Seth Rogen’s ‘The Studio’ Inspired by “Tragic” Studio Executive Meeting

Seth Rogen has a new comedy series in the works based on his real life experiences in the “very tragic” world of Hollywood. The Studio is a 10-episode series for Apple TV+ created, produced, co-directed and starring Rogen.

Rogen and his creative partner Evan Goldberg based The Studio on real-life encounters they had with Hollywood executives as they were coming up in the industry. “Me and Evan always are quoting a meeting we had when we were just starting, where a studio executive said literally the thing that Matt says in the pilot,” Rogen told Entertainment Weekly.

As The Studio progresses, Rogen’s character, studio head Matt Remick, is torn between allowing the actors he admires artistic freedom and toeing the studio’s bottom line. A dichotomy he was confronted with in the initial encounter that inspired the series.

“[The studio executive] was giving us notes and he hung his head and was like, ‘I got into this job because I love movies, and now my job is to ruin them,’ and the more we started talking about that, we were like: that’s very tragic and sad and inherently very comedic in many ways.”

Rogen brought together an excellent cast for The Studio, including Catherine O’Hara as a defamed executive turned-producer, Bryan Cranston as a corporate type that plays loose with the rules, and Kathryn Hahn as a go-go marketing executive. Following her lead in Marvel’s Agatha All Along, Hahn expressed her delight in returning to play a side role in an ensemble cast.

“Agatha was one of the most important experiences, but there was something nostalgic about just jumping into something like this. That’s how I started in comedy in this business, was in these huge big ensembles and these juicy supporting parts. I didn’t realize how much I needed it. It just felt so medicinal to be a player passing the ball, in awe of people’s performances.”

In ‘The Studio,’ Seth Rogen Learned From Hollywood Legends

Along with getting notes from Martin Scorsese, who makes a cameo in The Studio, another source of inspiration for Seth Rogen in making was his time acting in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, a film loosely based on the legendary director’s early life as he became a filmmaker.

“I was really enamored by how personal Steven made that story. And at the same time…I had just gone back deep into watching The Larry Sanders Show, which I hadn’t watched in a long time. And I started to think it would be really fun to do a TV show that is really personal and speaks to my day-to-day experience. So I just started to think, ‘What would be my version of that type of show?’ Something that is really based on my own experiences and my own interests and my own day-to-day life, but hopefully something that has enough broad appeal and interest that the average person who’s not me would like it.”

In true Birdman fashion, Rogen also set out to do something unusual for a comedy with The Studio — Shooting every scene in one long take, also known as a “oner.” “It felt like it captured this kind of panicked, frenzied tone that we were chasing because the camera’s never settling into a pattern,” Rogen said. “And I think because of that, it kind of keeps you on edge and you’re never quite centered or comfortable.”

The Studio is set to debut on Apple TV+ on Mar. 26, 2025.

Release Date

March 26, 2025

Cast

Kathryn Hahn
, Martin Scorsese
, Bryan Cranston
, Zac Efron
, Paul Dano
, Catherine O’Hara
, Ike Barinholtz
, Thomas Barbusca
, Chase Sui Wonders
, Usher
, Josh Stone
, Keyla Monterroso Mejia
, Kara Luiz
, Ara Storm
, Yuli Zorrilla
, Dewayne Perkins
, Shereen Khan
, Mindee de Lacey
, David Moskowitz

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