#98 | Cassius Michael Kim | Man On The Run, Part Two

Cassius Michael Kim returns to talk about Man On The Run, his years at CNN on The Wonder List, and his new company, The Smoking Section. Cassius Michael Kim is the director, writer and executive producer of Man On The Run – a Netflix documentary about the 1MDB Scandal in Malaysia. Of course, our conversation goes well beyond that project, looking back at Cassius and his previous time with CNN, The Wonder List and then now moving to his new production company: The Smoking Section. To learn more about Cassius: https://thesmokingsection.us/Information Chapters 0:00 Welcome back Cassius Michael Kim 2:37 Man On The Run by the numbers on Netflix 5:06 Keeping the interview unedited 7:30 Interviewing a former prime minister 10:01 The commuted sentence and a request for comment 12:37 Life after a Netflix release 15:03 Storytelling as a skill and the short film Trifecta 17:36 Ryan on 100 guests in Los Angeles 20:03 How Cassius got into production 22:33 Sequels, franchises and Wall Street in Hollywood 25:03 Spreadsheets over making things 27:34 Ryan weighs a broadcast series against a podcast 30:00 Fast, cheap or good 32:31 Three shorts, now or never 35:04 Raising money and Joe Simon behind the camera 37:30 Six months of purpose, six months of nightmare 40:01 Film festivals for short films 42:35 A home for shorts on streaming 45:05 Sandman and a new short 47:36 Broken Nights and signing with a manager 50:01 Guidance from an industry family 52:34 Horror as a path for filmmakers 55:03 PetroSaudi convictions in a Swiss court 57:32 How the DOJ asset forfeiture case works 1:00:01 Getting out of town to write 1:02:32 Netflix viewing data 1:05:01 Attention spans and the future of film 1:07:33 Art versus content 1:10:02 Are movies getting too long? 1:12:33 Goal for next year: a feature film 1:15:03 Festivals or a commissioned path 1:17:32 On time and on budget 1:20:03 An early imprint from horror 1:22:30 Feature or nothing 1:25:05 Leverage in Hollywood 1:27:35 Plans for a live stream The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com