Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly and I'm Carol Masser.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast,
Speaker 1: bring you an in depth interview you will not hear
Speaker 1: anywhere else. And man, this is a cool one. We
Speaker 1: caught up with Andrew hinder Ocker. He's the writer and
Speaker 1: creator of Netflix's new series Away. It's stars Hilary Swank.
Speaker 1: It just dropped on September four. But it's a series
Speaker 1: that centers on an International space crew as they head
Speaker 1: to Mars. It was inspired by an Esquire article back
Speaker 1: in seventeen about astronaut Scott Kelly's mission aboard the International
Speaker 1: Space Station. I've got space in my roots. My dad
Speaker 1: was very involved in the space program. This is so cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was so lucky in Seen. I was brought this
Speaker 1: beautiful article that you mentioned by Chris Jones and Jason
Speaker 1: Cadam's who had us know from Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.
Speaker 1: He had optioned the article along with Matt Reeves, just
Speaker 1: fabulous director of many of films, the upcoming Batman and um.
Speaker 1: They were interested in doing a series and mission to Mars.
Speaker 1: And I had worked for Jason previously and it brought
Speaker 1: me this article UH and asked if I was interested,
Speaker 1: and it was pretty immediate. Yes, I feel about space exploration.
Speaker 1: Sounds amazing. But what I particularly responded to with this
Speaker 1: article is that Chris went into death in UM. The
Speaker 1: article itself is about Scott Kelly, the astronaut, Scott Kelly
Speaker 1: and the mission aboard the International Space Station UH, and
Speaker 1: Chris talks about the International Space Ship Station itself and
Speaker 1: this improbable alliance of the then crumbling Soviet Union in
Speaker 1: the United States UH, and that is an analog for
Speaker 1: a mission to Mars. The idea that it would be
Speaker 1: an international mission of countries that might not normally get along,
Speaker 1: but would find a way to work together because that
Speaker 1: was what was required for something this difficult and this expensive.
Speaker 1: That was a really interesting and big idea to be
Speaker 1: very hopeful UM. And then on a much more intimate level,
Speaker 1: the article explores the moment in which Scott is up
Speaker 1: in the space station and he finds out that his
Speaker 1: sister and a Gaby difference has been shot and he
Speaker 1: has to navigate what it is to be away from
Speaker 1: his family when they need him the most. And my partner,
Speaker 1: Eileen and I've been in a long distance relationship for
Speaker 1: fifteen years and she lives with an illness that was
Speaker 1: diagnosed when I was away opening up play as a play, right,
Speaker 1: And so that moment really UM spoke to me very personally.
Speaker 1: And so from that UM came the story of an
Speaker 1: international crew going to Mars and as they're about to
Speaker 1: launch UM something really catastrophic but falling Hillary's family and
Speaker 1: her being forced with to face the idea of being
Speaker 1: apart from them for three years at this impossible distance
Speaker 1: when they need her the most. Well, and the answer
Speaker 1: what you managed to capture with this show, and I
Speaker 1: think you're alluding to, is this this notion of simultaneously
Speaker 1: exploring one of the biggest ideas there is, one of
Speaker 1: the most expansive ideas and notions that there is, and
Speaker 1: then one of the most intimate things. How do you
Speaker 1: balance that as a writer and as a storyteller. Well,
Speaker 1: there's to me, it's just nothing more thrilling than getting
Speaker 1: to play in those two fields, right, the epic and
Speaker 1: the intimate. And I think that you mentioned those conversations
Speaker 1: that we were fortunate enough to have with all of
Speaker 1: the extraordinary folks at NASA and at JPL. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of the life of an astronaut, you know. I
Speaker 1: I The very first conversation I had I was working
Speaker 1: on this project UM was with the astronaut Don Pettit
Speaker 1: and his wife, Mickey Pettit UM and Don told me
Speaker 1: a story about being up on the space stations doing
Speaker 1: a space walk. Uh, and they hit a part of
Speaker 1: the orbital sunrise where's gonna be dark for about forty
Speaker 1: five minutes, so there's nothing that he could really work
Speaker 1: on until the light came. So he traversed to the
Speaker 1: front of the space station and strapped himself to the
Speaker 1: very front. There's nothing between him and space and this
Speaker 1: magnificent list of Earth and watching the sunrise over the
Speaker 1: planet right and and there's what could be more epic
Speaker 1: and more stunning than that? And then isn't that? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, watching how do you have an
Speaker 1: experience as a human? After that, UM, and then the
Speaker 1: very next conversation I had with Nicky, she described to
Speaker 1: me what it felt like watching her husband watch and
Speaker 1: knowing that in a few minutes he was either going
Speaker 1: to break through the atmosphere block into a million pieces.
Speaker 1: And and so to me, this story of space exploration
Speaker 1: is the story of the epic and the intimate um
Speaker 1: and as Uh as a television screenwriter who loves cinematic expanse,
Speaker 1: but as somebody who I began my career as a
Speaker 1: playwright working in thirty store on theaters in Chicago that
Speaker 1: are the most intimate spaces you can imagine if there's
Speaker 1: nothing we can be more thrilling than than trafficking and
Speaker 1: those in both the epoch and the intiment. So I
Speaker 1: do love that part of it, Uh, Andrew, that you
Speaker 1: do have this wonderful diverse you know, space team, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's really something um moving and appropriate
Speaker 1: considering the backdrop of our times. Oh thank you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's It was incredibly hopeful to hear when I spoke
Speaker 1: to so many folks that uh at NASA at GPL
Speaker 1: that they believed it UM would be in their national
Speaker 1: mission going. And I just feel like we are living
Speaker 1: in a moment um that is a great example of
Speaker 1: of why it's so important for the world to work together.
Speaker 1: And I believe in science, you know, this is that's
Speaker 1: especially important when you're living in a pandemic, and so
Speaker 1: living in a pandemic writing in a pandemic. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: writing part has always been solitary, Andrew, but the creation
Speaker 1: of a show that's a little bit different. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about, you know, how all this got put together?
Speaker 1: Was it all sort of pre pandemic and it was
Speaker 1: locked and loaded? And how has the pandemic changed the
Speaker 1: rollout and all of these things. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: Netflix is a is a very good home for you
Speaker 1: at this point because we're all a little bit more
Speaker 1: captive than we were. We are extremely lucky in that regard.
Speaker 1: And I should say at the top, right, even the
Speaker 1: writing was collaborative. We had an incredible staff, fantastic Showlen
Speaker 1: and Injustice Olberg, the writing staff that was as diverse
Speaker 1: and international as ours our cast. Um. And then we
Speaker 1: were very lucky because we finished filming in February, and
Speaker 1: so we had finished filming, and then we did all
Speaker 1: of our post production remotely, and um, like you said,
Speaker 1: we have, we did not anticipate, um that our audience
Speaker 1: would be as captive or the show would be as
Speaker 1: as strikingly relevant. And I would say, you know, I
Speaker 1: even I wouldn't have even wished for this kind of relevance,
Speaker 1: But we certainly feel fortunate that we were able to
Speaker 1: get the show film didn't and get it out there
Speaker 1: for folks and see. So I do wonder too, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you think the future looks like in terms
Speaker 1: of content production? Well, we are in a really interesting
Speaker 1: time UM for our industry, particularly because we're negotiating what
Speaker 1: is what is UM television production look like? While we're
Speaker 1: living through COVID, we're as we're hopeful for a season
Speaker 1: two UM. We don't know for sure what will happen.
Speaker 1: We are very lucky in the writer's rooms can be remote,
Speaker 1: you know. We're like like many UM industries, adjusting to
Speaker 1: embracing a zoom platform and work remotely where we can.
Speaker 1: I know that there are a lot of UM there's
Speaker 1: there's folks who are looking at stories that are a
Speaker 1: little bit more intimate in nature and a little more
Speaker 1: socially distanced in nature. But I think that what we're
Speaker 1: also understanding is that there's a real appeal UM to
Speaker 1: folks to be able to watch UM even cinematic experiences
Speaker 1: like away in the comfort of your own home. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's you know this is a this is like uh,
Speaker 1: colleague was saying, there's a lot of special effects. It's
Speaker 1: sort of cinematic and expanse um. But we're fortunate enough
Speaker 1: here that we've got our big screen TV here and
Speaker 1: it looks pretty stunning. And I think that that is
Speaker 1: a direction we're headed in, and so Andrew, I do
Speaker 1: wonder from a creator's perspective as well. You know, we've
Speaker 1: had all these streaming services you know, come out. Netflix
Speaker 1: obviously remains sort of the big daddy, UM, but you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people in that their heels, Disney
Speaker 1: Plus especially, UM. It feels like a great time to
Speaker 1: be a creator on the one hand, because there are
Speaker 1: so many opportunities out there, and yet there's all this
Speaker 1: content being produced as well. So how do you ensure
Speaker 1: as a creator that you know, you really can separate
Speaker 1: the signal from the noise, make the right choices, and
Speaker 1: also make sure that people actually see your work. It's
Speaker 1: a fantastic question, and if I'm completely candid, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's one that anybody has a perfect answer for
Speaker 1: you because you named it. I mean, there's uh, the
Speaker 1: tremendous advantage of today's landscape is there are more opportunities
Speaker 1: for creators UM, and that also means UM more diverse
Speaker 1: work and oftentimes more interesting work because the target audience
Speaker 1: might not be if you back when there were four
Speaker 1: networks and you need twenty million viewers, UM that the
Speaker 1: work is. It's called broadcast for a reason, it might
Speaker 1: need to be more broad UM. But here if if
Speaker 1: a success might be two million viewers, you can be
Speaker 1: incredibly specific with your content and tell UM a greater
Speaker 1: range of stories. So I think that's incredibly exciting. But
Speaker 1: then you named UM the exact challenge, which is how
Speaker 1: do you rise above the noise? For me, I was
Speaker 1: drawn to this project in part because I thought the
Speaker 1: story was As a storyteller, it was the kind of
Speaker 1: story you get once or twice in your career. It's
Speaker 1: just such an extraordinary story. And if I feel that
Speaker 1: way as a storyteller, I think there's a a great
Speaker 1: opportunity that audiences are going to feel similarly if we
Speaker 1: execute that story. And thus far, it's been overwhelming that
Speaker 1: there has been such a global response to the show,
Speaker 1: and I think that's a testament to UH create a
Speaker 1: team the actors, but also just the story itself. That
Speaker 1: we were lucky enough to tell I love what you
Speaker 1: said about, you know, space exploration being the story of
Speaker 1: the epic of the intimate. I have to say, I'm
Speaker 1: a space kid. My dad was very involved in UM,
Speaker 1: the early early space program. So I love to see
Speaker 1: that you guys created content around this. I think it's important.
Speaker 1: I think it got lost for a while on kind
Speaker 1: of the public space, and I'm glad to see more
Speaker 1: time and attention being put towards it. Andrew, thank you.
Speaker 1: We're thrilled to be a part of a part of
Speaker 1: a tremendous tradition of some of those those great iconic films.
Speaker 1: So we can only aspire to be a part of
Speaker 1: that tradition of the right of apolit thir team grabbing
Speaker 1: the Marshan. That's that's great, great film. Ahead, Well, I
Speaker 1: was gonna go ahead, Jason, we get Andrew. We we
Speaker 1: want to just talk to you for now. Was there
Speaker 1: anything quirky that you heard from the astronauts though? And
Speaker 1: just got about a minute left, like I just can
Speaker 1: imagine the stories. Well, I know that the first thing
Speaker 1: in the Kingdom I when you said quirky is UM
Speaker 1: when we were looking to speaking of Mike Massimino, who
Speaker 1: was a mast and I've worked on the Hubble telescope. Uh.
Speaker 1: He told Hillary Swank that he wore literally astronaut spaces
Speaker 1: and the show on the station. And so you'll see
Speaker 1: in the show she is wearing the same socks. And
Speaker 1: that is a little tribute to um Mike in a
Speaker 1: in a quirky detail that I love that little least, right,
Speaker 1: that's great. That's Andrew Hinderocker. He's the writer and creator
Speaker 1: of the new Netflix series Oh Way, check it out.
Speaker 1: It is streaming as we speak. I love getting a
Speaker 1: new recommendation. I feel like all of us out there
Speaker 1: has been plowing through our cueues on all the streaming services.
Speaker 1: But this guy, as you said as we were prepping
Speaker 1: for this interview, he's the real deal. And so you
Speaker 1: want to pay attention to these very successful showrunners when
Speaker 1: they put something else out. It's hard to break through
Speaker 1: these days with all the content that's out there, but
Speaker 1: this is a good one. You've been listening to Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: Week Radio Live Monday through Friday at two pm Wall
Speaker 1: Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Charle Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. This is Bloomberg