the two together,

and off you go.

At the time, Sam Warner

was very interested in this technology.

And worked off with his brother Harry...

...to convince him to use it

on upcoming productions.

And ultimately,

Harry was swayed to go along with it.

They went to production

and they used it for musical pieces...

...on Don Juan, and then in 1927,

The Jazz Singer...

...where a little bit of Al Jolson's voice

was the spoken word.

[CHEERING]

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

You ain't heard nothing yet.

Sam never lived to see his film sound

come to life or fruition, really.

And Jack was the one

that really pioneered it from there on.

As they started to procure theaters

throughout the country...

...they were all equipped

with this technology.

So it was driven by Jack at that point.

Jazz Singer was a huge hit...

...changed the movie industry forever,

changed the Warner brothers forever.

With the money that they were making,

they were able to buy theater chains.

They were able to buy

First National Pictures...

...which was the premier

silent movie company at that time.

And with First National,

they acquired this lot.

I had an insight into Jack that most actors

didn't have because I was a tennis player.

And every weekend,

we had tennis at Jack's house.

And I came to know him,

to feel what he was like underneath...

...and to be very sympathetic with him

because of that...

...because of knowing him that well.

And I liked him very, very much.

I mean, he was very good to me

while I was here.

I won't deny that he was ridiculous...

...and he thought he was Jack Benny

and all of that.

That was not the real man.

He also had an ostensible contempt

for actors.

I mean, he called the biggest stars,

"Oh, that stupid son of a bitch."

You know, this, that.

Like, I mean, he just disrespect.

But I understood that too

because he was awed by them.

From where he came,

and to be their boss...

...and to be telling them what to do

and everything like that...

...was not familiar ground for him.

Many years after I was here,

they previewed a picture of Warren Beatty.

It took over Stage 1.

And there was a huge luncheon.

They invited all the old Warner stars

from before that era.

Pat O'Brien and Robinson

and those people.

And, of course, they all got up to speak

and they all made hay out of Jack Warner.

They all, you know, told Warner jokes

and made fun of him.

And he let himself in for that.

I mean, he was wide-open.

But there wasn't a nice thing said

about him.

Well, I had never met Bette Davis

at that point...

...and I happened to be sitting at the table

with her at this occasion.

And I liked her so much.

I mean, I--She was--

Well, who needs to say anything

about Bette Davis?

Anyway, she got up and she said,

"Papa--"

She called him Papa.

After all of these slams

and everything else, said, "Papa...

...you gave me my first chance

in this business...

...and I've always loved you

and I always will.

Thank you. God bless you."

And that was so stunning, you know,

after the usual reception of Jack Warner.

But it was--I've never gotten over it.

This was the rear entrance

to the main administration building.

Barry Meyer's office.

Jack Warner's old office is right upstairs.

It's where the senior management

of the studio resides.

Headquarters of Warner Bros.

right here.

This is called the Rose Garden.

It's quite a beautiful setting.

It's very serene.

Roses in bloom,

trees that are 90 years old.

It's quite a pretty setting.

Far into the lot, the arches are where

the Wardrobe Department was.

Both floors were wardrobe storage.

The downstairs under the arch

was a pass-through window...

...where they would have the sign,

name of the movie...

...and actors would go up

and have their wardrobe issued to them.

As far as the look,

we have tried to preserve it.

The entry has been moderned up...

...but we tried to make it as consistent

to the architecture of the time as possible...

...using metal doors and moldings

to match the old ones.

We have some great artists here

and great craftspeople.

You can't find these windows but our metal

shop could certainly recreate them for us.

McGRORY:

This is the Mill at Warner Bros. Studios.

The Mill was built around 1937.

It's about 120,000 square feet.

It's a fully self-contained construction

environment where we build all the sets.

Design them, construct them,

and then install them on the stages.

In the Mill we have--We have paint...

...staff, metal, scenic arts,

large-format printing...

...large sign tech, the Sign Department.

We also do electrical, plumbing, AC.

It's all here in the Mill.

PIKE: This is the scenic art loft.

It's the Scenic Art Department.

This has been here since 1937

when they built the Mill.

I've been here for 22 years and it hasn't

changed in the time that I've been here.

And I've seen pictures of the room

and it looks exactly the same.

Other than the guys

wearing suits and ties painting, which is--

I can't even imagine doing.

We are the last

and one of the biggest departments.

We have the most frame space

and we're it.

We used to hand-paint

all the billboards in front.

And it was done in oil paint,

off a scaffolding.

It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work.

It was actually a very physical job.

You know, oil paint is thick.

It doesn't spread easily.

You literally, if you have, like, a sky blend

and you have three color blues...

...you have to work that paint

back and forth until it's smooth.

But I really enjoyed it.

And I did that, for, like, my first

10 or 12 years here, almost exclusively.

And then the digital age came

and now we're printing them.

McGRORY:

This is the VUTEK printer...

...one of the larger printers

in the industry right now.

It's a 5-meter printer.

And we do all of our large-format printing

on here.

We do billboards, backdrops,

other scenic elements.

As you can see right now, we're doing

one for one of our TV productions.

It's a day shot.

This is still the current technology

we're using.

It's a really great workhorse printer

for us.

On average, we can have about 200 to 300

people working in the Mill at any given time.

We're one of last studios to have

all the services in-house.

Many of the studios have downsized

and have gone and outsourced that.

Yes, I'm a third-generation

Warner Bros. employee.

My grandfather was a cameraman

for Jack Warner.

Then my father,

he was in construction, dispatcher.

And then myself,

I work in construction as well.

This is a wonderful place to work.

They really do care about the employees.

You find people here that are on a day call.

They're on a day call for almost 30 years.

So it's a great studio to work for.

Original sound stages were built

in 1926.

And at that time

they were Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Every time they built a new sound stage,

they changed the numbers...

...keep could them in chronological order,

zigging and zagging through the studios.

So Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4

are now Stages 10, 11, 12 and 14.

No 13 because that's unlucky,

so we jumped that one.

The first four stages were very big,

because they were primarily for movies.

When television came around,

they put walls between--

In the middle of the stages and turned

them into two smaller stages...

...so that they could double up

on the space for television.

But the walls are removable so they could

take them down when need be...

...and turn it back into a big film stage.

Each one of the stages have a small tank

that they can open up.

And you can either do water scenes in there

or have staircases...

...going down from the original set.

So all the sound stages have those pits,

they call them.

Stage 16,

my favorite sound stage on the lot.

We call it the ocean with a roof.

The whole floor is removable.

And then below that,

it goes down about 25 feet.

It can hold 2 and half million gallons

of water.

And in the movie Perfect Storm, that

George Clooney did with Mark Wahlberg...

...the entire 72-foot fishing vessel

was being tossed around...

...by the hurricane-force winds

in that sound stage.

They had about 15-foot waves

hitting that ship for about three months.

Built in 1935.

It was just a baby

when a movie was being shot in there...

...called Cain and Mabel.

And Marion Davies was a very

high-maintenance actress, shall we say?

She was convinced that the set that they

were gonna build in there was too small.

Jack Warner suggested

to William Randolph Hearst...

...that if Marion wanted

the sound stage bigger--

Because Marion, at that time,

was his girlfriend.

He said, "Well, you know, you could

always pay for it and then we'd do it.

And Hearst said, "Yes."

Now because of the shooting schedule...

...they didn't have time to do the normal

thing, rip the roof off and build it up.

They did something that today you could

never do because it's dangerous.

Literally surrounded the building

with people...

...and they drilled holes

into the base of the building.

In the foundation, they put steel plates.

And under the plates,

they wedged hand jacks...

...like a jack of a car.

And they put big bass drummers

on each corner of the building.

When those guys got a rhythm going

on the drum...

...everybody at the jacks would crank the

building up a couple of inches at a time.

About a foot off the ground,

they put railroad tiles underneath.

They jacked it up another foot and

they kept crisscrossing the railroad tiles.

In essence, making legs.

It kept raising the sound stage

up and up and up to its current height...

...which is actually 65 feet in the air.

And Jack was a very happy man,

because at that time...

...he had the largest sound stage

in the world.

I've been a constant tenant

for over 25 years.

I kind of moved down

this kind of corridor to here.

Stories I was told--

Some I researched, some I was told.

The story was

that William Randolph Hearst...

...at a company

called Cosmopolitan Pictures...

...whose principal artist

was Marion Davies.

And he had a big facility structure house,

more or less, at MGM...

...that was her dressing room.

But it was where he would go

when he was in town...

...where he had access

to his vast publishing empire.

There's famous stories about

a big luncheon for George Bernard Shaw.

There are pictures of everybody

at this luncheon.

Apparently, there was a disagreement

at some point...

...between Louis Mayer

and William Randolph Hearst.

And the story was that Julia Morgan...

...who was his architect,

who designed San Simeon for him...

...actually moved that building,

that structure, in, like, two or three parts...

...to this site where we are right now.

It was a very elegant kind of, you know,

Mediterranean structure.

And they used it for various things.

It was kind of a private home

in the middle of the lot.

Well, the story that I also was told...

...is that when his deal finally ended here,

Hearst moved that house again...

...to a site on Beverly Glen,

which is in West Los Angeles.

When that building left here,

there was kind of a field here.

At that time, Jack Warner

was very infatuated with Frank Sinatra.

He had made a picture

called Ocean's Eleven...

...which has gone on

to live other lives as well.

And he really wanted him

to be on the Warner lot.

And, actually, this building

was built for him in the early '60s.

It had a very Asian style.

There was grass cloth on the walls,

Frank's desk was right here.

Apparently out there

is a rubber tree plant.

There's a song called "High Hopes"

where they mention a rubber tree.

It's a rubber tree out there.

And there was a piano here.

I mean, I've seen pictures of it when Frank

had it, and he had it for about 10 years.

And this whole area was his--

It was called Artanis,

which was "Sinatra" spelled backwards.

He left and First Artists was created.

The principals of that

were Barbra Streisand...

...and Steve McQueen and Sidney Poitier.

It was put together

by Freddie Fields at CMA...

...for all his big stars

to have their own company.

And that was in here too

for about 10 years.

And then when that dissolved,

Spielberg moved in and he was here...

...through the big kind of run

of his Warners pictures.

And then Dick Donner moved in.

And when Dick Donner left, we moved in.

I feel I don't even know a time when

I wasn't here but, of course, that's fantasy.

I've been here, on and off, since--

Really, since the late '70s.

Warner Bros. during World War II

was making war movies...

...or putting war elements into every film.

With Casablanca,

the studio knew they had two things.

They knew they had Humphrey Bogart...

...who the studio realized

was going to become a romantic star...

...and they knew they had something

really special with Casablanca...

...because it was a war story

without the combat.

What happens

with an international mix of people...

...in a foreign country

as the Nazis are closing in...

...and trying to take over the world.

And you had a hero

who was a reluctant hero.

And you had a fallen woman

who was the female romantic lead.

And you had the upstanding

knight in shining armor...

...Paul Henreid in his white suit.

And you had an international mix

of people...

...who were fighting the Nazis

within Vichy France's Casablanca.

You can say Citizen Kane is a great movie,

but this is the Hollywood movie.

Citizen Kane is an experimental film

that just is crackerjack.

But Casablanca has all the elements

of a Hollywood movie.

The big stars, the big music,

the big sets...

...the big lighting, the big adventure,

the big romance...

...all in one film,

and all shot here at Warner Bros...

...except for a couple of quick shots

at an airport.

RICCA: There've been a lot of very

romantic movies shot on this lot...

...but probably this is the ultimate

romantic movie, Casablanca.

This little storefront,

which is now a bookstore right now...

...is the last standing set of Casablanca.

This is the actual set.

It's the same one from 1942.

There's a very quick but memorable

flashback scene in Casablanca...

...where Humphrey Bogart and

Ingrid Bergman are seated right out here...

...at a little outdoor caf? in Paris.

And they're listening to the announcements

of the soldiers coming closer to Paris.

It was shot right here.

So this is the exact spot.

And we get people on the tour

who just are in awe of this location...

...because it's still here

after all those years.

Jack Warner got into television

at the request of the president of ABC.

And what Jack thought was

he would kind of do what Walt Disney did.

He would use television

to promote his theatrical films.

He still wasn't convinced that the studio

could make money off of television.

The first season was actually

three television shows...

...based on Warner Bros. feature films.

One was Casablanca,

the other was Kings Row.

So you had a major World War II

romantic film...

...and you had a major

American soap opera.

How could these two fail?

And he threw a Western in

as the third show...

...and it was called Cheyenne.

And Cheyenne was the one that took off.

The guy who had developed Cheyenne

was a writer named Roy Huggins...

...and Roy had written a detective novel

that had been published.

When they were looking

for something different, he said:

"Well, I can give you a detective show."

And so 77 Sunset Strip

became the second big genre...

...that Warners did in television.

ZIMBALIST:

I didn't wanna do it.

I didn't wanna do a series, be in television.

I'd done that in New York...

...and I came out here

because I thought it was movies.

They showed me a little clause

in my contract...

...that stipulated

that I had to do television.

So I made this pilot, 77 Sunset Strip.

Everybody loved it, we loved it.

And it was an entr?e to all kinds

of situations and places and so forth.

It was a wonderful feeling

to be in a show like that...

...that just made the world happy.

And it did, you know.

Everybody was crazy about it

and so were we.

One of the things that disenchanted

Jack Warner about television...

...was in the '30s when Jimmy Cagney

was upset with his contract...

...he had to fight Jimmy Cagney.

And when Bogart was fighting,

he had to fight Bogart.

With the television stars...

...where some of them

were being paid 75 dollars a week...

...all of a sudden, all the TV actors

were coming at Jack Warner saying:

"We want a raise."

And so Jack was kind of losing interest

in television...

...because all of a sudden,

he wasn't fighting one war...

...he was fighting five or six wars.

And the other thing that happened, because

they only had one customer, ABC...

...if ABC rejected a show, that was it,

they were done.

And so when the ABC series

started to die out...

...that was kind of the end

of Warner Bros. in television.

James Dean was my idol.

I was 15 at that time and, you know,

I was doing plays in high school...

...and I knew I was gonna pursue a career

as soon as I got out of high school.

I had no intention of going to college

and so be it.

Somebody told me about this young actor

that had just come out in East of Eden.

I'd never heard of him

and I went to see it.

I remember

I went to the Saturday matinee...

...and I saw him

and it was a double feature.

I couldn't tell you what the other film was,

but I had no interest.

But I could hardly stand up.

I saw the film three times that day

and I could not get over him.

I was just never the same.

None of us were.

Even people

that were not interested at all in acting...

...were affected by him, you know?

Boys and girls, rich and poor,

black and white, old and young...

...everybody was just absolutely captivated

by this extraordinary genius.

This young genius

that was gone at age 24.

He changed everything about...

...what I had perceived an actor might do.

You know, film acting, what it was about,

because he really transcended it.

It was about behavior.

He just absolutely mesmerized me

and became my hero.

And I couldn't believe

that he was already gone...

...as I was discovering him.

I worked on the pilot

for Harry O with David Janssen.

And I worked with Sal Mineo.

He and I played villains together.

I drove him nuts, asking him

to tell me about James Dean.

And he told me one story here that

Dean was practicing his makeup for Giant.

And he came walking across the lot.

Sal told me he was going

the other direction.

Old guy said, "How you doing, man?"

Sal said, "I'm fine, how you doing?"

Then he heard this laugh and he turned

around and it was James Dean.

He was in his older makeup for Giant.

And he'd fooled Sal Mineo.

And he and I worked on this pilot...

...and he finished earlier than I,

a day earlier...

...and he came by just to say goodbye.

And I told him what a pleasure it was

and I hoped that I hadn't bothered him...

...asking him so much about James Dean.

And he said, "No, no."

He said--And you know what he said?

"He'd have liked you."

And I broke into tears.

I thought, "Wow, Sal Mineo thinks

that James Dean would have liked me."

I thought, "Okay."

ROTH: We know all about the legend

of Warner Bros. animation.

We know the legend of Mel Blanc and these

brilliant characters, these iconic characters.

We are well aware and are huge fans

of the original Merrie Melodies.

And Looney Tunes,

we are the gatekeepers of all the product...

...that originally came from that library

of brilliant product.

GEER: Way back in the '30s,

it was Merrie Melodies...

...and then they introduced

Looney Tunes.

There was a man, Leon Schlesinger,

who ran and owned Pacific Title.

And Schlesinger apparently

was a pretty wealthy man.

And he'd helped finance Warners

when they made The Jazz Singer.

They owed him one.

So he went back to Warner and said:

"Let us be your Animation Department."

So he had then brought three

or four people from the old Disney crew.

Friz Freleng was one of them.

Chuck Jones.

There was Bob Clampett, Tex Avery.

And these guys did all kinds

of amazing things with animation...

...that hasn't been done since then,

really.

And Avery said,

"We're gonna make another rabbit, guys.

Draw me your picture

of what the rabbit looks like."

So the different animators

were drawing their idea...

...of what the rabbit should look like.

And there was a guy

named Bugs Hardaway.

That was his nickname, was Bugs.

So as he was going out to lunch,

he dropped his drawing on Avery's desk.

Bugs' rabbit.

That become Bugs Bunny.

Warner Bros. had been absolutely

in the animation business...

...from the '30s all the way

until the late '60s.

And then at that point, there was a rest.

And it wasn't until 1980...

...where Warner Bros. Animation

was restarted.

And what also happened is,

as the Warner Bros. Studio grew...

...and the company grew,

so did our library.

So when we started off

with the Looney Tunes...

...eventually we were also able to add

the Hanna-Barbera library...

...the MGM animation library

and the DC Comic characters...

...to probably one of the largest

animation libraries out there.

You can feel how many people came

before us...

...that worked on these movies

and cartoons.

And that we have the opportunity

to be here in their footsteps is incredible.

ZIMBALIST:

This studio was my home.

I loved it and I do still.

I mean, I don't come here anymore.

I'm a stranger.

I don't know most of the buildings here.

But it was my home, and those days...

...when it was just Warner Bros.,

it was just Jack Warner.

See, I came to Warners

right after the big rift with his brothers.

They collaborated,

they hatched this plot...

...where everybody would sell his stock

and then buy it back cheap.

Only trouble was, when the brothers

came to buy it back...

...it was all in Jack's hands.

And Jack kicked the brothers out.

Later when Seven Arts

bought Warner Bros...

...they came to Jack Warner and said:

"We're going to give you

$34 million for the studio...

...and you'll still have your office,

you'll still run things, you'll be the boss.

We'll just be the owner, that's all."

The irony with Seven Arts is that

Eliot Hyman had bought the rights...

...to Warner Bros. films for television.

And with the money

that he made off of that...

...he then bought Warner Bros. in 1967.

So the irony is

Jack sold the films to him...

...and then Jack ended up

selling the studio to him.

Father and son team, Eliot and Ken Hyman,

didn't stay at Warner Bros. that long.

I think their tenure here

was only about 19 months.

Seven Arts were distributors.

They hadn't been really producers.

They were a distribution company.

It was an odd period in time

because Jack Warner's power base...

...was reasonably on the demise.

He was developing 1776, the musical,

as a film...

...and I don't know the deal

or the agreement.

But he was retained

as the vice president of the company.

ZIMBALIST:

Well, a few weeks after the thing...

...no piece of business

passed his desk again.

He never saw anything.

And finally, they asked him to leave

and he just got out.

RICCA:

The backlot, it's 14 different sets right now.

It used to be much bigger,

but some of the production offices...

...have taken over spots.

Well, we're here on New York Street

and it can be any city really.

I've seen it transformed into London,

into San Francisco.

But primarily, we see this as New York,

sometimes Chicago.

A lot of the gangster movies

were shot along here.

There was always somebody in a car,

blowing out windows with a Tommy gun.

The movie theater over here

was in A Star Is Born with Judy Garland.

Opening scene

of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?...

...with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford,

when they zoom in, that was here.

One of the biggest sci-fi movies

of the '80s, Blade Runner...

...with Harrison Ford and Daryl Hannah,

they transformed this entire street...

...into futuristic Los Angeles.

Lots of neon and kiosks,

and a very strange-looking world.

In 1952, the New York Street

burned to the ground.

They took photos

and film of the burnt sets...

...and they used them for stock footage.

We had two Western towns, but, you know,

they just don't do Westerns anymore.

Those kind of fell by the wayside.

Blazing Saddles used one of them.

And shows like Bonanza,

Little House On The Prairie.

Then we also have a jungle set,

which is just a bunch...

...of various trees and bushes and things,

but it's a few acres.

This is the jungle

and the jungle lagoon.

This lagoon can be filled

for production.

It's filled right now, but we never leave it

filled for safety reasons...

...and for bugs and things like that.

There's a production about

to shoot in here, so they filled it up.

This entire area

was planted and designed...

...for the movie Santiago with Alan Ladd.

It's been a lot of things.

It was Central Park in The Omega Man...

...with Charlton Heston.

Pee-wee Herman swung across this

on his bicycle in Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

Probably the most famous thing

to shoot here was just a few years ago.

It was Ira's Roadside Diner

in Million Dollar Baby...

...Clint Eastwood's film.

And this was the diner

that they go to get the lemon pie.

Pretty pivotal scenes in there

with the lemon pie...

...was all about the ending of the movie.

But I won't tell you if you haven't seen it.

We are on probably one of the famous

streets at Warner Bros. studios.

This is Brownstone Street,

or was Brownstone Street.

It's been renamed Ashley Boulevard

for Ted Ashley.

It was one of the first streets

built here on the lot.

So it dates back to a time

before Warner Bros. even owned the lot.

It was First National Pictures back then.

This one right here,

the basement apartment...

...was actually Audrey Hepburn's

in the movie, Wait Until Dark.

A real scary, wonderful, popcorn movie.

Midwest Street has been around

since the early '30s...

...used in countless television shows

and movies.

The Music Man

with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.

Brilliant film.

East of Eden, James Dean.

Big veteran's parade

that went around the town, that was in that.

Recently, we've had J. Edgar out there,

Clint Eastwood's film.

There was a shootout on, like,

the 4th of July, there.

The bunting was all over the building,

so that looked just amazing.

This spot is a very popular area on the lot.

It's called Hennesy Street.

It was named for the production designer,

Dale Hennesy...

...who remodeled this in the early 1980s...

...for the Columbia Pictures' Annie,

which shot here.

That right there,

where it says "Arts and Crafts"...

...that was Miss Hannigan's orphanage.

Most recent movie to shoot here

was J. Edgar.

Leonardo DiCaprio,

Clint Eastwood directing.

Here on the corner, that's a practical set.

Now, that one was used...

...in one of the funniest movies

from the '80s, Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

And that was the pet store where Pee-wee

saves all the animals from the fire...

...at the end of the movie.

This is the only studio that still has

pretty much the same backlot...

...as it had from the early days.

All the other studios have changed,

but we've pretty much stayed the same.

ROMANO:

In 1969...

...Steve Ross, Kinney National Service...

...acquired Warner-Seven Arts and changed

the name to Warner Communications.

And then in 1970,

they installed Ted Ashley, Frank Wells...

...and John Calley as the new management

of the company.

They decided to relocate the corporate

offices from New York to the studio.

Steve Ross was a unique person.

He was sort of the godfather

of the new Warner Bros.

He was a believer

of the entertainment business.

He was also a believer in people.

SEMEL:

I was working for Warner Bros.

I was their branch manager here

in Los Angeles, first in Cleveland.

I got a call. The new boss, Steve Ross...

...would like to have me come over

to the studio.

I came and as I entered...

...what ultimately turned out to be

Bob and myself, our offices...

...there were beads on all of the doors.

They weren't doors actually,

they were just beads.

And I could smell something like incense

or something in the room.

And as I came in, the key executives,

Steve Ross and Ted Ashley...

...they were all sitting on the floor

on pillows in the office.

And I thought, and I've told this

to Steve Ross in the past:

"It's time for me

to get out of this company.

There's something wrong

with these people from New York."

In fact, my job at that point

was to oversee a movie...

...and that was Woodstock.

These guys were, like, living Woodstock.

I thought,

"This could be a disaster for our company."

Needless to say, they were all brilliant.

They were very good executives

and very nice people.

But it was a hard entry for me to think:

"My God, will this be my new bosses?"

I remember that we used to have

three meetings a week in John's office.

These were three days where you took,

you know...

...two to three hours a day out of

your schedule to go to a staff meeting.

And no one ever missed that meeting...

...because they were the most compelling,

humorous, funny meetings.

And it was the way the company was run,

very collaboratively, everybody had a voice.

Even I, as a kind of a young, new business

affairs executive. It was really terrific.

I have the highest regard for those guys.

They were really, really pioneers...

...in the new iteration of Warner Bros.

from the '70s on forward.

They were unique in the way

they dealt with filmmakers.

And if you look at the history of the movies

they made, they were special movies.

Some of them weren't as commercial

as a Batman or a Lethal Weapon.

But they were really unique

and they were really quality movies.

They were a great management team.

These were all unique, very bright people

that Steve Ross picked.

I was a talent agent when I was a kid...

...for a very short time at MCA

with Lew Wasserman.

And then I left there

and I became a manager.

And a promoter. Music.

I became a film producer

in late '60s, early '70s.

I made a film here, I think about 37, 38

years ago, called Oh, God!...

...with George Burns and John Denver

and Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart.

It was a big hit.

And that's how I ended up at Warners.

I was all pinching myself

in those days, all the time...

...because the movie business

was fun in those days...

...and the guys that were running it

were Ted Ashley and Frank Wells.

Terry Semel was the head

of Distribution or Marketing.

I don't remember what.

And they were all friends of mine.

Guys I grew up with.

And it was--It was fun.

The Oceans were great fun to make...

...because the guys

are all close friends of mine.

They're like--All like my kids.

Not Pacino. He's like my father.

But the rest of them are like my kids,

and they're all great guys.

And I--I'm crazy about them.

I'm crazy about Al as well.

Soderbergh is a wonderful director

to work with.

And we had a terrific crew, great staff.

It was, you know,

it was the same crew that-- Throughout.

I worked with Frank, when the original

was made, in the music world.

And I always thought that the film could be

much better than the one that they made.

The were working at night

and filming during the day.

They weren't paying really

much attention to it. I got the rights.

When I came to Warners, it's the first thing

I plucked out of the library.

And I kept it all those years

and then I made it when the time was right.

I got a script and made it.

We had built a casino around the corner.

A whole casino. Looked just like Vegas.

We didn't--

We didn't leave anything out, actually.

We shot Ocean's Eleven in Vegas

and it was very, very hard.

And the guys became such big stars

after Ocean's Eleven...

...that it was impossible to shoot

all of those people in one place.

Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt...

...and George Clooney and Matt Damon

and Don Cheadle and so on.

Elliott Gould and Scotty Caan and so on.

It was impossible to shoot everybody

in a casino...

...because they couldn't have gambling

going on while we were there.

So we built our own.

Sinatra would have loved it.

He would have been in it.

Clooney never would have had a job.

Ha-ha-ha.

When I did The Exorcist here

between '72 and the end of '73...

...it was a trio of guys

who ran the studio.

Ted Ashley, Frank Wells

and John Calley.

Ted Ashley made all the decisions.

His word was final.

He decided to do The Exorcist.

He decided to hire me to do it.

And then Frank Wells

ran business affairs.

And John Calley,

who was a really great executive...

...was my main contact here.

And John Calley

would look at the dailies...

...and if the two executives above him

were getting nervous...

...he would say, "No, this stuff is great.

This is gonna work."

And he was extremely supportive of me.

And I must say that The Exorcist

was totally experimental.

None of this stuff had been done before.

We never previewed The Exorcist.

That was a choice made

by the management.

And I'm very glad they made it.

Because if we had previewed The Exorcist,

I would still be cutting it now.

I didn't do the film as a horror film.

I realize that today, it's considered

the number one horror film ever made...

...by most critics and most audiences.

The first choice by

the heads of this studio...

...Ashley, Calley and Wells,

was Audrey Hepburn.

And I thought that was a great idea.

I spoke to Audrey Hepburn,

who lived in Italy.

I spoke to her by phone.

And she was then married

to an Italian doctor...

...and living in Italy,

and she didn't wanna leave Italy.

She wanted us to go there.

I didn't wanna shoot the film in Italy.

The next choice was Anne Bancroft.

I thought that was a great idea too.

She read the script and said,

"Yes, I'd love to do this.

But I have to tell you,

I just found out I'm pregnant.

Now, if you guys are willing to wait

for a year, I'd love to do the film."

And, of course,

I remember saying to her:

"Anne, I think

when you have your child...

...you're not gonna wanna make a film

for a while...

...and certainly not The Exorcist."

The third choice was Jane Fonda...

...who read the script

and called John Calley and said:

"Why would you wanna make a piece

of capitalist rip-off bullshit like this?"

So she declined to make it.

Meanwhile,

Ellen Burstyn had been calling me.

She said, "I'm destined to play this part.

You believe in destiny, Mr. Friedkin?"

I said, "Yes, I do believe in destiny."

She had no leading roles

as far as I knew...

...but she had been a Catholic...

...she knew a lot about the Church

and its rituals.

I found her very bright and interesting.

And one day I went to Ted Ashley's office

and I said:

"Ted, I think Ellen Burstyn would be great

to play the lead in this film."

And Ted Ashley stood up behind his desk

and he said:

"Bill, I have total faith

that you'll do a great job on this movie.

But Ellen Burstyn will play this part

over my dead body."

He said, "Do you--?

Do you know what that means?"

And I said,

"Well, I have some idea. Yeah, Ted."

He said,

"Bill, let me show you something."

He lied down on the floor.

He said, "Come on over here

and walk over my body."

I said, "Oh, Ted, please."

He said, "No. Come on.

Walk over my body."

And so I stepped forward

and I tried to step over his body...

...and he grabbed my leg.

And I had to hold on to his desk

for support, and he said:

"That's what I will do if I'm dead

and you cast Ellen Burstyn in this part."

A number of years later...

...he was on the board

of the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

He had retired from Warner Bros.

And I met him at the opening of--

I think it was the Temple of Dendur

or some Egyptian room at the Met.

And I said, "Well, Ted, how do you feel

about Burstyn in that part now?"

And he said, "If we had had Jane Fonda,

we'd have done a billion dollars."

My name is Elaine Maser.

I'm the director of costumes

at WB SF Costume Department.

In the building,

we have different businesses.

We have the rental business.

We have a costume shop

where we manufacture...

...and also alterations.

And then we also have designer suites

and cages...

...for prep space for productions.

It's the largest of all the rental departments

in the city.

One of the reasons is

because of our relationships...

...with Warner Bros. Television

and Warner Bros. features...

...that we have an arrangement

with them...

...that we provide costumes

at a reasonable rate for them.

And then all the assets come back

to the studio at the end of wrap.

In the men's contemporary suits,

just contemporary suits...

...there's close to 6000 of them.

Shoes are too numerous to mention.

Ties, there's thousands

of contemporary ties.

I would say 4000 or more.

We have contemporary blouses,

we have skirts, we have jackets, we have....

Anything that we would ever wear

on a film or TV show, we have.

This dress is actually

from The Music Man.

And the way we know that...

...is that there are little tags

on the inside...

...that have the show numbers.

And we can look it up in our reference book

and it'll tell us what the show is.

And from that,

then we can go and get a DVD of it...

...and look and see who wore it.

What we do have upstairs in our shop

is we have the original sewing machines.

Some of them are very, very old and dated,

there's nothing better than them.

There's an old button hole machine they

used to use for heavy, heavy overcoats.

And it's a fabulous machine.

The old Singer sewing machines

are the best machines for chiffon.

And they have been in the shop

probably since the '40s.

The tables we have, we have photographs

from the '30s of the same tables.

We don't throw anything away.

If it's useful for stock, we hang on to it.

Otherwise, we find the right places

to send them.

What I've enjoyed the most is making films

of something that doesn't exist in the world.

You can't go to a department store

and purchase it.

And that's what the interesting thing is

to do.

And I've had the pleasure on working on

a few of those and for Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. always had

interesting people running it.

They never had assholes.

I mean, they always had guys

who understood moviemaking.

Bob Daly and Terry Semel...

...who ran Warner Bros.

for a hell of a long time...

...they worked together like clockwork.

The key is to have somebody...

...who really cares about movies

if you're running a movie studio.

Well, when I came here,

which was December 1st, 1980...

...Warner Bros. was a studio

that had two television shows...

...and was making four or five movies

a year.

We made up our minds

that we couldn't survive...

...with just having a few movies a year

and a few television series.

So we decided to really expand

our film production.

We actually then started to move

to go to 20, 25 pictures a year.

Each of the studios had announced

they're cutting back on production.

They're gonna make fewer films

in the next year or two ahead...

...and that was their mandate.

And we saw that as an opportunity

to really take off.

MEYER:

I had known Bob in his capacity at CBS.

And when Bob came to the company,

and with Terry here...

...they formed a different kind

of partnership.

And it really was also around the time...

...that our television activities

began taking off.

And they really brought the company

into this kind of newer, more modern age.

And especially in the television side

with Bob.

It was a marked difference

than it was before.

We built our television business

to a certain level...

...but we really didn't take it

to the next level...

...until we acquired Lorimar.

Because when we acquired Lorimar...

...we ended up getting not only

good assets, meaning shows.

We ended up getting unbelievable people

that worked at Lorimar.

That moved us to a different level

as an entertainment company.

We ended up broadening our base...

...so we weren't just sitting there,

praying that the next movie would work.

I know one time I called up--

Terry up and I had a sequel to a Dirty Harry.

And I had a project.

I wanted to give it to him.

And he said, "Well, yeah, just go ahead."

And I said,

"Well, don't you wanna read it?

Just in case, you know,

I've lost my mind here."

"Yeah, okay, but I've gotta go

to a basketball game that night."

So he went to the basketball game.

We didn't hurry into it.

He kind of green-lit it

before he really, really read it.

Which, it was flattering in a way

because it shows a great deal of trust.

Steve Ross said all the time:

"Our biggest assets go home

every night."

And basically what he said was,

it's the people.

And that something that stuck with us

and we believed in...

...and still believe in today, is the assets

are the people that work here.

They make up the company.

And in their own--

Everybody that works here is a part

of what makes this studio work.

And I believe in that.

AYKROYD: First time I came to the Warners

lot was shooting Spielberg's...

...magnificent comedy, 1941.

And I think it was my really--

My first exposure to a backlot.

I enjoyed this lot...

...because Clint Eastwood was here

and that was exciting.

I remember he had a parking space.

One afternoon, we were all brought out

to see the damage done...

...to the windshield of a car...

...belonging to a hapless driver

who had parked in his space.

Clint kept a little bat.

If you parked in the space,

everyone on the lot knew...

...you chanced getting a window

knocked out.

Now, whether it was by Clint

or someone else, I don't know...

...but we all came out to see the damage

to this car that this guy had parked there.

EASTWOOD:

When I first came over here...

...Frank Wells and John Calley

had just taken over the studio.

They talked me into doing Dirty Harry and

we had a good relationship on that film...

...and subsequent films of that nature.

I kept coming over here and doing films,

but I never really moved here till 1976.

Frank always lured me over, said:

"The office is always there for you

when you wanna come over."

And I finally--In 1976, I had this project,

The Outlaw Josey Wales, and I said:

"I've got this project. If you like it,

I'll come over and I'll move in."

MEYER:

Clint Eastwood started at Warner Bros...

...we often talk about this,

the same year I did.

In 1971, he came over to do a Dirty Harry,

and in 1971 I came over from ABC.

He's done 35 films in the interim.

I've had various executive jobs.

There's a difference.

I don't think there's any relationship

in Hollywood can compare...

...with Clint's relationship

to Warner Bros.

Its longevity, its steadiness, its comfort,

I think, is really unparalleled anywhere.

Clint Eastwood is an icon's icon.

In a world where there are movie stars

and celebrity directors...

...powerful directors, powerful producers,

I think he occupies unique space.

MEYER: He's a national treasure

and he is a Warner Bros. icon.

I just hope he keeps making films

for as long as he wants to.

As long as he wants to keep making films,

we'll keep helping him.

They have a certain amount of trust in me

managing their money on productions.

And picking projects

that have a chance to do something.

Some of them do, some don't, but you....

I had pretty good odds going along.

COX:

I've done about 30 films for Clint.

And I'm very fortunate

that I have the job I have.

I consider myself to be one

of the luckiest people in this town.

If you look at films we've done

in the last 10 years...

...there is a passion within him...

...for these special scripts

about special stories.

He does films about real people

and real circumstances.

And that's what I think what makes

his films so real to people...

...and the audience that sees it,

because they can feel the emotion...

...that those people have.

FREEMAN:

It was Mike Nichols who said:

"Once you've cast the movie,

the director's job is done."

Clint operates on that premise.

Once he's hired his cast...

...his job as director in that sense

is done.

After that, he's gonna be directing

the movie, not the actors.

I just love that about him.

COX: When you read a script

that Clint's gonna do...

...you see it one way.

You're not inside Clint's mind...

...because he has such a great passion

for doing films.

When he reads it, the reason

he does a script, he envisions that script...

...and those characters

doing certain things.

I remember Frank had only turned me down

once on a project that I brought to him.

And it was a project called

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

He said he didn't wanna--

Didn't wanna make it.

So I made it over at United Artists

and the picture came out...

...and was received fairy well

and so he was annoyed at himself.

I said,

"You know, it's just all horse racing.

Not everybody's supposed to like

the same thing."

Clint Eastwood is the gold standard

for this business.

For how many films he's made,

how many genres...

...what a gigantic impact,

what a cultural impact.

And then what a great impact

as a director.

How many other guys or women are there

like him out there?

There aren't any really others like Clint.

There are some that come fairly close,

but there's only one Clint Eastwood.

SEMEL: This, of course,

is the Clint Eastwood Scoring Stage.

Well deserved because Clint became

our permanent user of this sound stage.

Many of his movies have been brought

into this facility, but the facility was old.

He would talk to us each time about...

...can we ever make it more modern

and better and bring it up to date?

And we all thought, "Why not?"

They were gonna to tear it down or,

actually, use the outside of the building...

...and build a bunch of dubbing stages

on there.

Every musician in town

was coming up to me and saying:

"Oh, you can't get rid of it. It's is one of

the only last great stages in the business."

And I always had the great memories of

that stage and we had good luck with it.

But they said it was gonna need

a big redo.

All the equipment was antiquated.

So I went to Bob Daley.

I said, "Well, gee, this is gonna be

the last stage of its kind."

And I gave him all the arguments.

And it was a year or two after that,

Bob Daley without--

I didn't even know they were doing it.

He gave the order to go ahead

and refurbish the stage.

One, he was surprised, which was great.

And he didn't know we were doing it.

And secondly,

when you talk about Hollywood...

...there is only one Clint Eastwood.

There is no other Clint Eastwood.

There's no other person like him.

There's no other person who has been

as loyal to one studio without a contract.

There's also no other person

who's been as productive as he is.

One day, they called me and said:

"We want you to come down

and see the new stage."

So I came down there,

it had my name on it.

It was great. I said, "Gee, I didn't realize

this delayed influence.

But it was--It's fine by me."

And I thought everybody'd be happy.

I told him if I'd have known that...

...I would have asked about other things

and had my name on the tower.

But it didn't quite work out that way.

DONNER: Goonies was the first film

we made on this lot.

Steven called me, Spielberg, and said:

"Hey, I'm developing a screenplay

and I really think you'd be perfect for it.

I'd love to see if you would do it."

I read this screenplay

and I just couldn't put it down.

I mean, I was jumping for joy.

It was funny, it was rich, it was warm.

It was very real. It was very Steven.

Steven has a phenomenal eye

for casting and ear.

And we had a great time casting.

Phenomenal. These kids were just great.

And they were real.

And they carried no burdens...

...except their own little personal ones

which had nothing to do with showbiz.

I took it on, and not realizing

what I was getting into.

It was insane.

I was in love with every one of the kids.

The way we're making movies today...

...if you have a pirate ship,

you'll do it in a tank with some water...

...and have a big blue screen

around it and--

Or green screen.

If you want the actors to be shocked...

...by the first appearance of a pirate ship,

they will--

You'll work on them and work on them

and work on them, and then they'll go:

"Oh."

And-- But they're looking at nothing.

Maybe a small pirate ship.

If you're smart, you'll hold it up.

That's what they're supposed

to be looking at.

Mike Riva, one of the brilliant,

brilliant production designers of all times...

...built our pirate ship.

And it stood down

at that end of the stage.

And it gradually started to open

and the walls around it were a great cave.

And it stood in 3 feet,

almost 4 feet of water.

Couldn't make it too deep

because the kids would have drowned.

And they knew something was on the stage

but I wouldn't let them see it.

And they were devious little buggers.

They tried everything.

They put on different costumes,

believe it or not, and wardrobe...

...to try and walk onto the stage

to see what was being built.

And all the security on the stage knew.

They all had pictures of the kids.

Watch this group, keep your eye on--

I'm serious. I'd get calls.

"We caught one of your kids.

We caught one of your kids."

So the day came.

And so we brought the kids in

with blindfolds.

We brought them in the water...

...and had them face away

from where the pirate ship was.

And I explained to them,

"You're gonna turn and see something...

...and it's up to you.

Whatever you react to, you react to."

We pulled their blindfolds off, pushed

them underwater, rolled the cameras.

They came up and stood for a minute,

looking where they had come down from.

They were good. They turned.

They turned into the camera.

Every one of those faces told a story.

"I'm seeing this pirate ship, One-Eyed

Willy, for the first time in my life...

...and it's the most awe-inspiring sight

I've ever had."

It was magic. It was beautiful.

Try and do it today.

Can't have it. It doesn't exist.

It was real, and much reality is gone now

with computers...

...and it's too bad.

But we had that great moment here

on Stage 16 at Warner Bros...

...that can never be repeated.

I feel an excitement

about being on a movie lot.

And this one I know more

than any other lot in Hollywood.

From walking it,

from traveling it on bike...

...from writing about it, and from, I hope,

immortalizing it in some way.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure was a different,

completely different film.

It wasn't about a bicycle, originally.

Phil Hartman, me,

and a gentleman named Mike Varhol...

...were writing a movie

that became Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

Every day we'd walk to the commissary,

walk back and forth on the lot.

We were doing a lot of research

because a big portion of Big Adventure...

...takes place on the Warner Bros. lot.

At one point, I said to two people...

...who were co-producing the movie

and were also my managers:

"How do you get a bike?

Everybody here has got a bike."

I mean, we were walking along

and everybody was riding on bicycles.

I started complaining every day.

I would be like, you know, "I asked

about a bike. How do you get a bike?"

And finally,

I came back from lunch one day...

...and there was a 1947 restored

Schwinn Racer...

...that they had bought for me,

chained up to a post...

...that had my picture right in front

of the bungalow that said:

"Parking for Pee-wee Herman only."

And I looked at it and went, "Oh, my God,

we're writing the wrong movie."

And we, literally,

we ran into the bungalow.

This is-- During this period,

we pulled the paper out of the typewriter...

...and started typing,

"His bike gets stolen."

I mean,

it was a completely different movie.

It was so much fun shooting on this lot.

We shot everywhere.

As you know, we shot all over this lot.

Places that don't exist anymore.

Places we created for the movie

that look like they had been here before.

And then we tried to utilize

as much as we could use...

...everywhere in this whole lot.

I was trying to go for this look of, like...

...what I used to, when I was a kid,

picture a Hollywood movie studio was like.

Where you walked onto the lot...

...and everywhere you looked

was a movie star.

People were wearing their costumes

everywhere.

And it was all--

You know, you'd see giant props.

We felt a great sense of pride

that we were going to...

...make our movie take place

on the Warner Bros. lot...

...and give new life to young people

to know the Warner Bros. lot.

I mean, it sounds corny,

but we took it very seriously...

...and we thought

we were doing something really cool.

And we had a lot of fun,

but we were very reverent about it.

GREENFIELD: We have just under

200,000 square feet in the facility.

And as far as items go,

we have just under 200,000 as well.

Almost everything comes exclusively from

our Warner Bros. shows and feature films...

...and all the past Warner Bros. shows

and feature films.

When the department first started out...

...there was a bit of a lack of antiques

in the Los Angeles area.

When doing a castle picture or period piece,

you'd have to go to Europe and travel.

And it's rumored that there were three

decorators on staff here at Warner Bros...

...and each would spend a particular...

...three-month time period in Europe,

buying antiques.

They'd rotate and bring those items

back into the house.

They'd be used on pictures.

And, slowly, the stock built up...

...and they've put that position to rest,

unfortunately.

Our chandelier and torch?re section.

You're looking at one of a pair

of Baccarat torch?res.

Probably the most valuable thing

in the prop house.

Two schools of thought here.

One, folks say they're from

Czar Nicholas of Russia.

The other is a casino built in '30s in Paris

and went defunct.

We're not sure how we got them.

Found in the basement a few years back.

They have been seen on-screen.

See them in Omega Man.

See them in My Fair Lady.

It takes two gentlemen a week

to take them apart and put together.

And that same time to get them back.

We do not rent them out.

They're worth about $2 million for the pair.

Maybe three, depending.

Everything here is samurai.

The samurais you see here

were from the front part of Inception.

The opening sequence.

You can see they're a little bit scorched.

When the dream collapses in Inception,

the place catches on fire.

These were crushed underneath debris.

We've kind of pieced them back together.

This collection is now available for rent.

We have been doing this for so long...

...we have one of the largest collections in

Hollywood and most of the United States.

We have a smattering

of just about anything you'd want.

From 1840s on up to current day.

Beetlejuice, I think one could...

...honestly say,

without any reservations...

...is original.

Might be my favorite thing

I've ever done.

It's a little art piece out of the creativity

and the mind of Tim Burton.

He has such a great sense of humor,

and he loves to laugh...

...and he just makes you feel good.

He's inspiring.

You know, right away,

you wanna do right for him.

I'd had met him three or four times

and I knew that I liked the guy.

I just couldn't understand

what the movie was.

And I think he may have started

showing me sketches.

That was really more than intriguing.

That was....

I felt, "Wow, this guy

has got a great imagination."

This is a true artist I'm dealing with.

I liked the guy, but I couldn't get from him,

really, very clearly, what exactly it was.

Finally, I remember us meeting one time

in a Mexican restaurant...

...on Lincoln Avenue in Venice.

It wasn't too far from my house,

and I said:

"Let's just go. You and I just go sit

and talk for a minute."

He said a couple of things

that gave me an idea.

He said a couple key things

that I took home and said:

"Okay, let me run with that."

And then I just started inventing

a walk and a voice and an attitude...

...and I had an idea about the teeth.

Well, I never rehearsed it.

I just showed up on the set, thinking:

"Boy, I hope this works

because there's no going back."

And the great thing about Tim

was when he saw it...

...his eyes just kind of lit up

and we just kind of ran a scene.

And everything from then on was,

"Yes, and...."

People forget

about how good that cast is.

You know, Catherine O'Hara

and Alec Baldwin...

...and Geena Davis

and, you know, Glenn and all those--

I mean, just really, really, really talented

group of folks and really well-cast.

And Bo, you know, his design

was really, really extraordinary.

My husband's a production designer

and he designed Beetlejuice.

What a great script

for a production designer...

...because it's really about the sets.

The main conflict is the dead people hate

how we redecorated their home.

That's--It's all about that.

And all the furniture....

What kind of character is this guy?

All the furniture could hurt you.

Our dining room chairs

were skinned rabbits pulled tightly.

Ha. The sculpture tried to kill me.

I wasn't necessarily sure that an audience

would show up, but it kind of didn't matter.

I knew I enjoyed it. I knew that there was

something that was really fun about it...

...that probably would translate

to somebody.

They sent a trailer.

And I thought it was one

of the greatest things I had ever seen.

I remember thinking, "Holy moly,

I'd go see that movie in a heartbeat."

GIBSON:

When you're working on a Donner film...

...he's got this sign above his door

when you go in there:

"Leave your ego at the door."

When you engage in any kind

of production where he was helming it...

...he left his stamp on it.

It was wide-open

and there was no baloney.

He has an intrinsic kindness...

...although he's got rough edges

and he plays some mean jokes.

He loves what he does

and he conveys that to the people...

...and everyone has a good time.

Casting Mel and Danny was Warner Bros.

There was on this lot...

...one of the great casting directors

of all time, lady named Marion Dougherty.

When I was doing Ladyhawke,

she helped me a lot with the casting.

When time came to do Lethal Weapon...

...Marion came to me in my office

and said:

"How about Mel Gibson?"

I said, "God, I tried to get him

for Ladyhawke.

Do you think we can get him?"

She says, "It's a telephone call."

We met in London.

It was a good meeting. I like him.

We had a good laugh.

I guess when he had the Lethal script,

he sort of remembered.

Sent the script,

spoke on the phone.

He said he really liked it

and we had some conversation.

As far as I was concerned, he was it.

"We got him, Marion."

I said, "What about Roger?"

She said, "Well, here's the whole list."

I said, "They're all great actors."

She said, "You know

who would be great for this role?"

I says, "No." She says, "Danny Glover."

But I said, "Marion, what a great idea."

GIBSON:

I'd met Danny at a Venice Film Festival...

...and we were on the way out.

Not like now, like, we're on the way out,

but we were on the way out of Venice.

We bumped into each other,

and I'd seen him in a few films...

...and I was a huge fan.

I thought he was scary in Witness.

I'd seen The Color Purple.

I was like, "I've got to work with you,

somehow, some way."

And he went, "Yeah." And he was like--

We were sort of like, I guess pissing

in each others pockets in the airport.

I remember when Donner

was talking about this.

He thought,

"That's a great idea. Let's go for it."

It's the big guy and a little guy

but the little guy's more crazy.

You know, it was funny.

A wonderful sense of humor.

These two were just instantly perfect,

and they continued that way.

Usually, these kinds of characters

had the two-dimensional aspect to them.

These guys did not.

So you apply that sort of action-film thing

to characters...

...who are a little more fleshed out.

We'd done the third Lethal Weapon...

...and we had reached $700 billion

or whatever it was it had--

It had made a fortune for the studio.

And Bob Daley called one day

and he said:

"I want you to come over for lunch

next week.

We're gonna have a little cake and celebrate

your $100 trillion...."

I said, "Okay, great."

So I started to think about it

and I said, "Jeez."

So I called Bob, and I said, "Bob, listen.

Rene Russo was really active in this thing...

...and I think we should have her

for lunch and it's important."

He said, "Okay."

I thought about it, said,

"What about Jeff Boehm?

The writer who was responsible

for this whole damn thing?"

Bob said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. All right, all right, all right."

I said, "Well, Pesci is in town. Shouldn't

we have Pesci? Make this real fun."

And by the time I was done,

I had six or seven people.

And Bob was very abrupt with me.

And we were having lunch,

that lunch was over...

...he said, "I wanna thank you all."

"In the days preceding you...

...when Calley and Ted

and everybody was here...

...they would have thrown a bunch of keys

on the table and go outside...

...and pick your new Ferrari

just to say thank you."

And Bob was bright red.

And he got up and he threw

a bunch of keys on the table.

And I looked and I said,

"Oh, my God. What have I done?"

He said, "Everybody, go out.

Pick a key and go outside."

And outside were eight

brand-new Range Rovers.

He thought he was getting away

with four Range Rovers.

Instead, he had to truck them

in from San Francisco.

It probably wouldn't be right

to say that Morgan Freeman...

...is the best actor in the world.

And there are 7 billion people now

in the world.

But he stands among those

who would qualify for such a status.

He is an extraordinary actor...

...and he's as good a guy

as he is an actor.

He's really a wonderful man.

At the time,

based on the Stephen King novella...

...Rita Hayworth and the

Shawshank Redemption...

...from which we developed Shawshank...

...there was no thought

that the character Red...

...as he was named in the book,

would be an African-American.

I saw this film Morgan had done

called Street Smart, an early film...

...where this guy who could be

so emotionally powerful and compelling...

...also could be extremely tough.

FREEMAN:

When I got the part, I got the book.

And I read the first paragraph

and I put it down...

...because I wasn't gonna be able

to play the book.

You know, Red was an Irish guy.

You know, it was too far away.

HORN: The fact that he did Shawshank,

which has now become....

...I mean, it's on everybody's

top 10 or 20 or 25 list.

We're very, very proud of this movie.

Now, over the years, the relationship

with Morgan just deepened...

...and I just found myself really liking him,

becoming friends with him.

And he brought a special thing

to the films he did.

FREEMAN:

I started working my voice...

...when I was doing

The Electric Company.

But it never occurred to me...

...that there was anything special about it

from the outside.

Straight from the inside,

I'm just gonna listen to myself.

But this all started

with Shawshank Redemption.

Narrating that story.

HORN: We had bought the rights

to March of the Penguins...

...through Warner Independent,

and it was in French.

We thought, what we need to do

is to convert this to English...

...and we need to have a voice-over done

by somebody.

And when anyone thinks of a voice-over

for anything...

...they think of Morgan Freeman.

He was asked to do it and he said no.

And I called him and I said,

"I need a favor."

And he just said, "You got it."

Alan called me and said:

"This is a great little documentary.

I'm gonna send it to you."

It was the most fascinating thing

I'd ever seen.

HORN:

He came in and he did it.

One-take Morgan, you know.

Two hours later, he was done with it.

And yet that resonant voice.

I told him, "When I can't sleep at night,

if I have problems, you know...

...I just turn on one of the Morgan movies

and I'm just fine. I'm just comfortable."

Because there's something soothing,

comfortable about his voice...

...that I think everyone feels,

which is why he's so popular.

My success with voice-overs,

biggest surprise of my life.

[FREEMAN LAUGHS]

ROMANO: Television now is a huge piece

of the Warner Bros. business.

We have a thriving,

very strong television business.

When I came out here in 1970,

we really had only one series, FBI.

And Warner Bros. Television,

even as it grew...

...never really had

that big a television presence.

We had Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,

a couple of TV series.

Warner Bros. actually became quite

successful in the movie-of-the-week genre.

David Wolper came aboard

Warner Bros. Television...

...and was one of the inventors...

...and if not,

an expert in creating the miniseries...

...which also was a lot of television

programming in that period of time.

The television business changed

for Warner Bros...

...when we acquired Lorimar

and brought in their television executives...

...their head of production,

their syndication people.

The Warner Bros. Television operation

really started to grow.

ROSENBLUM:

We're still the leading supplier...

...of television programming

across the television industry.

We produce for all the broadcast networks

and most of the basic cable networks.

We have on the television side some

of the best creative talent in the business...

...and they've been with us for years.

John Wells, for example,

predates me here at Warner Bros.

Jerry Bruckheimer has been here

10-plus years.

J.J. Abrams is here now. Chuck Lorre

has been here for a very long time.

The talent that comes here and works

with our executives and this beautiful lot...

...and works with all of our executives

around the world...

...knows that the culture at Warner Bros.

is one that nurtures creativity...

...it supports creativity,

and it certainly rewards creativity...

...when the creativity is successful

in our business, in the television business.

We have the best facilities.

We have the largest and most beautiful lot.

Our stages are storied in their history.

To go to Stage 24

and to realize you're on the stage...

...in which Friends

changed the course of history.

It's an extraordinary experience

and feeling.

And that's kept alive by the people

who are part of Warner Bros.

After ER finished its run here

at Warner Bros...

...we converted those stages

to live tape stages.

And Ellen has three of those stages now.

And it's a world-class

production facility...

...for a Monday-through-Friday

daytime talk show.

On the backlot,

we also now have Conan O'Brien's show.

So the lot has evolved

with the expansion of our business.

The lot's not just being used anymore...

...for prime-time shows

and for theatrical product.

We have first-run syndicated shows.

We have basic cable shows.

And as our business expands,

our use of the lot expands as well.

Probably one of the most successful series

that we produced here in Warner Bros...

...in the last 13 years,

and that's The West Wing.

That began when Aaron Sorkin...

...who had written a feature film called

An American President...

...he wanted to tell more stories

about the inner workings...

...of how the White House and the staff

that serviced the president would work.

So he created this show.

He dared to be different.

He dared to be alternative.

He dared to try something that had never

worked in the history of television.

And the result was, not only one

of the most successful series in history...

...but the most awarded series

in television.

I kind of backed into The West Wing

because I had done...

...The American President

with Aaron Sorkin.

We became friends

and I became a fan of his as well.

Then a few years later, I got a call

asking if I would be interested...

...in playing a part called The West Wing,

and that I would play a president...

...but there was only a few scenes

in the pilot...

...and that I would not be asked

to do more...

...than maybe three or four episodes

in the season.

I said, "Oh, that's grand."

The only requirement was that I couldn't

play another president anywhere else...

...as long as that series was on the air.

I said, "What are the chances?"

And so I signed on

and I was happy as Larry.

And then just a few months after the pilot,

or even less, it seemed...

...I got a call asking if I would be interested

in being kind of more of a regular.

I never thought I'd be on television.

People telling me this is political.

It's not gonna go,

you'll probably do the pilot.

I wasn't very savvy about television shows.

I still don't think I am.

I don't know how anybody figures

what's gonna work.

The fact that it did, it kept surprising me.

I wasn't one--And I never read the trades

and read the ratings.

I didn't care any of that stuff.

Somebody will tell me...

...when I have to stop showing up.

I'm not gonna worry.

I'm just gonna show up, learn my lines.

But I secretly was crossing my fingers

and hoping I wouldn't get that phone call.

I like working. I really like being part

of a group of people...

...working on something

as good as West Wing.

I was so proud. I never had an experience

where I've worked that I wasn't proud of.

I imagine that would be hell.

I would just have so many moments.

I just think how lucky I was. I'd smile.

I'd feel happy that I was doing what I loved.

SHEEN:

I had a ball here.

Seven of the best years of my life,

working with some of the best people.

Not only that I had ever worked with,

but that I had ever met.

When we started,

President Clinton was in the White House.

And he was a great supporter.

He loved the show.

He was aware of our progress

and our administration.

But then he left office,

and it got a little dicey...

...with the, ahem, next administration.

He was not such a big fan of the show,

or me in it.

We were free, of course, to do things

with a fictional White House...

...that the president could not do.

So we had the advantage of writers,

and he had the disadvantage of history.

[LAUGHS]

I remember the casting process of Friends,

for sure.

I remember coming here...

...and they were casting Friends and ER

at the same time.

So I remember--

You know, you try to see

who's reading for your part.

You just try to gauge.

And it was impossible because there were

all these people for that hospital show.

I remember thinking,

"Another medical show? Really?

All right. Well, good luck."

Um-- Ha, ha.

When I did the pilot for Friends,

I had no clue...

...that it was gonna be a hit,

get picked up. Nothing.

I met the other cast members

at the table read.

When I got the part of Phoebe, I didn't--

No one was cast except David Schwimmer.

I think I was the second person cast.

I read the role of Chandler.

I pictured a snarky, gay guy.

And I didn't know

how it could be anything other than that.

And then Matthew Perry, I meet him,

and I thought, "Okay, well, he's not gay.

I wonder how this will...?

Anyway, let's see."

And then he reads, and his sense of humor,

his timing, his rhythm is so unique...

...and I was blown away.

That first season,

the show hadn't aired yet...

...and Jimmy Burrows,

he'd directed the first 12 episodes...

...and he decided that the six of us

should go on a trip to Las Vegas together.

He got Warner Bros. to give us

the Warner Bros. jet to use.

And he showed us the first episode

after the pilot on the plane ride.

It was so thrilling.

It was such a great idea.

And then he took us to dinner

and he said:

"Pay attention right now,

because this is the last time...

...that the six of you will be out in public

and you won't be mobbed."

And everyone went, "Aah. Ah."

Chris Nolan is a unique individual,

as well as an incredibly unique filmmaker.

He has such a singular vision...

...and such a notion

of what the movie is...

...that we green-lit Batman Begins

off of his pitch.

It had that clarity of vision.

It had that sort of--

His ability to convey ultimately

what the movie would be...

...without even having read a script.

To do that, you really have to have

just an incredible sense of the material...

...and an incredible ability

to communicate it.

I had never pitched projects, really,

until Batman Begins.

The thing with Batman Begins

is we had a strong concept...

...we had this little gap in movie history.

Batman had been addressed very, very

successfully as a movie character...

...by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher

and so forth.

But there was this funny little gap

that no one had ever made the origin story.

No one has ever made

the version of Batman...

...that equated with the version of Superman

Dick Donner had made in the late '70s.

And so it was an easy pitch in a sense.

It was, let's put an extraordinary character

in an ordinary world.

Not the stylized world that Tim Burton

had so brilliantly put across...

...and a character who fit in that world.

More the Superman treatment

Dick Donner had done. This sort of epic...

...populated with incredible actors

doing supporting roles and so forth...

...and creating a sense of reality.

Shooting on real locations,

that kind of thing...

...where Batman would become this

extraordinary figure, walking on the street...

...and as surprising to the characters

in the film as he should be to the audience.

Each film he makes is a step forward

in terms of filmmaking for him.

They're bigger films,

more challenging films...

...they're more complicated movies.

And he just keeps raising the bar

for himself.

And for someone in my job, it's a real

privilege to be around a guy like Chris...

...because everything he does

is so spectacular.

And it's exciting to watch,

it's exciting to be a part of.

It also challenges you to sort of

raise your game and raise your bar...

...and try and step up to his level,

which is really hard to do.

NOLAN: I first pitched the idea of Inception

to the guys at Warners...

...right after I finished Insomnia.

But I felt...

...despite their enthusiasm

for the broad concepts I pitched them...

...I said I wanted a film

about dreams and architecture...

...most of it's set

in the first-class cabin of a 747.

I think that was the comprehensible part

of the pitch.

They said, "Whatever you wanna do.

We'll take a look at it."

I decided I wasn't really ready to write the

script or I wasn't really ready to finish it.

And it took me really about 10 years

to finish the thing.

And then we brought it

to the guys at Warner Bros.

And we had them read it together

very quickly...

...because we wanted to keep it secret and

we were in a rush to get the film going...

...because I knew that I wanted to come

back and do the sequel to The Dark Knight.

There's a handful of people like Chris.

He's just turned 40,

and if you look at his body of work...

...I think for his age and his time,

he's the guy, you know.

He is sort of the preeminent filmmaker,

I think, of his generation.

You finish a film, then you sit and watch it

with the audience...

...and then you start to know

what it is you've done...

...where you're taking things and

what questions you have left to answer.

And I always like to try and carry over...

...a set of questions from one film

into the next.

It's a great feeling of pride

when you pull in Gate 4 each day...

...and see behind you

and to the right of you...

...and to the left of you

postproduction facilities...

...supporting all different disciplines

of sound.

We have 12 buildings on the lot

dedicated to sound.

And also in the support of picture editorial

and projection services.

We have 16 stages for mixing sound.

We call them rerecording stages.

We have five stages called ADR stages.

And it's automated dialogue replacement.

We have two Foley stages.

We have eight screening rooms

for projecting film.

We have 125 sound editorial

and design rooms...

...and another 120-odd

picture editing rooms.

So that starts to give you a picture

on the scope of the operation.

We're in Building 4,

which is the headquarters...

...for Warner Bros.

Post Production Services.

It's a large building, approximately

120,000 square feet...

...of sound-and picture-editing space.

So today, we're gonna give you a little look

at the diversification...

...that our department's have been through,

taking you into the audio underground.

This is one of our new dynamic

audio underground mixing environments.

Come on in.

This is Brad. Brad's been mixing

at the studio for many years.

He's working

with Pro Tools based technology...

...where all the files are kept virtual.

Gives him a huge amount of flexibility

when he's mixing.

I'm now gonna take you

onto rerecording Stage 5.

This is one of our large theatrical stages.

It was built about 25 years ago

and has been recently updated.

I'm just gonna give you a little look

behind the scenes as we mix feature films.

At the console today

is none other than Steve Maslow...

- Hello.

- ...himself. Ha-ha-ha.

MASLOW:

Just trying to get this right.

Practice makes perfect here.

I very much enjoy doing postproduction

at Warner Bros...

...because they have fantastic

sound facilities...

...and these great dubbing stages

with tremendous height.

So you could really move the air around

the way you do in a very big cinema.

I get a tremendous charge, really,

out of coming to work...

...to work on postproduction of the film

at such a historic studio.

Just the sense of the place...

...and the great filmmakers who have

preceded you here and everything.

It's very inspiring, really.

And so it's something I've--

I've really enjoyed doing over the years.

MEYER: Harry Potter was one of the most

brilliant literary properties to come along.

I mean, the most credit for Harry Potter

has to go to Jo Rowling.

HORN:

Jo Rowling is an extraordinary individual.

I mean, I think the world knows that

by now.

She is extremely bright.

She has a wicked sense of humor.

She's very nice, she's very personable.

I think she knew that when we came

to the subject of making Harry Potter...

...I think she looked at us very closely

to see how faithful we would be...

...to the literary works

which she created.

And what we said to her,

"Our job was to translate Harry Potter...

...these instant classics, if you will,

that she had created so beautifully...

...and translate them to film."

She had questions.

I mean, she said, for example:

"Look, after you guys come out with

this movie, the first Harry Potter movie...

...the world will know

what Harry Potter looks like exactly.

Whereas with my books...

...each person can interpret

for himself or herself...

...exactly what Harry Potter

really looks like.

How tall is he, how curly is his hair...

...his eyes were supposed to be green

and all that.

But now Harry Potter

looks like Daniel Radcliffe."

And we consulted with her

very, very frequently.

She was well aware

of our commitment to her...

...and how thoroughly

we had read her books.

Chris Columbus, when he first came on

and directed the first two films...

...you have to give him a lot of credit

for having cast the kids...

...that ultimately were the three main actors

for all eight movies.

From there, each successive director,

Alfonso Cuar?n and Mike Newell...

...and ultimately David Yates,

who directed the last four films...

...really delivered

on what the key material was in the book.

Diane Nelson deserves a special place

in this history of Harry Potter...

...because more than anyone

at Warner Bros...

...she developed a personal relationship

with Jo...

...that led directly to trust.

And trust was very important for Jo

as we took these books...

...not just one book,

but really all seven of them...

...and translated them to film.

Barry and Alan recognized

that this was different...

...in that Jo Rowling was in the midst

of creating something...

...that was so unprecedented.

We had never seen anything like it.

So her involvement

and our value of her instincts...

...about what the fans are gonna care about

has proven to be really important.

Sequels have a way of often declining

as you go down the road.

This is a franchise...

...where the sequels and the movies

kept getting better and better and better.

I give a lot of that credit to my partner

Alan Horn who had a lot to do with that...

...and was committed and focused

to Harry Potter every step of the way.

And there's something in Harry Potter

that resonated with people...

...regardless of the culture...

...or the geography of where they live,

regardless of age.

It is the best example of storytelling,

certainly our generation, has ever--

My generation has ever seen.

There's something really special there.

It's hard to put your finger on it.

The first time I came onto this lot

was probably 1991 or so.

I came out to L.A.,

I wanted to be an actor.

My agent finally set me up

with the head of casting at Warner Bros.

My head spun with the possibilities...

...and the thrill of the prospect

of doing a movie with Warner Bros.

I would not ever do a movie

with Warner Bros...

...until 2009.

I was looking to do a movie

after The Town...

...and Jeff Robinov sent me the script.

The script was incredible.

They don't make movies like this anymore.

It had no business being as easy as it was

to get ahold of and green-light...

...as a great piece of material as Argo was.

Very hard to do a period film

in the sense that...

...it hampers you from just picking up

the camera and shooting.

It surprised me

how sort of confounding it would be.

You can't see this, can't see that. If you can,

change sign, what's the sign gonna say.

How did it look and--

Just everything is done, like--

It's cars driving down the street, you know,

that you sort of take for granted.

We shot a bunch of Argo on the lot.

Some on stages, the old-fashioned way,

where you build the sound stage inside.

And the rest of it, we shot-- Because it was

supposed to be on this lot in 1980...

...we shot over on one of those

little New York Street areas.

We shot on....

Coming into the kind of

executive parking lot...

...with these gates that open, and we tilted

off to a water tower down to the car.

We shot a big helicopter shot

of the whole studio.

Argo is basically a tour of Warner Bros.

I made sure to use every inch of this place

as I could because it was so magical.

We're at the exterior of Building 38,

which contains--

Houses the film archives

for Warner Bros.

Film over the years deteriorates and needs

to be stored under special conditions...

...as advised by the manufacturers

of the film, Kodak and Fuji and others.

It needs to be stored

in very chilled conditions...

...almost near freezing, and dehumidified.

It preserves the film

and keeps it from turning yellow.

This is it.

Everything that's done out there

results in this.

We're in the manufacturing business

and what we produce is this.

This is what we make.

This is Warner Bros.

This is-- This is the gold.

TSUJIHARA: The core business

of creating great content...

...has remained constant

from 1928 to today.

What's changed

is the way we distribute it.

Whether it's television content

or theatrical film content or video games.

The notion of trying to create

incredibly compelling great content...

...has remained constant throughout.

What has changed

probably in the last 10 or 15 years...

...has been the way that we get it

to the consumer and get it to their home...

...or the way they experience it

at the movie theater...

...has changed dramatically.

The theatergoing experience

has changed.

Years ago,

they were the big barns downtown...

...1000-seat theaters,

some were air conditioned, some were not.

The amenities certainly were a minimum.

Today, they're destination centers.

You have multiplexes of 16 to 25 theaters

with IMAX screens.

You have game rooms,

you have reserve seating...

...you have valet parking,

you have bars in some locations.

You have food service at your seat.

The moviegoing experience

is definitely different than it was years ago.

In North America,

there are about 43,000 screens.

They're about 13,000 of them that have

capability now of playing 3D movies.

The marketing process has changed a bit

over the years.

Now, there are certain things

that stay the same.

Like television, for example.

It's still one of the number one place

that people get their information...

...and are motivated to go see a film

and trailers.

But what's changed is, all the different

platforms that are out there...

...that don't necessarily supplant

old marketing, but supplement it.

So you have to be everywhere now,

and you have to be doing everything.

If you think about how the consumer

accessed our movies 90 years ago...

...the only way they can enjoy our movies

was from watching it at a movie theater.

Fast forward 90 years...

...you now have DVD players,

you have Blu-ray players...

...you have over-the-top streaming services

like Netflix.

You have basic cable channels,

you have network channels.

You have all kinds of different ways

for the consumer to access our movies.

So while the job

of making compelling content...

...and incredibly incredible content

hasn't changed...

...what's changed

is the way we distribute it.

KROLL: In Korea, we were launching

trailers on mobile phones.

And even though we were doing it,

I remember thinking the time:

"Wow, crazy that we're spending

all this time...

...mixing a trailer, making it beautiful.

Somebody's gonna watch it

on a mobile phone, you know.

What a shame."

And now, of course, it's a primary way

we distribute our materials.

Mobile, online.

All these devices,

which, thank God, look beautiful.

But I think about that,

that wasn't that long ago.

There's never been a better time

to be in the production business...

...primarily as a result of these

distribution platforms that are emerging.

When you look at Netflix,

you look at Hulu, at Amazon, at Google...

...they are all buyers, both here domestically

and around the world, for content.

When you have a business

on the scale of our business...

...all of those new distribution platforms

allow us to increase the value of that library.

So as we look out

over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years...

...the production business

is a great to be in...

...because of the expansion of these

distribution opportunities for product.

You were locked down

to either a movie theater or your home.

Now it's-- You can watch our movies

anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

And I think that's the magic of it.

HORN: There's something very magical

about this place.

There's a politeness, there's a courtesy,

there's a friendliness...

...there's a family feeling that one feels...

...at the very first moment

driving on the lot. It's really special.

Warner Bros. is different.

I think that we have a unique culture

and a unique feeling.

If you ask anybody in the industry,

they will they you.

The family that we have here is unique.

I've been on this lot for a very, very long

time. I shot a lot of things on this lot.

When the guard at the gate sends you

through without a ticket on your car...

...that's a good sign, you know.

Warner Bros. Studio is heaven

for a producer and a director.

Everything is here.

You don't have to go anywhere

to get anything...

...to make a picture at Warner Bros.

JANNEY: Coming to Warner Bros.

every day, I knew how lucky I was.

And as time goes on, as more time goes

since I've finished West Wing...

...I realize how lucky

and extraordinary it was...

...that I got to have this experience here.

If Jack Warner were to be able to see

this lot now, he'd be very impressed.

DALY:

I root for Warner Bros. every day. I do.

- It's sort of in my blood.

- Me too.

Wow, how fortunate all of us have been

at Warner Bros...

...being able to be

on this beautiful campus...

...with great facilities,

with very smart people...

...and just a lovely place to work.

Working for Warner Bros. all this time,

I don't know how you put that in words.

You could say it's an honor.

It was a great opportunity.

But working for Warner Bros.

is just a lifetime dream.

The one thing that distinguishes

one company from another company...

...whether it's in the physical facility

or in the executive offices...

...are the people you're dealing with.

One of the things

that distinguishes Warner Bros...

...is that everybody knows

when they come here...

...they're dealing with people

who enjoy their work...

...respect the work of the people

they're dealing with...

...who have been here for a long time

and understand well what they're doing.

That is the one distinguishing feature.

I think Warner Bros. has done such

a phenomenal job...

...in entertaining people over the years...

...that not only do they deserve

a documentary...

...they deserve two documentaries.

So I think you should follow up this one

with a second one.

Ninety-one years.

I definitely get a strong sense

of that amazing Warner Bros. history...

...which is why I like to make extra cash

by giving tours after hours.

People are astounded

by what's happened here.

By the way, I found a wig backstage.

I think it's Judy's wig from A Star is Born

or a dust bunny.

Either way, it's old,

and I am gonna get a bundle for it on eBay.

I have a few times had a problem getting

on the lot because I forgot my ID at home.

But I just tell them

I'm Jane Lynch or David Spade...

...and then they let me right in.

I'm really proud of the fact

that I have a talk show here...

...on the Warner Bros. lot.

Very, very proud.

And even more proud of the fact

that I have a fantastic parking space.

And not only am I proud

that I have a talk show here...

...I'm especially proud

to be the first person to do it.

I feel like a pioneer.

Like the first person

who walked on the moon...

...like Neil Diamond or Louis Armstrong.

I don't know his name.

I didn't go to college.

You can do anything you set your mind to

and you don't have to go to school.

You don't. Remember that, kids.

Happy anniversary.

[English - US -SDH]

Tales from the Warner Bros. Lot (2013) - full transcript