Scriptnotes · John August and Craig Mazin

197 - How do bad movies get made? (Encore)

March 10, 2026·1 hr 12 min·5 clips
Battleship got rushed into production because Hasbro's rights clock was ticking—the same sunk-cost logic that almost sank Titanic and greenlit Spider-Man sequels nobody wanted.
The vault frame matters.

As heard by us

A dry tour of the business habits that keep bad movies alive.

An Encore from May 2015, this episode frames bad movies less as taste failures than as business outcomes. John and Drew begin with the plain irritation of revision workflow, where the Highland Pro feature is pitched as an easier way to handle shared notes instead of starred…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a rueful, dry-witted talk about how bad movies get made.

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