Adam McKay to Explore 1950s Hollywood Tragedies in New Podcast (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Kate Aurthur editor On June 1, Adam McKay and his company Hyperobject Industries and Sony Music Entertainment will release “Death on the Lot,” an eight-episode podcast telling the stories of the deaths of James Dean, Hattie McDaniel, John Garfield and other notable Hollywood figures who died prematurely in the 1950s.

Variety can exclusively unveil the trailer for “Death on the Lot,” which was developed by and hosted by McKay. In an interview that took place before the writers strike, McKay said the project grew out of his 2021 podcast “Death at the Wing,” which examined the untimely deaths of basketball players in the 1980s, putting them in the context of the sociopolitical climate at the time.  “All during the making of ‘Death at the Wing,’ we kept saying the only other comparison we can think of is Hollywood after World War II,” McKay said. “Then we thought, ‘Well, let’s do a season about that, and see what we can uncover.’ And if possible, it was even richer and deeper, and more to the core of the American story than we anticipated.” The Oscar-winning McKay is booked-and-busy, with his next movie as a writer-director, “Average Height, Average Build,” in pre-production — having been acquired by Netflix.

He also executive produces HBO’s “Succession,” “Winning Time” and “Painting With John,” among other projects. But there’s just something about podcasts that he loves: especially that you don’t need to know all the answers before you begin working on them. “You’re able to walk into the project, and make the project, with questions still unanswered,” McKay said. “With these podcasts, the questions are the central theme of the show — and it’s really fun, because you’re constantly making discoveries.