Hollywood loves to tell stories about itself. Who can blame her? Hollywood is glamorous and full of beautiful people, and so are the stories about it. But Hollywood can also be a real messy bitch, and there are also a lot of stories that capture that not-so-glamorous side. And those can be just as much fun, if not more. That’s the deal with the new show The Studio, on Apple TV+. That’s right, Apple TV has more than just Severance, and The Studio is definitely worth checking out.

Seth Rogen created The Studio alongside Pete Huyck, Alex Gregory, Frida Perez, and his longtime-writing partner Evan Goldberg. Seth also stars in the series as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of the fictional Continental Studios. Matt’s a guy who absolutely loves movies, but also needs to balance all the financial asks from the big bosses, so that’s how he ends up trying to make a Kool-Aid movie directed by Martin Scorsese work. Clearly, they’re poking fun at some real-life Hollywood stories — can we talk about the Jerry Seinfeld Pop-Tart movie? Actually, maybe it’s better if we don’t. But we can talk about all the plot and cast details, and figure out if The Studio is based on a true story.

The Studio Details

Image Credit: Apple TV+

Is The Studio Based On A True Story?

The short answer is, no, The Studio is not based on any one true story in particular. But the long answer is there’s a lot of true stuff in The Studio. For starters, Seth and Evan had a meeting in 2000 back when they were first starting out in entertainment, and the Hollywood exec with them said, “I got into this job because I love movies, and now I feel like it’s my job to ruin them.” That cynical moment stuck with them so hard that 25 years later, Seth’s character on The Studio says those words verbatim.

The creators also based a lot of the show’s stories on their own experiences from working in the movie business all these years. “We run a company, and it’s not a studio [production company Point Grey],” Seth told Deadline. “But we find ourselves in moments of deciding which movies to kind of champion and which ones not to and giving directors notes on movies, notes on their edits, and giving actors notes, and having to get people we idolize to work with us, and then being afraid we’re going to disappoint them […] and then, actually, just disappointing them, so it really was based on our own kind of experience in Hollywood.”

The Studio Plot

In the first episode of The Studio, Seth’s character Matt Remick is named the head of Continental Studios. He very quickly realizes that his dream of auteur-driven, Oscar-buzzy films is a little bit of a fantasy because the studio’s main priority of raking in cash usually wins out. Projects get axed, egos get torn down, and a lot of cringe humor ensues.

The Studio Cast

In addition to Seth as Matt Remick, The Studio includes Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Bryan Cranston, Chase Sui Wonders, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, and Dewayne Perkins. Plus, there are a bunch of stars who make cameos as themselves, including Martin Scorsese, Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Zoë Kravitz, Olivia Wilde, Ron Howard, and (head of Netflix himself) Ted Sarandos.