Media Monday: Amazon Politics & Ben Shapiro I.P.O. Conspiracy Theories

**Jon Kelly** (0:03)
I think you're right, and actually I was, amazing, first of all, amazing scoop by Matt, incredible, and he materialized it almost overnight, and then it was everywhere. It was amazing to see Matt, as it always is, at the peak of his powers, literally driving the entire industry.

**Peter Hamby** (0:20)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Puck's podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby.
It's Monday, June 29th, which means it's Media Monday. Today, Jon Kelly and I discussed why Amazon decided to kill a buzzy movie project about Sam Altman and OpenAI just months after Jeff Bezos and Amazon announced a lucrative new partnership with the AI giant. We also look at why Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire is seeking new investments and a possible IPO as they fight to protect their shrinking turf in an increasingly crowded conservative media universe. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode, The Powers That Be.

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**Peter Hamby** (1:42)
Happy Monday everybody and welcome to The Powers That Be. If it's Monday, it's Media Monday. It's also 4th of July week. Get your America 250 celebration plans together.
This is going to be a big one unless you're that concert that Donald Trump was putting on on the mall, in which every artist basically dropped out, because they didn't want to be a part of it. Anyway, it is Media Monday. I'm joined by Jon Kelly. We're going to talk today about Matt Belloni's scoop that Amazon is dumping Luca Guadagnino's planned movie about OpenAI and Sam Altman. They're kicking it to the curb. Gee, you wonder why. We're also going to talk about The Daily Wire, scraping some bucks together for an IPO and why Ben Shapiro's media company has faltered in recent years.
Jon, good to see you, buddy. How are you? Happy America 250

**Jon Kelly** (2:34)
Happy America 250 and also Peter, today's your first day as a full-time employee at Puck.

**Peter Hamby** (2:40)
It is.

**Jon Kelly** (2:41)
I like my cappuccino with a little bit of sweet and low, please. Thanks so much.

**Peter Hamby** (2:45)
I will zip over to Montclair and get that for you, stat boss.

**Jon Kelly** (2:49)
Thank you.

**Peter Hamby** (2:49)
You're now more of a boss man than the boss man I referred to you as for the last few years, but I'm so excited to be on board. This has been my second home for several years now. It's funny, we had a meeting last week when you announced this, and Belloni texted me.
He said, I thought you already worked here, but I did leave Snap after 11 year run, and I'm so excited to just cover the shit out of the next few campaigns here at Puck on top of everything else that we're doing and building. So thank you for having me, Jon.

**Jon Kelly** (3:18)
Well, we're a partnership.
That's the beauty of our company is that we're all in this together, we're all equitized, and obviously, as I said in that meeting, it took five years for me to finally make it official with you, we have a lot more announcements down the pipe that we're really excited about. Hardcore listeners will have gotten the reference last week. I said there was big news ended up, the news that have been announced last Sunday in status, and we're thrilled. This is the moment. I feel like our company is going to really accelerate throughout the 2020 election, and we got the best in the business. So anyway, enough about us, Peter. Everyone knows how much we like each other, so let's get to the show.

**Peter Hamby** (4:01)
Jon, let's pivot to Amazon. We know that they shelled out $75 million for that Melania Trump documentary earlier this year. Well, Belloni broke the news last week that Amazon is dumping a film they had purchased the rights to. It's called Artificial, Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name fame, Challenger's fame, is attached to the project, I should say. This is Andrew Garfield starring as Sam Altman. There's a bunch of other actors portraying people like Miriam Marotti and Elon Musk, etc.
Amazon came out with a statement last week that they gave to Matt. Quote, we have the utmost respect and admiration for Luca Guadagnino as an award-winning filmmaker, not to mention a long-standing relationship that we hope to continue. We'll see. And Amazon rep said, we believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio. And we're working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home. Now, CAA has the rights to this package. They have been screening it for other buyers, et cetera. It just seems odd. Well, maybe not. I want to pump the brakes on just assuming that this is a political decision. But one, Amazon made a huge investment in OpenAI to deepen their partnership I guess earlier this year in February. OpenAI is going to be using Amazon Web Services, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.