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Karen Bass Says She’s Ready to Cut More Red Tape Around Local LA Production

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Mayor Karen Bass renewed her dedication to local film and TV production in an interview Tuesday, telling TheWrap that if reelected in November, she will continue to eliminate “onerous and unnecessary” processes that make it difficult to film in Hollywood.

“I’m open to eliminating or changing or waiving whatever is in the way,” the mayor said in a Zoom interview.

Entertainment industry employees had been critical of the mayor for not appointing a film liaison until three years into her term. As she has been campaigning for reelection, her primary opponents, Councilmember Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, both criticized her for passing legislation to support production in the last year of her term.

The mayor shot down these accusations, stating that she established an entertainment industry cabinet when she first took her seat as mayor in 2022. She added that since her Sacramento days as speaker of the house she has supported the film and TV industry and introduced the first state tax credits to the budget.

“The industry asked me to expedite permitting and get rid of the red tape. We did that. The industry asked us to lower the cost of filming in the city. We did that,” the incumbent said, additionally addressing her efforts appointing Steve Kang as the city’s film liaison. “The whole goal was to provide a concierge service for the industry, which means if there is a problem, a speed bump or a roadblock, it’s Steve’s job to eliminate that.”

Bass also addressed how her office will work with LA28 to prepare for the upcoming Olympics games. When asked about collaborating with Casey Wasserman, after she publicly called for him to step down as chairman after his Epstein ties, she distanced herself from the committee, saying that her duties are separate from those of the board.

“LA28 is a separate organization that I do not have control over,” she said. “My job is to make sure that the city is prepared for the Games, and so that is my focus.”

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The entertainment industry was critical that it took three years into your term to appoint a film liaison. Now we have Steve Kang. If you’re reelected, how would you build upon what you started with him and what would the film liaison’s office look like?

Mayor Karen Bass: Well, let me just go back a bit because what I did when I first came in [as mayor] was establish an entertainment industry cabinet.

I have worked with the industry from day one of my administration, but I also started working with the industry more than 20 years ago. In terms of the industry, it was their request, so they went back and forth as to whether they wanted a czar, whether it should be somebody in the industry or not in the industry.

I asked them for resumes, and after many, many months, they came to the conclusion that they didn’t want it to be somebody from the industry, they wanted it to be somebody from the city who knew the city process.

I could have made that appointment many, many, many months beforehand, but the industry was not ready for that, and I happen to be a believer that the best way to do policy is to do it with people rather than just coming in and deciding what everybody wants, and so what we have done with the industry has been in that regard.

Anyway, I’m happy to talk about my past with the industry, or to move forward and tell you what work we have done together.

If you’re reelected, how will the film liaison’s office continue to grow and support bringing production back to L.A.?

It’s not just Steve. There’s two people. The whole goal was to provide a concierge service for the industry, which means if there is a problem, a speed bump or a roadblock, it’s Steve’s job to eliminate that.

The industry asked me to expedite permitting and get rid of the red tape. We did that. The industry asked us to lower the cost of filming in the city. We did that. We reduced the price it cost to film. For example, at Griffin Park, the observatory, it used to cost $100,000. We cut that by 70%. We also opened up iconic buildings that the industry wanted to film in to reduce the cost, we cut down the number of staff from the city that has to be on location.

Each and every one of those items we have done have been what the industry requested.

There’s been a lot of discussion about how to navigate special conditions in permitting that can be burdensome for productions. How do you plan on tackling that going forward?

Let me just say that it’s tough because there could be so many examples, but that is again in part Steve’s job. If there are special conditions that are particularly onerous or unnecessary — it doesn’t even have to be onerous, it could just be unnecessary — then we will move those out of the way.

Parking was a particular issue with “Baywatch.” It took us a minute, but we were able to change that. Sometimes something has to come up for us to see that it’s a problem, and when it does, we deal with it. I think you’re giving a perfect example as to why the industry did not want an industry person [as liaison]. They wanted it to be somebody in the city who can advocate the city bureaucracy, so that’s my general comment to that, without knowing which special conditions you’re talking about.

We’ve heard some candidates say that they support this idea of just wiping the slate clean [with regards to red tape at the city level], starting from the beginning. Are you willing to go that far, or is it something that you want to take a more measured approach to?

I’m open to looking at any special condition. There’s a lot of stuff in the city that happens because it’s always happened for no particular reason, or maybe it made sense 25 years ago, and makes no sense right now. Unfortunately, those things kind of have to come up, as opposed to there’s some magic list somewhere that I could just say I’m eliminating all these things.

I’m open to eliminating or changing or waiving whatever is in the way. I have to answer it generally that way without knowing what the specifics are.

You recently announced a temporary pilot program with FilmLA creating lower-cost permits for smaller productions. Are there plans to make it permanent?

The other way that I believe in doing policy is: you start and you evaluate it along the way. It’s still a little bit too new right now to say one way or another, but if it works, we will expand it, and we will absolutely make it permanent.

But I don’t want to rush, because it might have some unintended consequences. There’s any number of problems that could be. I prefer to test things out before making them permanent.

You called on Casey Wasserman to step down as chairperson of LA28 earlier this year over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Do you still have full confidence in his leadership as we’re looking toward the Olympics?

What’s very important for people to understand — and a lot of people are confused by this — LA28 is a separate organization that I do not have control over. A lot of people think I do. It’s the board decision to retain Casey Wasserman.

My job is to make sure that the city is prepared for the Games, and so that is my focus. I expressed my concern, I expressed my opinion, but now I have to focus on getting the city ready and making sure — and this is so important to me — making sure that the city of Los Angeles, our local businesses, profit off of this.

I don’t want the usual suspects to be the ones that make all the money. I don’t want the usual locations to be the only locations that people visit in our city. I want people from around the world to know about Watts and South L.A. and East L.A. and the San Fernando Valley and the cultural traditions. I want to have murals freshened up, new murals painted around our city. We are a city that is beaming with culture, beaming with diversity. That is my job in regard to the Olympics.

We know the D Metro line opened up, but in what other areas are you making sure that the city is prepared?

My job is to promote our businesses, and let me just give you an example with the World Cup, because we’re not waiting for the Olympics.

The World Cup happens in just two weeks, mid-June. We have organized watch parties and celebrations all around the city, fan festivals, and that is specifically designed for neighborhoods to profit.

The businesses that almost shut down because of the ICE raids, I want them to be able to have a real infusion of cash from these games, because what tends to happen, like most places, a handful of people benefit because they’re the only ones deemed worthy, and everybody else loses. I don’t want that to happen this time, not on my watch.

As you’ve been campaigning for reelection, what accomplishments do you identify from your first term to show voters the momentum your office has to keep moving forward?

For the first time, we have had a reduction in street homelessness by almost 18% while homelessness went up around the country 18%. We have had low rates of crime, especially homicide, a 60-year low. I have fast tracked 42,000 units of housing — 6,000 of those units currently under construction. Our environmental goals, we have already surpassed. I was at a site yesterday around groundwater, where we are basically moving forward to being independent in our water supply. That has been a problem over the last 100 years.

The problems that I walked into have been around for three to four decades. What is true is that I didn’t solve 40-year-old problems in three years.

But I’ll give you an example. Our broken sidewalks, our street lights that are out, the nation’s second largest city has not had a comprehensive plan to deal with its infrastructure. For the last two years, we’ve been working on a comprehensive plan to deal with that, and I rolled it out a few weeks ago. I’m running for reelection because I want to have an opportunity to continue to move forward with all of this.

It’s not good enough to have a plan. I want to operationalize the plan.

Jeremy Fuster contributed to this report.

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Obama Relives Tan Suit Debacle In ‘Life, Larry & Pursuit of Unhappiness’

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As Larry David‘s comedic trip through U.S. history comes to an end, he took credit for one of the nation’s more recent presidential scandals.

On Friday’s season finale of the HBO sketch comedy miniseries Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance as himself in a sketch set in 2014, as David advised him to wear the now-infamous, outrage-inducing tan suit during his live press conference on military response to ISIS.

Following some banter on how the POTUS avoids stains, David accidentally spills juice on Obama’s suit jacket when he leaves the room. When the 44th president returns, the comedian recommends he wear the tan suit that Obama planned on taking it to Turin for NATO Summit, for “a daytime event, it’s outdoors, a little more casual.”

“First of all, it’s a gorgeous suit,” David declared. “And this is casual Friday!”

“It is a great suit,” admitted Obama, as David told him, “Oh boy, oh boy. I think this is the move. … Old lips won’t let you down. You’ll thank me!”

As Obama models the look, David gives him his signature, “Pretty good! Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.”

“You sure about this?” asks Obama, as David assures him, “Never been more sure about anything in my life. People are going to be talking about this for a long, long time.”

Obama’s cameo in the finale comes as David marks the United States Semiquencentennial with the seven-part sketch comedy limited series, which recounts major events in U.S. history through the comedian’s signature observational humor.

David’s longtime Curb Your Enthusiasm partner Jeff Schaffer, who serves as an executive producer on Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, previously told Deadline that Obama, who produced under his Higher Ground banner, reached out to his buddy David to ask if he’d be interested in making the show to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday.

“When you’re doing a show about American history, you want to do it warts and right now we have this orange saggy wart that we wish would go away,” said Schaffer. “But the nice thing about having President Obama produce this and be a part of it is that this country’s had a lot of fuck ups, we’ve seemed to have learned very little, but we’re still moving forward sometimes, and then we move back a little bit, but we always move forward again. While Larry’s pointing out a lot of the steps back, the President is telling us we can still step forward.”

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Matthew McConaughey Performs “Quill” From ‘Rivals of Amziah King’ — Watch

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Matthew McConaughey shows off his vocal skills (and some hidden banjo talents) with his latest role in The Rivals of Amziah King.

On Friday, Lakeshore Records released the single and music video for “Quill” from the original motion picture soundtrack, performed by the Oscar-winning and co-star Ben Hardesty, also featuring Miranda Zickler, Angelina LookingGlass and Andrea Pister.

Set in the backwoods of Oklahoma, The Rivals of Amziah King follows the musically gifted Amaziah King (McConaughey) and his bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amaziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, he leaps at the chance to reconnect and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amaziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

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Premiering Aug. 14 in theaters, the Andrew Patterson-written-and-directed drama also stars Angelina LookingGlass, Cole Sprouse, Jake Horowitz, Tony Revolori and Kurt Russell.

Producers are David Heyman, Teddy Schwarzman, Jeffrey Clifford, Michael Heimler, James Montague and Will Greenfield.

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Jane Schoenbrun On Tackling “Toxic Soup” Of Slasher Genre In ‘Camp Miasma’

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With their latest directorial outing, Jane Schoenbrun used subtle pieces of nostalgia to deconstruct the slasher genre.

The Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma writer/director explained to Deadline that they wanted to create “a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary,” noting the frequent symbolism of candy and junk food as providing an atmosphere “that’s actually safe” while diving into a horror movie or exploring sexuality after trauma.

“There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe,” said Schoenbrun, who is non-binary. “Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, ‘Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.’”

In Schoenbrun’s latest film, Hannah Einbinder stars as queer director Kris, who is tapped to helm a new installment of the long-running Camp Miasma horror franchise. While courting Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, to reprise her role, the pair spirals into a psychosexual frenzy as the slasher’s killer, Little Death (Jack Haven), comes to life.

Acknowledging the problematic trans representation of horror films like Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995), Schoenbrun admitted the genre has been “catnip to me since I was 10 years old,” and they jumped at the chance to direct their own.

Jane Schoenbrun at the
Jane Schoenbrun attends the ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ premiere on Aug. 5, 2026 in New York City.

“So many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals … And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy,” they explained.

“But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants,” said Schoenbrun. “It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language.”

Read on about Jane Schoenbrun’s love letter to the slasher genre with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, now playing in theaters.

DEADLINE: It was really fun to see the slasher genre through your eyes. Tell me about finding inspiration in that genre and “final girls.” 

JANE SCHOENBRUN: I mean, it was the easiest thing in the world because it’s just one of those genres that has been catnip to me since I was 10 years old. I just raided the horror section of the video store as a kid from an age when I really shouldn’t have been doing that, like in 5th grade, I watched in the span of about one week, every Nightmare on Elm Street movie. I think that I was always drawn to movies and really anything entertainment where it felt forbidden in some way, like the thing on the tape, how is that even allowed? And that’s the thing that I love about a lot of my favorite slashers. Don’t get me wrong, I love like brutal ones, like I love Texas Chainsaw, that’s a nasty movie at its core, and that’s what’s so special about it. But so many slashers do have this sense of humor, and even if they’re not overtly meta like the Scream movies are, they’re so aware of their own tropes and the sort of rituals of, OK, what’s the most outrageous way that like these like dumb kids can get killed? But watching it, it’s not about fear a lot of the time, it’s about joy and celebration. And I just loved that from a young age and loved all of the little rituals within it, and so, getting to make my own is just like play and joy. But it also felt like the perfect way to talk about sex and to talk about my experience as a trans person post-transition, learning how to come into a sexual identity that I could feel comfortable within, because so many of these movies are obviously deeply engaged in gender and sexual roles, and these movies have so much to say for better or for worse about deviants, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Sleepway Camp or Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface in drag. It is there in the DNA of the slasher genre that these movies are talking about fear and desire, gender and sexuality, normativity and deviance. And that’s all swimming in the toxic soup of the genre, so I wanted to remake it in my own language. 

‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: I’m curious about the symbolism of all the processed junk food and the chandelier of wrappers.

SCHOENBRUN: The junk food in the movie, I forget when it found its way in there. It’s like so much of the movie is about, like I said, ritual, about being in a mindset where you can really enjoy something scary, whether that be Kris [Hannah Einbinder] in bed, with, you know, with Raisinets and the popcorn, watching a schlocky horror movie, or the two characters learning how to be present and enjoy sex after a lot of trauma. There is this idea that if it gets too real, you can turn it off, that you’re exploring something dangerous, doing it in a way that’s actually safe. Which in my experience of coming into my sexual identity post-transition, kind of required some gummy candy on hand. What I mean by that is, even if we’re going to be exploring scary and vulnerable and potentially embarrassing, triggering parts of ourselves, we trust each other well enough to know that at any moment, we can be like, “Let’s stop, we gotta just eat some fucking gummies.”

DEADLINE: And one thing I really love—I just feel like it’s a theme in your work—is how it depicts the way media and entertainment influence us. Why does that inspire you? 

SCHOENBRUN: I think it comes from a fascination and sensitivity to the complex relationship between what we think of as fiction and what we think of as reality, which we tend to, as a society, think of as pointing in one direction. Like, reality dictates fiction, not vice-versa, but when you actually look at the way the world works, it’s like one echoes off the other. And I think a complicated, sometimes terrifying and sometimes beautiful way, where the fiction, the cultural norms, the things we grow up looking at on our screens, the roles that we’re told people play, they kind of inspire us to create reality. There’s something liberating when you start thinking in that way. I think it’s a way of thinking that we as a culture, could do a lot more of. To think about the idea of fiction inspiring reality just as much as reality is inspiring fiction, is a potential path to liberating us from this hellscape that they’re telling us is the only way the world can be. 

Gillian Anderson in ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ (2026)

DEADLINE: And I know you have the Secretary reading. Tell me what it’s been like prepping for that and why you all chose that movie. 

SCHOENBRUN: I mean, that was such a huge influence on on Miasma. There just aren’t that many fun and funny movies about deviant sex. And just the way that movie is like feather light while talking about really raw and taboo things, it is just really inspiring to me. And the dynamic between those two main characters is definitely one that had a lot of influence on on Kris and Billy’s [Gillian Anderson] relationship in Miasma. And it’s already to me a very queer movie in its way, but having Gillian reading the James Spader part and Hannah reading the Maggie Gyllenhaal part, I think it’s just gonna be like a very unique joy. Honestly, we’ve been prepping a little bit, but I think it’s just gonna be about getting up there and feeling the chemistry of it all, and just letting these folks who we have all gotten to know each other really, really well, but we haven’t actually done anything wacky and creative like that in a while, like as a reunion, it’s gonna be a real blast, I think.

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