YouSaid · the spoken record

David Maisel

lines on the record: 156
first: 2023-06-07
most recent: 2023-06-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Where I saw that really merged together. Some producers had sort of power, but not as much as a studio chairman. And so I thought about that path, Tim, and I realized I didn't like it. It wasn't like a law firm or McKinsey, which is somewhat of a meritocracy, not totally, but you at least logically you should proceed if you deliver results. I don't know what the formula is to become studio chairman. It's just one person selected every 10 years, you know, they're all in their 60s or 70s. And I knew I would be a fool's gamble for me to do that. So then I'm sitting there with this crazy thought of I'll create my own studio. Then by definition, I'm in charge of that studio, right? And my business, I thought to, it has to be something I'm really interested in. It has to have something that could really be a sustainable, good business because I needed still to make money.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I thought to myself, okay, what will my next path be? I could potentially stay at Endeavor and William Morris for the reasons we talked about. It was just Endeavor at the time. I decided not to do that, which I think Ari is really happy about because he very much wanted the Buy William Worse even back then. And I was telling him all the reasons not to. And so I think he was very happy that he didn't have to listen to those anymore. And he's done so well with that acquisition. So it worked out really good for both of us. I had another path, which was I could go to one of the studios and try to work my way up to be chairman of a studio, which is the only position I saw where you could be both creative in business. Those jobs were what I really wanted. Chairman of a studio, U green light movies, that's the ultimate power. You decide what gets made, and then you can influence that on every one of those dials that I mentioned, creative or business. And it was only place.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It actually happened. I remember specifically it was in like October November of 2003 when I think my stint with Endeavor was going to finish at the end of that calendar year. That story about the discussion with Disney to potentially buy Marvel, Marvel went bankrupt in 1999. And it had gotten through a fight between Ron Pearlman and Carl Icon and Ike Perlmutter. And Ike Perlmutter successfully got it like for 30 or 50 million dollars out of bankruptcy. And it had been a public company for a couple years post that and achieved like a hundred million valuation. And I was an investor in the stock. And so I watched as the first X-Men movie came out, Spider-Man, of course, right? And the stock had sort of stopped at a 200 million valuation. And I took out some old-fashioned paper and”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To put the set together. Now, Marvel had no capital in it, and we had, I think, 10% of gross ticket sales. So we ended up making. Significant profit from that production. And it was fantastic to work with Bon Own Edge from U2. So there's a whole different animal, the Spider-Man musical, but I was involved with that as well.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, he did a great job as my banker and got the company sold. So when his name popped up later on in my life, I was, whoa, is that the same person? And it was. So that was sort of funny. I know. Crazy stories. Later on, if we want to circle back to it, I also produced the Spider-Man musical on Broadway, which famously lost like 50 or 60 million.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so we were able to sell that company because of Fosse's success to Bob Sillerman at the time. I remember the investment banker that worked for me was a guy named Steve Bannon, which was odd. But at the time, he had just come from Goldman Sachs. And I only knew him as an impollen.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Keep it on theater for a second. With Fossey, I was blessed. We had our out of town tryouts, and then we went to New York and we won the Tony. Like, it doesn't get much better than that for a show, right?”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nicole Fosse, but it's, I like to define it. There's no Fosse musical if I don't make it and there's no MCU or Avengers if I don't go to Marvel. So it's having the vision and then going there and making it happen with whatever dials I need to turn creatively or business or political or financing to get it done.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's not accountability in general in entertainment, and titles can mean nothing or everything. So I'm glad you clarified that. I don't know what the name is for what I do, but I've been lucky enough with Fosse, with Marvel, with my projects post-Marvel to conceive of the idea, basically, or see something like Marvel that exists that has some legacy or Fossi rights of and to envision, I guess the first step is vision what the project could be. And something that perhaps other people hadn't seen. And then when I produce, it's literally probably not liked by many people, but it's micromanaging all the various relevant major creative decisions or business decisions, which might include bringing in huge creative talent, which I did on Fosse. I brought in his ex-lover, Anne Ranking, to direct, who had all a lot of the dances in her head. And I was dealing with Gwen Verden, his ex-wife and his daughter.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This was a chance the company that Michael had bought was technically basically bankrupt. So we didn't have a lot of money to spend on a show or market it. So out of all Company owned the rights to this project, and I picked that one for us to focus on. So I was producing that at night and running the company during the day for about two years.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's proscenium. It's like the arches in a theater. I hope I'm saying that correctly. But we had a, I got the image. Yeah, I think it was like $3 million to set up our set, which some musicals are way higher. And then the running cost of the show was really low because it was $32 amazing dancers, but no superstars. And so it was also a show that was easy to tour, like you're doing with your show. And so I understood that the economics of Broadway.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cool Broadway project. I never thought we'd win the Tony for Best Musical because we had no dialogue in the show. It was literally all his dances and the different phases of his life. And the other part I'd say is, and it's sort of similar, I'm not afraid to use creative end business in a decision. A lot of people in Broadway or any place entertainment are so afraid of that because you're titled a suit if you talk about profits. If you want to be creative, you have to just not, you have to ignore that and be above all that. And it's so the creative mystique is so subjective that people have, in most cases, there's not real accountability unless you like actually draw something or write it yourself. But I knew that a story, a dance musical, would be very inexpensive, both its original setup costs, the set itself. It's just basically a black stage and two prosceniums.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He also is a great film director won the Academy Award for Best Picture, I think for Cabaret. And when I learned about this guy's life and saw that he died of whatever substance abuse and womanizing his lifestyle and had a very tragic end, I thought that was a really interesting story to tell. And then third, he was known for his sensuality, of his dance. And it was like, whoa, you know, I had never seen anything like that. So the ingredients made me believe that telling this guy's life story through dance, through his own dances, could be a really...”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think personal passion in everything that I've done when I look back at it, I get very focused on whatever project I'm working on. And I think I do better if I really love it. And theater and the excitement of live theater, which you're now experiencing, which is so cool with that project, however it works out, is really indescribably hard to replicate. It's a little bit like a live-action film shoot, but more unpredictable. There's an audience there. It's an animal of its own. That was number one. Number two, I enjoy, I guess, telling stories that have some sort of meaning to me and relevance. And this was Bob Fossey, who was a very complicated man, arguably one of our best choreographers in America ever and probably the best, one of the best ever in Broadway. And there's a movie called All That Jazz, which I will recommend to everyone to watch if they haven't seen it with Roy Scheider and Jessica.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't intriguing to me to in an agency like in a consulting firm or a law firm, there was a role for someone like me that was a wild card for a period of time. But the real power and money came if you represented clients and you could show that you're bringing in direct revenues. And that wasn't what I did. And I also had my own entrepreneurial desires. And it was in 2003 when I knew I had a couple months left to go with Endeavor that I sat down for a weekend and figured out what has become Marvel Studios and started that path in my life.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Happened in the early 2000s. And then I came back to LA and I was ready to get back into traditional business. And I went to work with R Emmanuel and Patrick Whitzell, who was a guy a great agent who had an office next to me at CAA. And they had just started Endeavor, what is now William Morris Endeavor, this huge company and they offered me my first real payday to work for them for two years. The reason that's relevant besides Ari and Patrick being amazing guys and shows you how small this town is and they still run that company. I knew I never wanted to be an agent long term.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Michael got fired by his best friend from Disney in 97, 98. And there, to make a long story short, he again asked me to join him in this next venture of his career. And that lasted a couple years during which he bought a Broadway company. And I was able to produce a show called Fossey and exercise my first direct creative project, this Broadway show, which did very well. And we won the Tony Award for Best Musical. And so it gave me some confidence, which is relevant for what happens when Marvel later on. And then I chased some internet money from 99 to 2001. A very famous investment banker, very well-known in Hollywood named Joe Ravich, who is Goldman Sachs at the time, set me up with a John Malone company. And I lived in London and Amsterdam for two years, which was great and also scary because the dot-com”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that hole tremendously well, that was the driver at the time. And then obviously all the stuff you could do with the Marvel characters. And I was starting to dream then about Marvel films in a bigger way. But that idea came to me actually later a few years ago.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The time, but he remembered that and I remembered it. And separate from the movies, Disney is very good at thinking about their customer. And they're very strong with all of us as babies, right? And we all love Disney. And then normally guys start not liking Disney when they're early teenagers, right? It's not cool anymore. Traditionally, that happens as well with females at a later age. But at some point, you lose interest in what you loved as a kid. And then it comes back when you're a young parent, right? And you have your own kids. And so there was a huge gap, especially with guys between like age 12 and age whenever they have kids that Marvel was very strong with. And so it just mapped on that. I don't even know if I was able to even get to that point in this meeting, but it mapped on that.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The same as what I told Bob Eiger 14 years later when I actually sold him Marvel for on paper four billion. No, but to Bob's credit, Bob wasn't the decision maker in that earlier meeting. He probably would not have even been in the room because he was running ABC.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because one of the first things that Michael Eisner and the other people in the room saw was that there was no theme park rights available east of the Mississippi River because that was a deal that Ron Perlman had given to Universal. And because of that, I sort of was not gently told that this was a stupid idea.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The liaison on corporate development with Bob Eiger, who was the president of that division at the time. And Steve Burke, who was his number two guy, who became the head of Universal Comcast later on. So I was so fortunate to be exposed to so much in a two-year period, Tim. You know, good and bad about what happens at a studio like Disney. And that's one of the things my job was, was to recommend acquisitions. The Through Thread with Marvel, I recommended, I don't even think this is public, so this is breaking news. I recommended that Disney buy Marvel back in like 96, 97. At the time, it was no more than $100 million.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Movie better, you know, in a while. Corporate development at Disney was Michael Eisner had this group of people that controlled strategy in every major move under him. And they would work with division heads. And essentially it was his way to centralize major decisions at Disney and sort of control those decisions. And I was put in an office next to Kevin Mayer, who ended up almost becoming CEO. Tom Staggs, who I mentioned. And so we would go to meetings with Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz and I was Michael Ovitz's guy. They were Michael Eisner's guys. And we come back and we all get our phone calls. And it was just a crazy fun time. They just bought ABC. And I remember Michael Eisner saying, and Ovitz, David What are you interested in? I said, well, sports and ESBN is sort of cool. I'll help out ABC. Because of that, I was.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was the president, so you had open access to everything, you know, like I did at CAA. Now I'm in a studio and I'm seeing from a studio perspective all the games that are played and how they view the world. And I was put in strategic planning and corporate development, which was a powerhouse group at Disney.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A meeting that Michael called early in the morning to announce this. And then later that day, he called me to his office and he invited me to join him at Disney. I had a job offer from Ron Meyer to go to Universal as well. And the third option was to stay with the new owners of CAA, Kevin and Brian and others. I loved Disney. Like I grew up loving the Disney parks. We haven't talked about this, but when I graduated from business school, the job offer I turned down when I went to BCG was for the Walt Disney company for strategic planning. Tom Staggs, who ended up almost becoming CEO, was in the waiting room with me at the time. And so I always had this interest in the Walt Disney Company and Michael was my guy. Right. And here's my idol now asking me to join him in his new chapter. So that turned out to be critical because I then got to spend a couple years at Disney where it was like your dad.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But what happened, and it relates to CA and Michael, is Michael did not take the job with Universal. We sold it to Seagram, to Edgar Brothman, and famously Michael was supposed to run it and ended up not getting the job. And it was given to Ron Meyer, who was Michael's partner at CAA. And it was somewhat Shakespearean because Michael and Ron were so close. Perhaps, as the papers say, Michael might have overested for what he wanted from Edgar Brownman, but he hired Ron Meyer, who ended up spending 20 or 25 years or 20 years running Universal Studios. Everyone thought then that Michael was going to stay at CAA. Then he decided to go to Disney and be president of the Walt Disney Company with his friend, Michael Eisner, who was CEO. That was cataclysmic in Hollywood. I remember walking to”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm thinking about that off the top of my head. There are biographies of Michael, of David Geffen, of industry figures like that. And I think those are useful to understand the history of the town. I also am surprised. We used to have paper trades, a Hollywood Reporter and Variety. They're now all online, right? But how many times I interview young people that want to come into Hollywood and they're not really up to date even on the current stuff that's happening, right? So just there's so much information available that wasn't available to me at the time, diving into history through articles and through biographies and just keeping up every day with what the latest news in Hollywood is, even just those two things together. If you don't have a mentor, you'll get the benefit of a lot of learning. Like in most areas of life.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the third street smarts, wow, I mean, that one, I just realized how small this town is, Tim. It really is. It's a small group of people and still is and understanding what people want and how you can make a deal by figuring out the magic of delivering what they want but getting what you want back. And the street smarts had say, wow, I've never talked about this publicly is to know that it's what is their motivation? Are they going for their annual bonus? Are they going for the best seat in the restaurant? Are they care about their stock options? They care about their prestige. Do they care about credit? And so many different people here are motivated by other things. So sometimes it was good street smart wise to figure that out. And it helped me the rest of my career.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it was the opposite. I think what I learned when I got there, because I remember I sat with him for like five minutes, awestruck. And then he basically looked at me and said, hey, kid, there's no way I'm ever going to learn this. I've had too much fun in my life. I'm not going to start focusing on the stock market now. He might have used a different word than fun with an F. So it definitely was Michael tutoring his clients. I think Magic Johnson has been publicly talks about how Michael would get him a business week subscription and things like that while he was a basketball player.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and he exposed me to what a star like that is used to in Hollywood. So understanding that they have other people around them that will be maybe whispering in their ears negative things. And so you have to play defense and offense. I was so fortunate Michael put me in front of so many people. I remember him sending me to Warren Beatty's house, just this icon, right? And still is. to talk about the stock market. And I only say this because it just shows you how for thinking Michael was. And he gave me a chance to interact with these mega stars on a personal basis.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wise enough to realize it was something that he could use to his advantage once she learned it. So that actually becomes really important because later on, I realized the market here was inefficient and that the fact I was able to do what we'll talk about later with Marvel should never have been able to happen if it was efficient, right? And then number two, the creative process, God, there's so many things there, but everything like that Tom Cruise story, which is understanding them and Michael also talked about always the people around the star, that it was so important to have a great relationship with them.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and the first one, business fundamentals, it became pretty clear to me that that was an area that Hollywood was not very focused on. And to this day, you probably can make the same case if you look at some of the enterprise values of the studios. But the idea of shareholder value, the idea of what creates a Disney to be worth more money were universal, how do you value a business? The idea of value was foreign to people. And to his credit, I remember Brian Lord, who is running CAA now and is one of the most amazing people in this town. I say that in all respects. But I remember him pulling me aside back in 1995 and asking me to tutor him on financial statements and shareholder value and all those types of things. And now he's running this huge agency. You know what I mean? But he also saw the same thing and was.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To keeping an eye out to what's going on with tech and entertainment and how those two industries are still trying to figure out how to work together. And Michael was sort of ahead of the time on that. And then I guess third was all of us have to figure out our personal style and approach. And I saw how there's choices to get made on how you sort of learn about Hollywood and progress through Hollywood. And that to me was eye-opening because I also realized I wasn't very good at that game of using leverage or the politics of what needs to get done in any entity, but this time specifically Hollywood. So it was an eye-opening lesson for me.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Introduced me to Tom Cruise, and then he said, We'll be right back. And he took me to the bar and Michael ordered drinks for Tom and whoever he was with and brought the drinks back. For Tom and whoever was around him at the time, whether it's his assistant or girlfriend at the time, I don't know. And he mentioned to me, just remember, we're always in the service business. Remember who our customers are. The fact he did that personally and didn't ask me to go do it or somebody else was like, whoa, this guy is at a different level. And I remember the second day I was there, he brought me into a meeting with Bill Gates at the time who was, and they talked about creating like a competitor to AOL. And, you know, I saw how he dealt with the tech and which as you hinted became a big part of his life later on. And he always was on the cutting edge of technology. So he opened my eyes.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tim, I think there's a couple that point out when was Michael really taught me how to work with the creatives of this town? Because he put me in front of them. I remember it might have been the first or second time I was ever with him at a industry function. And he always, and I'll always give him credit for this, whether he said it or not, but often many times he said something like, hey, here's a lesson here. Tom Cruise was there. And he”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the mid 90s working for Michael. And it was an unexpected quote when I saw that, but it was nice to hear his kudos coming from his position. And I guess we did do some deals. Like Natalie Portman was his client who was in Thor and many others as well from CAA. Yeah, so comics were always an interest. Marvel specifically, Tim was a fascination with me. And so even before I got that job offer when I was talking to Michael, when I was at business school, like over beers, some of my friends and I were like, we need to leverage buyout Marvel from this vitamin company that owned it. And it was completely tilting out a windmill and nothing came from it.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it was probably like a lot of us, you know, something I loved as a kid, probably when I started turning five or six. And Marvel specifically, but overall comic books. And Iron Man specifically, but a lot of characters. Like I'm excited to see the new Flash movie that's coming out. And it was something I remember my mom used to joke with her recently before she passed that she would tell me to stop reading my comic books and focus on schoolwork, right? And it turned out to be my career. So it was pretty ironic. And Kevin, who gave that quote, I remember being touched by that because when I joined CAA back to Michael, Kevin Huvain and Brian Lord and Richard Lovett, the three people who are predominantly running CAA today and took over the firm when Michael left and are arguably some of the, if not the most powerful agents in town, we sort of grew up together.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was primarily when I grew up acting in theater. I was an actor in high school and love live theater. And luckily my career brought me to have the chance to produce multiple shows, which I've really enjoyed. And I also just love culture and entertainment. Star Wars was a huge impact. So the idea of crafting mega cultural movies to me as a creative producer, as a business producer combined was really exciting. And so it was really show business in general. And I knew my acting skills were not that great. They're pretty bad. But the idea of being a creative producer on Broadway or film, that's what seemed the most exciting to me.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was really a beautiful gift, though, because I think I might not have been have the backbone to, like you say, a lot of people talk about branching out, but you can get really secure at those places. And I was headstrong. In fact, when Michael offered me the job, he said, what are you making at McKinsey? I told him. And he said, okay, we'll match that, but there's no guarantee. I can fire you tomorrow. So it was a gamble. It was definitely a gamble.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was very personal. I wish I could say I had realized this on my own, but my sister, older sister, passed away at a young age. And I saw impermanence and I saw the fragility of life for the first time. And it did affect me. And I knew I wasn't completely happy not being creative, not at least trying to be out in the middle of the action and in the arena and quit BCG soon after that. So when I wrote Michael, that letter, I was back home living with my mom, which wasn't now that's like popular to do. Back then, it really wasn't. And I ended up taking the McKinsey thing because I had run out of money that I had saved from BCG, so I was forced to take something. I think I tried to learn poker at the time. It was losing some money at the games that were going on. And so it was a gift from my sister, frankly, to make me realize that.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah With him, though, it's you're right, your sense that he was at the center of attention and had his selection of things. I do think in my career when I look back on it, I was very fortunate with some timing issues, both with Michael and eventually with Marvel. I had to create both jobs and I'm proud of that, but I also approach them both at the right time.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Sandy gave me a note from Michael on top of the letter I send saying is it too late to get David. So I think it was timing. You know, it really was the timing that pieced things together. But I can't explain it.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I remember their Manhattan offices. And then I got an offer from McKinsey, which was like triple the money, which I needed to be a median entertainment specialist for them worldwide, like a new position. And so I literally accepted that offer from McKinsey, moved to New York City and started on a Monday. I wrote a letter, an email. I don't forget what it was at the time, but it must have been a letter or an email to Michael and a guy named Sandy Kleiman saying, guys, just so you know I accept another job at McKinsey. And on Wednesday, I got a phone call from Sandy Clyman who was working for Michael saying, is it too late? For you to join us. And I gave notice on Thursday. So I was at McKinsey for one week.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I actually interviewed with Marvel and got a job offer from Marvel at the same time as head of business development when it was owned by Ron Perlman.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Accepted right into HBS. Yeah, I think it's great. I produced the Broadway at Duke series, you know, and not that that matters. But you're right. I mean, a lot of people have great resumes. And I think it was the energy together, but something I've never told anybody is he didn't hire me right away. So that interview happened. I didn't hear anything back for a while. And I started interviewing with other people. I remember I had a job offer from David Stern at the NBA, which was, wow, I mean, we were just talking about the Celtics, but like I had an interview with the commissioner of the NBA and he hired me to be vice president of entertainment. I remember he offered me $50,000 a year. And I was like, Mr. Stern, how can I like live in Manhattan at $50,000 a year? He's like, don't live in Manhattan. That was his answer. He's like, no.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I can't recall what he talked to me about, but, you know, I'd gone to Duke I had, you know, was number two in my class. I was on the board of trustees when I graduated as a student, a full board member.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It wasn't like I went through three people to get to Michael. I think I spoke to a couple other people that same day, but Michael was on my schedule, right? So I had my time with him in that five, it was no more than 10 minute period. I do remember connecting. Like I don't know how, but I think he saw. My tenacity that I was willing and committed to do what needed to get done.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. Well, there's two questions there's one why the interview and the second, which I think you're related to, too, which is why get hired.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For Michael higher in me and giving me that break, I don't think I'm in a position to do Marvel Studios ever. I was naive as hell when I moved to LA. I was smart from a book sense academic. I had no idea about personal street smarts, let alone Hollywood street smarts. I was somewhat creative, I felt, but I didn't know how this town really works. And not only did I get to see Michael Tim, I had access to all the information at CAA. all the deals. So I just soaked it up. That's a big deal.”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I saw what he's notorious for, which is a tenacity and a focus and a work ethic that would not let anything but his success happen, which was combined with a level of street smarts on how this town works and a ability to amass leverage and perceived leverage that caused his wishes to get executed one way or the other. And then also combined with amazing use of PR to create this mythical image of himself. And personally, I was able to watch that because Michael is a controversial figure and that's very clear from the history. But I was able to look and see where we were similar and where I might want to take a different path in my own career. But if it was”
2023-06-07 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #676: David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame — Never-Before-Heard Tales of Hollywood Dealmaking, The Art of Aiming Big, Lessons from Power Broker Michael Ovitz, Combining Business Smarts with Street Smarts, The Making (and Importance) of Iron Man, Selling to Disney for $4 Billion, and Much More · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT