Hollywood is broken 🇺🇸 🎬
Which is why it’s the best time to build something new.
Good morning everyone. The morning-after group texts from the debate included a lot of these:
I’m not writing about Kamala’s probable beauty routine (in 2018 it was a lot of Soul Cycle and hot baths), but if anyone else does let me know and I’ll link it tomorrow in the letter. We’d all like to know.
Today’s letter is about the General Catalyst-backed holding company building the Pixar of AI, why Sundance Film Festival might be moving to Santa Fe, and Glossier’s second shot at their makeup line, Play.
XTR, a General Catalyst-backed studio, acquired AI animation studio Late Night Labs.
XTR has produced and financed over 80 documentaries, and launched the documentary streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+ in 2021. With the acquisition of Late Night Labs and its proprietary AI technology, XTR is launching and creating a holding company, Asteria Film Co. In 2023, General Catalyst announced their investment in Asteria, saying, “Asteria believes that by engaging and equipping the very best storytellers in the world with the right technologies and platforms, they can unleash a renaissance of creativity, and bring creative storytelling to bear in profound and important ways.”
Last night, I spoke to Asteria’s co-founder Bryn Mooser (a twice Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker) who is running Asteria. If you don’t want to read the whole conversation, the TLDR is:
Hollywood is broken
There’s no momentum in the industry right now
…which is why it’s actually the best time to build something new