There's no business like showbusiness. And you get a look behind the scenes of that dirty business in a talked-about new comedy called The Studio, starring Seth Rogen and streaming now on Apple TV Plus.
If you're enjoying this glimpse into how Hollywood works, there's another biting showbiz satire that you need to check out: The Player.
Released in 1992 and now available to watch on streaming service Amazon Prime Video, Oscar-nominated comedy-thriller The Player shares a lot of similarities with Apple's new series.
They are both fast-talking satires about a movie industry exec. They both begin with a long one-shot take of the various characters wheeling and dealing in the car parks and offices of a Hollywood studio.
They are both filled with star cameos: Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Burt Reynolds and many more in The Player, with Charlize Theron, Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard appearing alongside Rogen in The Studio.
One big clue lets us know these similarities are no coincidence: the main character in The Player, played by Tim Robbins, is named 'Griffin Mill' - the same name as the head-honcho character played by Bryan Cranston in The Studio.
These two characters clearly aren't meant to be the same person, but it's a nice nod to an earlier comedy by Rogen and co-creator Evan Goldberg. They probably spotted that even 30-odd years later, The Player remains savagely relevant.
Director Robert Altman gave us a parade of self-centred execs, clueless writers and ego-driven stars that remains recognisable today, while the cycle of greed and backstabbing could apply to many workplaces even now.
But even if you aren't that interested in the film-industry shenanigans, The Player is a suspense-filled thriller. The main character is being threatened by a mysterious figure, spiralling into noir-ish paranoia and murder.
It's bleakly funny too, filled with director Robert Altman's trademark quirky characters, overlapping dialogue and black humour. The Player was one of Altman's five Oscar nominations for Best Director, while the script and editing were also nominated.
Of course, Hollywood has evolved, and one thing that is missing from The Player is the modern obsession with franchises.
When a writer suggests making The Graduate 2, it’s treated as a gag. Altman's film came out a couple of months before Batman Returns, one of the earliest superhero sequels, and long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe got up and running.
Speaking of which, The Studio isn't the only comedy taking aim at Hollywood recently: HBO's The Franchise skewered the chaotic production of a Marvel-style superhero blockbuster.
The Studio, meanwhile, takes aim at the current craze for films based on existing intellectual property, also known as IP.
Desperate for a slice of the billion-dollar box office achieved by Barbie, real-life studios and brands are trying to build stories around everything from Hot Wheels to Monopoly. That’s the kind of cynical corporate future that The Player hinted at with some of its bleaker jokes.
So even though large parts of The Player remain timeless – and rather dark – it's also a look back at an era of filmmaking that has been left behind. Even in an era of Franchises and Studios, you’ll enjoy pressing play on The Player.
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