After ‘The Studio,’ Fans Should Revisit Bruce Willis in ‘The Player’

Seth Rogen’s new comedy series might feel fresh, but it’s not exactly original. The Studio, which is streaming on Apple TV+, follows a fictional studio executive as he meets with real-life actors in a show with the main purpose of satirizing Hollywood. The Studio is not the first show or movie to do this, as The Player had a near-identical premise but with a plot that makes it much more like a thriller than a comedy. The Studio even makes at least one reference to the film.

The Player was based on a hit book and received critical acclaim when it came out, with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film might have gone under a few people’s radars as it was distributed by a small studio that was absorbed by Warner Bros. However, it’s now streaming on Max, and it’s worth checking out.

‘The Player’ Is Hollywood Satire With a Thrilling Twist

In The Player, Tim Robbins plays a studio executive named Griffin Mill. He listens to pitches from screenwriters and decides what films to produce. He’s dating a story editor at his office, and life almost seems fine for him. However, as a new executive starts making a name for himself at Griffin’s studio, Griffin also starts receiving threatening notes, which he assumes are from a screenwriter he rejected.

The setting of The Player is meant to be a satirical version of Hollywood, but it’s not only for movie buffs and people in the industry. The plot is more akin to a classic thriller, as Griffin tries to hunt down the person sending him threatening notes while trying to avoid the police. While doing this, Griffin also gets caught up in new romances and executive antics as he tries to sabotage the new executive. It should be no surprise that Robert Altman directed The Player, as it’s right up his street to make satirical thrillers like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye.

Being set in Hollywood, The Player naturally features some cameos from large names at the time. At the very beginning, Griffin Mill meets with Buck Henry, screenwriter of The Graduate, who wants to pitch his idea for a sequel in one of the film’s most memorable scenes. Not all the cameos get that much attention, though the ending has some really fantastic ones. Some of the actors who make appearances include Cher, Jeff Goldblum, Burt Reynolds, Harry Belafonte, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Andie MacDowell, John Cusack, Elliott Gould, and more.

The Player was well-received when it was released. The film won two Golden Globes: one for being the best comedy of the year and the other for Tim Robbins’ performance. The two most famous critics at the time, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, also gave the film glowing reviews, with each critic rating the film four out of four stars. In his review, Ebert praised the humor and Altman’s directing, writing that The Player is “hilarious and heartless in about equal measure, and often at the same time.”

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‘The Studio’ is a genuinely funny and brilliantly directed TV show, one of the few projects that tries to be clever and is.

‘The Studio’ Has at Least One Reference to ‘The Player’

Although The Studio is still going, The Studio and The Player already have quite a bit in common. They both satirize the lives of Hollywood studio executives. They both feature many cameos from famous actors, and some fake films. However, there are also more glaring similarities that just can’t be ignored.

For starters, one of the characters in The Studio actually shares a name with the main character of The Player. Bryan Cranston plays Griffin Mill in The Studio. It’s not explicitly clear that they’re supposed to be the same character, as Cranston doesn’t look like Tim Robbins and doesn’t work at the same studio as Griffin Mill in The Player. It could just be a joke from the writers of The Studio.

There’s almost no way the creators of The Studio weren’t inspired by The Player, at least a little. The main poster for The Player iconically has a film reel shaped into a noose. One of the posters for The Studio has Seth Rogen climbing a film reel like it’s a ladder, almost as if it’s an homage to The Player.

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It’s the last thing you’d expect.

The filming styles of The Player and The Studio are similar as well. The Studio tries to replicate a classic Hollywood, shot-on-film look for its visuals, which looks a lot like The Player. The second episode of The Studio is also made to look like it was filmed in one shot. While The Player is not the only film to do a long and tedious one-shot scene, its opening has an iconic eight-minute crane shot that could have inspired that episode of The Studio.

How To Watch ‘The Player’

Thankfully, The Player is available to watch in a few places. The movie is available on Max with a subscription to the streaming service (ad-supported or premium). The Player can also be watched with a subscription to the Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel’s version has lots of special features like commentary and deleted scenes, and there’s a Blu-ray for it as well. For people who don’t have subscriptions to either of those services, The Player is available to rent or buy on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

The Studio is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+, which requires a subscription. New episodes release weekly on Wednesdays, going all the way to May 21. Viewers should tune in to see if there are any more references to The Player, and to experience comedy targeting a more modern Hollywood. After all, The Player is set 30 years ago, and movies have changed quite rapidly.