Identifying what’s in the zeitgeist is easy, but quantifying it is difficult.

That’s what AI researcher Yves Bergquist is trying to achieve with his startup CortoAI and its agent, Geist. Bergquist, who is also an AI researcher and principal for AI Enterprise Systems at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, showed off the tool at TheWrap’s Grill business conference.

Geist promises to track, model and predict the cultural zeitgeist, employing a custom-built model, agentic AI and vast amounts of data shared on social media to produce its results. And for the folks in Hollywood, Bergquist makes it clear this is not generative AI, but the kind of analytical AI that’s been around for decades, with an intent to not eliminate jobs, but to make your job of figuring out what will resonate a little bit easier.

“We call it ‘strategic AI’ because it helps people build strategy and make decisions,” Bergquist writes in a white paper shared with TheWrap for TheGrill. “And we have it our way, it’s going to help both Hollywood and Madison Avenue move at the speed of culture.”

Bergquist said that dozens of Hollywood studios and large brands, including Lego, Levi’s, Unilever and Coca-Cola, are already using Geist and have used its insights to inform the design and launch of new products, write new stories and create new campaigns.

A critical part of the white paper is the break down of the 40 fastest-growing entertainment genres and properties of the last six months, with the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI topping the chart, followed by “Spider-Man” and HBO Max’s “The Pitt.” Microdramas as a medium is No. 4, while comic book franchises, anime and several videos games make an appearance.

To get the full list and description of Geist, check out the white paper below.

How big of a Knicks fan is Anne Hathaway? When Jimmy Fallon presented her with a hypothetical choice between a second Oscar or another Knicks championship during a Wednesday late night appearance, Hathaway picked the latter. She hesitated — “The way my nervous system is reacting to that choice is really intense,” Hathaway said in the moment — but she picked the championship.

So, naturally, the actress, who is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman, went through a range of emotions when she was presented with a congratulatory Knicks-themed gift in the middle of her Fallon interview. 

First, the NBC host presented her with a signed jersey, which she threw on over her glamorous black dress without hesitation, modeling it for the crowd and keeping it on when she returned to her seat. 

“You are unbelievable,” Fallon said, cracking up. “You put it on immediately!”

And the host wasn’t finished; he also presented her with an entire Knicks baby basket, along with a congratulations card from New York Knicks guard and power forward OG Anunoby.

That one got the lifelong Knicks fan visibly emotional for a moment. “I’m so spoiled,” she said after she accepted her gifts, and, seemingly overwhelmed, asked, “I’m supposed to be a person now?” 

After Hathaway said her “thank yous,” the late night host tried to bring it back to business. “We have to talk about your movie. That’s really why we’re here,” Fallon said, and Hathaway seemed game to switch back to movie talk.

“The movie’s chilling, scary. Is this what you thought you were getting into when you signed up?” Fallon asked his guest, who became distracted while taking her shiny new Knicks jersey off. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so excited about my jersey, I’m messing this transition up so bad,” Hathaway said with a giddy smile, getting a big laugh out of the studio audience. “You’re talking about my scary movie, and I’m just like ‘eeeee.’”

Eventually, Fallon got things back on track and got Hathaway “locked in” to “movie mode.” The actress was on the show to promote “Verity,” her new film co-starring Josh Hartnett and Dakota Johnson. Because the film was based on a book by best-selling romance novelist Colleen Hoover, Hathaway said she first expected it to be a rom-com. 

“I got excited because I’m not the person that you think of for this type of a part,” Hathaway said of realizing it was a steamy psychological thriller instead. “I just love that [director Michael Showalter] thought of me for it, and then the cast came together.”

Hathaway stars as the title character in the adaptation, which follows Johnson’s Lowen, a struggling writer hired to ghostwrite for Hathaway’s paralyzed character — but once she moves to the author’s remote estate, Lowen uncovers twisted secrets in Verity’s notes, while sparking up an affair with her husband. 

“Verity” arrives in theaters nationwide on Friday, Oct. 2.

Anonymous Content’s new CEO Darren Walker said the management and production company is developing a feature film on iconic writer James Baldwin that it will produce with the Obamas’ Higher Ground.

It’s commissioned Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James and his partner, James Baldwin scholar Nicholas Boggs, to write a script based on Boggs’ best-selling biography Baldwin: A Love Story, Walker said at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in LA, appearing with Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, Anonymous Content’s majority owner.

Walker was tapped as chief executive early this year. He was formerly the president of the Ford Foundation, leading its $17 billion endowment.

“Our balance sheet will be increased. Will have an envelope to do [more] … We can, because what happens when you have a long-term investor? You can be courageous if you have conviction and you have an investor who is aligned with that,” he said. The idea is to move away from the “fee-for-hire” production model. “Now Emerson has made it possible for us to become a financier in the market, so we’ll be able to co-finance, finance, take the lead in financing a film. So it won’t be like it has been, where our production team gets a great script and they say we’ve got to go out and find someone to finance this.”

Jobs, also a major investor in The Atlantic, said Anonymous Content founder Steve Golin had “a beautiful vision” but that people grieved and “entropy set in a bit” after he passed away seven years ago, followed by tough times in the industry with Covid, then Hollywood strikes. But the company is attached to several dozen festival films this season, Emmy wins, and, under television head David Levine, co-produced Zoe Kazan’s upcoming Netflix series East Of Eden as Walker said the independent builds up to “version 3.0”

Jobs, along with former HBO chief Richard Plepler, are joining a reconstituted board under chairman Michael Klein, Walker said. Steve Shikya was named COO in August following the hires of Liza Burnett Fefferman as chief communications and marketing officer and Michael Sinclair as chief legal officer.

Asked about the unconventional choice of Walker to run the company, Jobs said: “People were asking that at the beginning, and within a few months, everyone was saying what a brilliant stroke of genius it was, because he’s electrified Anonymous Content and also created quite buzz across the industry.”