Interview (Video): Franklin Leonard with Michael Eisner

You hear a lot of talk nowadays about ‘disruptors’ in the field of business. For example, here is a list of the 2016 CNBC Disruptor Companies. How do they define it?

These forward-thinking starts-ups have identified unexploited niches in the marketplace that have the potential to become billion-dollar businesses, and they rushed to fill them.

A disruptor can also be an individual which is one reason why this hour-long conversation between Michael Eisner and my friend and compatriot Franklin Leonard is so compelling.

I think we can all agree that Franklin, who founded the Black List, the most important brand related to screenwriting in Hollywood, is a disruptor because he is doing what he can to change the stodgy, traditional approach to project acquisition and development in the film business, and open it up to more and diverse talents.

However those of us who have been in the business for as long as I have remember Eisner as a disruptor in his own right. When he, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Barry Diller took over leadership at Paramount in the early 80s, they created a juggernaut by instituting a new kind of ‘studio system’ approach, one which laid the groundwork for the current system in place at the Big Six Hollywood studios.

An anecdote: At a meeting with the entire creative staff, Eisner expressed his fascination with a new TV channel called MTV. Certain it had tapped into the youth zeigeist, Eisner jotted down something onto a slip of paper which was passed from executive to executive. On it he’d simply written this: “MTV Cops”. That was the genesis of this:

“Miami Vice” was a ginormous hit. Eventually Eisner took his creative sensibilities (along with Katzenberg) and their shared business sensibilities over to Disney, waking up that slumbering giant and transforming it into a powerhouse studio.

Eisner is old school. Franklin is new school. Yet both have had a significant influence on the way Hollywood makes movies. Recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Eisner sat down and — get this — interviewed Franklin! As I say, it’s a fascinating conversation, a snapshot of where the business is today with glimpses of where it may be headed.

For more videos from the Aspen Ideas Festival, go here.