Why Did John Coogan Stop the Documentary Sale?

John Coogan stopped climbing toward a sale of a documentary to Netflix or HBO because the money was not enough and the film would become a hit piece. The creative direction, the soul he put into the work, and his view that business is good would leave. The film would be edited in a bad way because a hit piece would be better for their business. He found the prospect soul crushing and decided not to climb any further.

He still wanted to stay in media and do interesting things, so he tried other media products. He started a solo podcast that did similar work without a script. A teleprompter and a written script made the work more soul crushing. He liked the process of writing and found reading the script a hassle. He liked talking to people and did not want to fly around the world chasing the next big interview, so a big interview show was off the table.