The Frame

Bob Thiele leads The Forest Rangers, a band that was spawned by the "Sons of Anarchy" TV series; comedian Andy Kindler takes no prisoners when he gives his annual State of the Industry speech; a filmmaker is challenging the copyright claim to "Happy Birthday to You," which keeps the song out of many TV shows and movies.

When Marlon Brando died, he left hundreds of hours of himself on tape, which were culled for the documentary, "Listen to Me Marlon"; a 1965 gospel concert at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium was special not only for its stars, but also because it was recorded — a rarity for its day; NBC Universal will reportedly invest $250 million in BuzzFeed's growing digital empire.

Five finalists were chosen to develop pilot scripts for a TV series that calls for a female engineer protagonist; Summer can be a great time to watch TV, if you know where to look; the singer Little Boots was once signed to Atlantic Records, but she decided having her own label is a better fit.

A comedy writer has sued Conan O'Brien, claiming his show stole jokes that were first posted on Twitter; on "Song Exploder," Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie dissects "El Dorado"; director James Ponsoldt was initially skeptical that a book about being on tour with writer David Foster Wallace could be a movie.

The Beijing-based Wanda Group financed "Southpaw," just the latest example of Chinese investments in Hollywood; The Next MacGyver contest hopes to encourage women engineers with the promise of a TV pilot; Juilliard-trained Brad Segal has become the go-to composer for reality shows.

The British actor reunites with director Bill Condon to play a 93-year-old version of Sherlock Holmes in "Mr. Holmes" (pictured); Chinese authorities have returned the passport of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who had been unable to leave the country since 2011; the makers of the documentary about crowd-funding, "Capital C," financed their film through a crowd-funding campaign.

Noted muralist Kent Twitchell (pictured) has created a new work for the Special Olympics; playwright Todd Almond was inspired by Matthew Sweet's 1991 album, "Girlfriend," for his musical about growing up gay; the Teragram Ballroom tries to carve out a niche on the local live music landscape.

Kurt Sutter has been writing film scripts while working on demanding TV shows, and now his first feature, "Southpaw" (pictured), is being released; the singer Miguel talks about growing up mixed-race in his beloved L.A.; the box office for "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" and "Dope" hasn't measured up to their indie darling hype.

A landmark album from 1966 (pictured) pairing the singer and bandleader is revisited as part of a Sinatra tribute at the Hollywood Bowl; YouTube is betting that audiences will pay for a commercial-free service; Camp Reel Stories is a summer camp designed to introduce teenaged girls to filmmaking.

Lisa Hanawalt's lifelong equine obsession pays off in her role as production designer for the animated series, "BoJack Horseman" (pictured); with embassies re-opening in Washington and Havana, cultural exchange could be on the upswing; costume designers for superhero movies take comic book drawings and turn them into flashy but practical outfits.

Movie ticket sales dropped five percent in 2014, worrying studios and theater owners; filmmaker Lee Daniels talks about his foray into TV production with his new Fox series, "Empire" (pictured); Shamir is one musician to watch in 2015.

Ranking various versions of the New Year's Eve tune, from Rod Stewart to Mariah Carey to ... cats!; Christmas came early for music lovers when an L.A. record store let customers cart off 25 albums for free; the City of L.A.'s former arts czar assesses the city's place in the cultural world.

The iconoclastic theater/opera director Peter Sellars (pictured) uses Los Angeles as his base while he travels the world to mount work with themes of social justice; a new investigation concludes North Korea wasn't behind the Sony hack; and a look at the top films of 2014.

We break down the Christmas weekend box office and video-on-demand numbers for the controversial film, "The Interview"; writer/director J.C. Chandor talks about his latest film, "A Most Violent Year," starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain (pictured); David Lynch's artwork is featured in a major museum exhibition.

Alamo Drafthouse cinema on convincing Sony to release "The Interview"; The screenwriter of ‘The Imitation Game’ always wanted to tell the true story of Alan Turing; Celebrating 10 years of The Black List, the place where Oscar winners “Argo,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” debuted; What television to binge-watch over the holidays.

Sony will allow "The Interview" to be seen after all! We talk to the founder of the Downtown Independent about his quest to get the film at his theater; The screenwriters of “Big Eyes” spent a decade trying to get their movie about kitschy art made —and it cost them dearly; Song Exploder dissects a tune from the rock band, The National; Meet the L.A. rabbi with a side job in television.

Playwright James Lapine compares the Hollywood and Broadway versions of "Into The Woods"; "Nightcrawler" writer/director Dan Gilroy weighs in on the Sony hack and "The Interview" scandal; and a Festivus for the rest of us.

Director Angelina Jolie talks about her personal commitment to bring Lou Zamperini’s story to the screen in the movie “Unbroken.” Seth Rogen and James Franco, the stars of “The Interview,” got a special shout-out from President Obama at a White House news conference.

Since you won't see "The Interview," we have a recap of the film, and two critics weigh in on whether the movie is worth all the drama; The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of contemporary Cuban artist Esterio Segura; and we end our Colbert Countdown.

Sony won't release "The Interview" amid threats and the largest theater chains declining to screen the film; writer/director Judd Apatow weighs in on potential harm to the industry; Day 3 of our countdown to the end of 'The Colbert Report'; Rafe Fiennes on working with Wes Anderson.

The Japanese rock star Miyavi was picked by Angelina Jolie to play a WWII prison commandant for his first acting role; what makes Stephen Colbert geek-out, and what did an appearance on "The Colbert Report" do for author Gregory Rodriguez?; artist Ben Noam looks for inspiration in a park.

Dan Sterling talks about the genesis of "The Interview" (starring James Franco, left, and Seth Rogen, right) and how North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made his way into the script; we launch our week-long farewell tribute to "The Colbert Report."