• From scripts to costumes and set designs, it takes a lot to make a movie.
• James Cameron's "Avatar" (2009) took two decades to make.
• Jon M. Chu's screen adaptation of "Wicked" was 20-some years in the making.

They say good things come to those who wait. "Wicked" director Jon M. Chu knows this well.

"I've been chasing 'Wicked' for 20 years," he told The New York Times in November 2024.

Chatter about turning the beloved Broadway musical (which premiered in 2003) into a screen adaptation had circulated since 2010; but Chu wasn't officially offered the project until 2021.

"I thought, oh, they don't think we're going to make this movie!" Chu told the Times. "But that's what they don't know about me. I make movies. I know how to get a movie made. It's like a superpower of mine."

Despite production delays and the SAG-AFTRA strike in July 2023, part one of "Wicked" was released in November 2024 and grossed more than $728 million worldwide.

It is nominated for 10 Oscars on Sunday, March 2, including best picture, best actress (Cynthia Erivo), best supporting actress (Ariana Grande), and best costume design.

As the world waits to see if Chu's patience will yield the ultimate awards season prize, here's a look back at 10 movies that took a long time to make.

"The Thief and the Cobbler" (1995)

Director and animator Richard Williams spent about three decades working on the animated movie "The Thief and the Cobbler," but the finished product never lived up to his vision.

In 2021, Collider reported that in the 1960s, Williams was commissioned to illustrate books for author Idries Shah about the folklore character Nasruddin. In addition to the illustrations, Williams was working on preproduction for a film about the character, too. When deals between Paramount Pictures and Shah fell through, Williams was allowed to keep the characters he'd created for the film.

Still, production delays and increasing budgets made it difficult to find and secure investors throughout the '70s and '80s. However, Williams' two Oscar wins for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988) earned him the confidence of Warner Bros.

The studio agreed to help him finish the project with the stipulation that if Williams was unable to do so, the film would be given to The Completion Bond Company to complete for him. Ultimately, Williams and his team were unsuccessful in finishing their version on time, so in 1993, "The Princess and the Cobbler" was released by Allied Filmmakers internationally and in 1995, two more cuts — "The Thief and the Cobbler" and "Arabian Knight" — were released by Miramax.

"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001)

Legendary director Stanley Kubrick spent decades developing "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" as an adaptation of Brian Aldiss' 1969 short story, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," before his death in 1999.

The Ringer reported that Kubrick shared the narrative for his "Supertoys" adaptation with another famed director, Steven Spielberg, in 1984.

Over the years, Kubrick reportedly employed a slew of writers, including Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson, Arthur C. Clarke, and Sara Maitland, to tackle the screenplay, but to no avail.

Still, in 1993, Warner Bros. announced Kubrick's next film would be "A.I.," but he set it aside again in 1995 and pursued what would be his final film, "Eyes Wide Shut."

Spielberg, who'd been privy to Kubrick's creative struggles over the years, took over the film after his death, writing the screenplay in a matter of weeks and hiring actor Haley Joel Osment.

"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" was released in 2001. It was nominated for best visual effects and best original score at the Oscars.

"Avatar" (2009)

James Cameron famously wrote the first treatment for "Avatar" in the '90s, but shelved the project for years when he realized that the available technology wouldn't live up to his expectations.

Cameron told Entertainment Weekly in 2007 that he and the studio, Fox, decided to push forward with "Avatar" in August or September 2005, citing inspirations like Peter Jackson's Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings," "King Kong," and even Davy Jones from "Pirates of the Caribbean."

"I wrote an 80-page treatment 11 years ago," he told EW. "We were working from the treatment in designing the world and the creatures and so on. I wrote the script the first four months of 2006."

"Avatar" was released in 2009 and nominated for nine Oscars, winning best director, best cinematography, and best visual effects.

Of course, this wasn't the only "Avatar" film to spend years in production — fans waited another 13 years for its sequel, "Avatar: The Way of Water" (2022).

"Boyhood" (2014)

Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" was shot from May 2002 to August 2013, with its same principal cast, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane, and Lorelei Linklater, reuniting every year.

Richard Linklater told Time in 2014, "I was trying to tell a memory, of what it was like to grow up. Things you would remember from your past. There was no one thing. It was more of a tone, just a series of moments."

Coltrane was 6 years old when he won the role and 18 when the movie wrapped.

"It's a totally bizarre experience to have worked on it, and even more so to watch it now," he told Time. "Watching myself age, watching myself change like that, it's indescribable. It causes a lot of catharsis and a lot of intense emotion. It's a very elusive part of life, the way we change over time."

"Boyhood" was nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, best supporting actor and actress, best director, best original screenplay, and best film editing.

"Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015)

There was a 30-year gap between the third and fourth installments in George Miller's "Mad Max" saga.

Screen Rant reported that the reasons for production delays for "Mad Max: Fury Road" included everything from the economic impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks to recasting lead actor Mel Gibson and issues with filming locations.

Pre-production for "Fury Road" began in 2009, and Tom Hardy was cast in 2010. Filming finally began in 2012, and the movie was released in 2015.

It was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best costume design, best production design, best director, and best picture.

"The Other Side of the Wind" (2018)

Orson Welles' final movie, "The Other Side of the Wind" was posthumously released in 2018 by Netflix after 48 years in development.

Welles began shooting the film in 1970, but after six years, Welles only had a 40-minute cut to show for it, Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio reported in 2018.

After his death in 1985, there was confusion about who the film belonged to. Producer Filip Jan Rymsza told BI, "Everyone wanted the film to be completed, they just wanted it done on their own terms. It was a minefield. And if you made an enemy with this group you made an enemy for life, so that was the tricky part."

After decades in limbo, Netflix announced it would fund the movie's completion and it was released in November 2018.

"The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" (2018)

Terry Gilliam's "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" took so long to make that a documentary was made about his first attempt at the film, "Lost in La Mancha" (2002).

In 2021, the British Film Institute (BFI) reported that Gilliam had first decided to create "Don Quixote" in 1989, but when he finally started shooting in 2000, production lasted just five days.

"Rotating casts, illness and financial woes," including actor Jean Rochefort suffering a double herniated disc, delayed the film, Forbes and the BFI reported.

In 2013, Gilliam told The Hollywood Reporter that the film had "been around too long and it's like a tumor," adding, "I just want to get rid of it."

Five years later, in 2018, "Don Quixote" finally premiered, starring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skargård, and Joana Ribeiro.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" (2023)

When Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio first signed on to "Killers of the Flower Moon" in 2017, they were ready to tell a completely different story.

DiCaprio was originally slated to play FBI agent Tom White, but at an early table read, he proposed he play Ernest Burkhart instead to better show the love story between Burkhart and his wife, Mollie.

Scorsese told IndieWire in 2023, "And then finally Leo said, 'If I play Ernest, we could turn it upside down and go in from the ground level.' And I said, 'Absolutely.'"

But then came the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the shooting start from early 2020 to April 2021, and causing Paramount Pictures to team up with Apple Studios to finance and distribute the film.

The film was originally slated for a November 2022 release, but in an effort to make it more competitive for the Oscars, it was delayed to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023 and released theatrically in October, Screen Rant reported.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" went on to receive 10 Oscar nominations, including best actress, best director, best supporting actor, and best picture, but was shut out completely at the 2024 ceremony.

"Megalopolis" (2024)

Collider reported that famed director Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now") started developing "Megalopolis" in the 1980s, but studios in Hollywood wouldn't fund it after his box-office failure, "One from the Heart" (1982).

After directing more commercial successes in the '90s, the outlet reported that Coppola hosted table reads for the project with actors like Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Uma Thurman, but the September 11 terrorist attacks placed it on hold indefinitely.

In 2019, "Megalopolis" was reintroduced, but Coppola had to finance the more than $100 million movie on his own.

Despite its star-studded cast (Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza), the timing didn't pay off and the film received poor reviews from audiences and critics when it was released widely in September 2024.

"Wicked" (2024)

More than 20 years ago, when producer Marc Platt first optioned Gregory Maguire's novel, "Wicked," he envisioned its material as a film — a phone call from composer Stephen Schwartz changed everything.

"And the lightbulb went off in my head. I thought, 'That's what's been missing from these screenplays. I don't feel the magic because it's a story that wants to sing,'" Platt told NBC Universal in 2024.

"Wicked," of course, went on to become one of the most beloved Broadway musicals of all time after premiering in 2003 with Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the lead roles, but the idea of a film was never too far away.

In 2010, Deadline reported that Platt, Schwartz, and Winnie Holzman (who wrote the book for Broadway's adaptation) were meeting with filmmakers; and in 2016, Collider reported that Stephen Daldry was selected to direct the film.

However, "Wicked" was put on hold in favor of another movie musical adaptation, "Cats," which was released by Universal in 2019, and then because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Daldry was forced to drop out of the project, Platt brought on Jon M. Chu ("Crazy Rich Asians," "In The Heights") in 2021.

Filming — of parts one and two— finally commenced in December 2022, but was halted in July 2023 with 10 days left because of the SAG-AFTRA strike. They later wrapped in January 2024, and part one of the movie was released in November 2024 to critical and box-office success.

It is nominated for 10 awards at the Oscars, including best actress (Cynthia Erivo), best supporting actress (Ariana Grande), best picture, best costume design, and best makeup and hairstyling.

• Billy McFarland founded the infamous Fyre Festival, which stranded attendees in the Bahamas in 2017.
• In 2018, he pleaded guilty to fraud charges, one of which was connected to the festival.
• McFarland was released from prison in 2022 and is now planning for Fyre Festival 2.

It's been eight years since the original Fyre Festival left attendees stranded in the Bahamas in far-from luxurious accommodations, but founder Billy McFarland is ready to try again.

"My dream is finally becoming a reality," McFarland told TODAY on February 24. Fyre Festival 2 is planned for May 30 to June 2 in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

It remains to be seen whether this version goes more smoothly than the last.

During the 2017 event, people who'd paid thousands of dollars for tickets, expecting a luxury experience, received cheese sandwiches and disaster relief tents instead.

After pleading guilty to wire fraud charges, one of which was related to the festival, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and served four. Here's how McFarland got started and what he's up to now.

McFarland started his first business at age 13

McFarland grew up in New Jersey, the son of two real estate developers, according to The New York Times. Though some may see a resemblance, there's no evidence he's related to "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane.

From a young age, McFarland was interested in becoming an entrepreneur.

"I started my first business in seventh grade and had three full time employees," he said in an interview on the "Just B with Bethenny Frankel" podcast in 2024. One of his employees invited the middle schooler to his wedding.

McFarland was more interested in business than school

After dropping out of Bucknell University during his first year, he started an online ad platform called Spling.

Then, in 2013, at age 22, McFarland started a now-defunct company, Magnises.

The social club's members paid $250 for Magnises' black card — modeled on the exclusive American Express Black Card — to gain access to cocktail parties, art shows, and other events. The card also gave members discounts at restaurants and clubs.

"One thing that everyone carries with them at all times is their debit or credit card," McFarland told Business Insider in 2015. "So we tied it to that."

Then members started complaining about canceled trips, missing tickets, and lengthy wait times for refunds, Business Insider reported in 2017.

McFarland used his connections with Ja Rule to build hype around the first Fyre Festival in 2017

Another perk Magnises promoted was private concerts by rapper Ja Rule. By 2017, Rule was involved in another venture with McFarland, the Fyre Festival.

Scheduled to take place over two weekends in April and May 2017, the festival was located on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

Ticket prices ranged from $450 to $75,000, BBC News reported in 2019.

The food was supposed to be gourmet and the accommodations were described as luxurious villas. Celebrities including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid promoted the event. Blink-182 was set to play.

The pop-punk band and other acts pulled out before the event began, and the organizers canceled the festival shortly after people arrived. Stranded attendees were served box lunches and some stayed in disaster relief tents from FEMA.

Two documentaries, Netflix's "FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" and Hulu's "Fyre Fraud," chronicled the disastrous festival. Bahamian locals who worked for the event said they were never paid for their services.

In May 2017, attendees sued McFarland and Ja Rule in a $100 million class-action lawsuit, which was later dismissed against the musician, The Guardian reported in 2019. Some of the concert-goers involved in the lawsuit received around $7,000, NPR reported in 2021.

In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison

In June 2017, federal agents arrested McFarland on a charge of wire fraud related to the festival. A year later, he was arrested again in a separate fraud case.

At the time of his first arrest, he was living in a Manhattan penthouse that cost $21,000 a month, The New York Times reported.

A 2018 SEC filing stated that McFarland had inflated his net worth to secure bank loans, claiming on his loan applications that he owned $2.56 million worth of Facebook stock when he actually owned $1,499 in shares.

McFarland pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to six years in prison in October 2018.

He was also ordered to forfeit $26 million to help pay back investors, attendees, and vendors. Before McFarland's sentencing, his attorney requested a lighter sentence, saying a psychiatrist had diagnosed him with a bipolar-related disorder.

As part of his plea deal, he agreed not to serve as the director of a public company again.

In March 2022, McFarland was released from federal prison.

Billy McFarland's girlfriend, Anastasia Eremenko, appeared in the Hulu Fyre Festival documentary

Anastasia Eremenko is a Russian model, according to Los Angeles Magazine. The couple met after the festival but before he went to prison.

"We broke up for a little bit" but got back together, McFarland said during the 2024 interview with Bethenny Frankel.

"When Billy and I met, it was destiny. It was love. I don't know how to explain it," she said in Hulu's "Fyre Fraud" documentary. It's unclear if they're still dating.

Where is Billy McFarland now?

After his prison sentence, McFarland told The New York Times he was hoping to get a job in the tech industry because people there are "more apt at taking risk."

He announced his next startup, PYRT, in 2022. The company, pronounced "pirate," would host events like "treasure hunts" at a hotel in The Bahamas, McFarlands said on the "Full Send" podcast that year.

"PYRT is all about taking people to places that they think are impossible," he said. He also planned on hosting a "PYRT fest."

Since McFarland still has about $26 million to pay in restitution, part of the money from the PYRT merch sold went to reimbursing unpaid workers in the Bahamas and to others who invested in or attended the Fyre Festival.

Now he's hoping to launch a second Fyre Festival.

"I'm sure many people think I'm crazy for doing this again. But I feel I'd be crazy not to do it again," McFarland said in a statement posted on Instagram.

Details about who will be performing at the festival have not been announced yet.

• Before we had kids, my wife and I used to be punctual, but now we're late for everything.
• We struggle to get out of the house because we don't pack in a timely manner.
• Traffic doesn't help, and bathroom breaks slow us down, but we're making changes.

The decline in my punctuality started with parenthood.

My wife and I used to be punctual, arriving at the time we were supposed to for most events. But then we had kids — and despite our best efforts, punctuality continues to elude us.

We didn't notice the change at first; after all, we were on my two sons' schedule now, so it only seemed natural to alter our arrival times accordingly.

But now that my kids are getting older — ages 7 and 12 — punctuality has proved to be an ongoing challenge. My family is trying to fix it.

The problem starts before we even leave the house

The chief culprit working against our return to punctuality would be packing.

I excel at packing. It's my best event in the house husband decathlon, with lawn maintenance a close second. If packing were a collegiate sport, I'd have gone to college on a full-ride scholarship. I can pack for a weeklong trip in 10 minutes flat, everything coordinated and ready to go in one gym bag.

My wife, on the other hand, hates it. Sometimes, I think she views the chore of packing as an immoral act, like talking during a theater performance. But that's because she's usually packing the car for herself and the kids. (I'm not allowed to help her after accidentally packing the wrong pair of shoes for her once.)

Somehow, grabbing everything we need for an afternoon trip to grandma's house has even become a task. The kids need a lot of stuff every time we leave the house. They need jackets, water, snacks, and activities to do in the car.

My wife grabs all that while I lock the house doors, check that the cats are inside, and ensure the kids have used the bathroom. This divide-and-conquer approach should work in theory, but we meet obstacles at every turn.

Once the packing finally gets done, we struggle to get everyone in the car. My oldest tends to be the first one to get in the vehicle. Our youngest child, meanwhile, has very strong moral convictions against waking up early and moving quickly; he views both actions as wasteful and stupid. Getting him ready to go anywhere can be like getting an angry mountain lion into a cat carrier.

Despite these realities, our loss of punctuality cannot be blamed solely on the children. I know this because we have friends and family with children, and they somehow manage to show up on time.

We just can't seem to get in sync as a family when it's time to get out the door.

We still run into issues once we're in the car

Where we live in Florida, there is nearly always traffic. As such, getting from place to place requires a car and enough patience to deal with the inevitable congestion.

Of course, all families in my area are dealing with the traffic, too. But mine is already running behind, so the traffic is just an added nuisance for us.

Since we tend to be in the car for a long time, someone usually needs a bathroom break. My oldest son is almost always the first one to announce he needs to use the bathroom, which slows us down even more.

We're trying to make changes to be more punctual as a family

Despite all these challenges, my family has adopted multiple strategies to regain our punctuality.

For starters, we use multiple alarms when it's time to go — even the timers on the oven and microwave. When the timer goes off, the devices go down, and it's officially time to load up the car.

Earlier packing times have also been implemented. If we need to leave at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, the bags should ideally be packed and loaded before 2 p.m.

We check traffic patterns on our way out the door, and I try to navigate a route in real time.

The strategies have been effective — even though we're still working on the bathroom breaks.

• In an Instagram video, Lauren Sánchez shared details about her Blue Origin flight to space.
• She said she'll fly with Katy Perry, Gayle King, and other women storytellers this spring.
• Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancée, wore an $18,120 necklace meant to bring luck in the clip.

Flying to space is expensive, but so is Lauren Sánchez's fashion.

On Thursday, the helicopter pilot and former journalist shared details about Blue Origin's all-women space flight on Instagram while wearing a diamond necklace that cost more than $18,000.

The pricey piece wasn't just a fashion statement, though. It was also meant to bring her good luck.

In her new video, Sánchez is wearing an $18,120 necklace made by New York City brand Marlo Laz.

It features a gold, paperclip-style chain, a round pavé diamond clasp, and a statement charm embellished with a six-carat white diamond.

The latter piece is also decorated with the French phrase "porte-bonheur," which translates to "lucky charm."

Sánchez is set to fly to space this spring alongside women who are "extraordinary in all of their fields" and "incredible storytellers," she said in her video.

The crew will include musician Katy Perry, "CBS Mornings" cohost Gayle King, activist Amanda Nguyen, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

They'll travel via a rocket created by Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Sánchez's fiancé, Jeff Bezos. Their journey will last about 11 minutes and take them past the "internationally recognized boundary of space," called the Kármán line. The company said it will be the first all-female flight since Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 1963.

Bezos has described Blue Origin as his "most important work" and has discussed his desire to bring space travel to the masses.

Only time will tell if Sánchez brings her lucky pendant along on her flight.

• Harmeet Dhillon is Trump's nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
• The prominent GOP lawyer made millions from her law firm — and $43,531 from X — last year.
• She's at least the third Trump nominee to make money as a content creator on Elon Musk's platform.

One of President Donald Trump's top law enforcement nominees made tens of thousands of dollars from posting online last year.

Harmeet Dhillon, a prominent Republican lawyer who has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, said in a financial disclosure made public on Thursday that she had made $43,531 from X's content-creator revenue program.

Dhillon has more than 1.1 million followers on X, and she frequently posts on the social media platform.

She's at least the third Trump nominee to have made money this way. National Institute of Health Director nominee Jay Bhattacharya made $11,995 from the program, while Sam Brown, a former Nevada GOP Senate candidate who's been nominated to be Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, made $5,169.

Under the revenue program, created by Elon Musk after he took over and renamed Twitter, premium users can earn payouts based on engagement from other premium users.

Bhattacharya, Brown, and Dhillon have all agreed to demonetize their accounts if confirmed to their roles.

Dhillon's main source of income was her work as a lawyer: She disclosed earning more than $2 million in income from her firm, Dhillon Law Group, last year. Her major clients, according to the disclosure, included President Trump and his campaign, Tucker Carlson, the Republican National Committee, Caitlyn Jenner, and X itself.

She also earned a $300,000 salary from the Center for American Liberty, a civil liberties-focused legal nonprofit she helped found in 2018, along with $50,000 from four paid speeches.

Investors are questioning whether Tesla's recently weakened stock and slipping sales are due to CEO Elon Musk's political involvement and online presence.

Why it matters: A vocal CEO can cast a halo or dark cloud over the company they lead, impacting their ability to attract customers, employees and investors.

Zoom in: Musk has generated endless press coverage and social media attention as the owner of X and leader of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

• More than 300,000 media stories have been written about Musk and his DOGE activities since Jan. 1, according to Muck Rack data.
• Also since the start of the year, stories mentioning Musk and DOGE have had a readership of more than 387 million, with most of the spikes around legal proceedings and budget cut recommendations, per Memo data shared with Axios.

The big picture: CEOs across industries have become more proactive about communication — whether by embracing community engagement across social channels, modernizing earnings reports or conducting more personal, nontraditional media interviews.

State of play: Musk's political activities have triggered a partisan divide regarding consumers' views of Tesla.

• Republican favorability of Tesla hit an all-time high this month, while Democratic favorability dropped to an all-time low. This strongly suggests Musk's Trump ties are influencing consumer sentiment across party lines, per Morning Consult Intelligence data.

By the numbers: 49% of Americans hold negative views of Musk and 32% of U.S. buyers "would not consider" buying a Tesla, up from 27% a year ago, per Morning Consult.

• Repeat Tesla buyers in blue states dropped from 72% in 2023 to 65% in 2024, according to CNN.
• Meanwhile, Tesla sales are down 45% year over year in Europe and 15% year over year in China, per a recent Barron's report.

Reality check: Increased competition and macroeconomics could also be playing a part in the EV maker's tumbling sales numbers.

💭 Thought bubble from Axios' auto expert Joann Muller and energy reporter Ben Geman: Tesla has grown up and now faces the same trials as legacy automakers.

• What is unusual is bumper stickers on your customers' cars that say things like "Anti-Elon Tesla Club." One has to wonder what Musk is doing to protect Tesla's brand while he's busy attacking Washington's bureaucracy.

What they're saying: "I am completely convinced that the CEO's reputation goes along with the success of the company," says Paul Argenti, a communications professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. "A well-respected CEO allows you to have a stronger management team, a clear strategic vision for the organization and they significantly influence how the company is perceived. There's no question about that."

• "It's really important to understand just how critical that senior person is as the spokesperson for the organization, the person who is responsible for and associated with the strategy of the company, and the symbol for how the company is going to perform."

Yes, but: A company's brand equity shouldn't be solely tied to one individual executive, says Argenti.

• "You don't want the CEO to be the only source of brand equity for the company," he says. "That's a disaster, and we've seen that happen before with examples like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Martha Stewart."
• Tesla did not return Axios' request for comment.

What to watch: All CEOs are tasked with sharing their company's transformation stories, ensuring confidence and providing stability during these uncertain times.

• The power of strategic communications could come into play for those individual CEOs leading corporate turnarounds — such as Brian Niccol at Starbucks, Kelly Ortberg at Boeing and Gil West at Hertz.

More on Axios: Tesla sales fell in 2024, missing Elon Musk's EV growth target

• Netflix's 'Running Point' is a fictional comedy about a woman who becomes the owner of a basketball team.
• The series is based on the life of Jeanie Buss, owner of the LA Lakers.
• Mindy Kaling, the show's creator, said Buss came up with the idea for a comedy show about her life.

Netflix's "Running Point," a sports comedy about a woman who becomes the owner of an LA-based basketball team, may seem familiar to fans of the Los Angeles Lakers.

That's because the show is loosely based on the life of Jeanie Buss, the team's president.

"Running Point" is the latest series to examine the legacy of the LA Lakers, the second-most successful team in the NBA.

In 2022, Max produced a biopic series about the lives of key players and executives at the NBA team in the 1980s, and Hulu released a 10-episode documentary about the team's rise.

Netflix takes a new approach to portraying the team's history, focusing on Buss' life and her journey to being taken seriously in a male-dominated sport.

Mindy Kaling, the show's creator, told ExtraTV in an interview published on Tuesday that Buss asked her to make a show about her life.

"She approached me like five years ago to want to do this show," Kaling said. "She loved 'The Office' and so she's someone who has a very serious job but doesn't take herself seriously.

"She could have said like, 'I want the show to be a drama, and I want my character to be like hugely important, and everyone admires them.' But she's like, 'No, I want it to be funny.'"

Kaling added that Buss gave her and the writing team full access to her life and allowed them to interview her at any point to make "Running Point."

"Running Point" is still a fictional show, so many elements of Buss' life have likely been changed.

In real life, Buss took over the LA Lakers from her father, not her brother

The character based on Buss, played by Kate Hudson, is called Isla Gordon and runs a team called the Los Angeles Waves. Isla has three brothers who are part of the team's executive branch, while Buss' has five brothers and a sister who work in multiple sectors within the Lakers.

Buss became the owner of the Lakers in 2013 after the death of her father, Jerry Buss, the former owner. But in the show, Gordon takes on the role after her older is in a car accident.

Gordon is not the only character directly inspired by a real-life person in the show.

Brenda Song plays Gordon's friend, Ali Lee, who is based on Linda Rambis, the manager of special projects at the Lakers and a long-term friend of Buss.

Both Buss and Rambis are executive producers on "Running Point."

"Some of the situations seem outlandish but nothing surprises me that happens in the world of professional basketball," Buss told The Associated Press at the series' premiere event in LA on February 13. "We've seen everything."

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• My husband and I used to love having Premier status on United, but we don't qualify anymore.
• The airline offers one credit card that gives automatic Premier status, but it has a $525 annual fee.
• It has great perks, but I realized a United card with a lower annual fee was a better value for us.

For years, my husband and I regularly traveled for work enough to earn Premier status on United Airlines. We loved it — the Premier security lanes at some airports literally saved us hours of travel time.

However, to reach Premier status, you need to fly a minimum of four United flights a year and earn at least 6,000 Premier qualifying points. We've both been traveling less lately and sadly don't qualify anymore.

We miss it so much that I've been looking into getting a United credit card in hopes of replacing those Premier-status perks.

I found a few options: the $0-annual-fee United Gateway℠ Card, the $0 intro for the first year, then $95-annual-fee United℠ Explorer Card, the $250-annual-fee United Quest℠ Card, and the $525-annual-fee United Club℠ Infinite Card.

All of them offer bonus miles, extra points when making United and everyday purchases, and no foreign transaction fees. However, only the United Club℠ Infinite Card comes with automatic Premier status.

Before signing up for it, though, I wanted to see if the hefty annual fee would be worth it for me.

I felt confident we'd make up the fee by utilizing all the perks, but I still wasn't sold

Automatic Premier status is the card's big selling point for me.

Beyond Priority security lanes, one of the reasons I love the status is earlier boarding. The highest Premier 1K level automatically gets you pre-boarding, Premier Gold and Premier Platinum board in Group 1, and Premier Silver boards in Group 2.

The United Club Infinite Card itself also gives you access to priority boarding in Group 2.

In my experience, your carry-on bag isn't getting in the overhead bin if you're in any boarding group after Group 3 on a full United flight. The most basic priority boarding typically costs at least $24 a person per flight, so the savings can add up.

Some of the card's other big perks are the high earning rates for points and miles and United Club access.

The Club is an exclusive airport lounge where members can grab snacks, work before flights with free WiFi, and chat with customer service about flight delays or cancellations.

That membership alone usually costs about $650 a year — that's already higher than the card's annual fee.

With or without Premier status, the card also gives you two free checked bags on every flight. However, if I make it to Premier Platinum or Premier 1K, I could get up to three bags for free.

I recently checked two bags on a United flight from Vancouver to Chicago that cost me $70 each way, so it would only take a few flights to get to the card's annual fee amount.

Additionally, the card gives holders $120 toward Global Entry, TSA PreCheck®, or NEXUS — which I think of as a bonus security-skipping credit.

Overall, the United Club℠ Infinite Card sounded great, but I was still hesitant.

Eventually, I realized the Quest and Explorer cards offer similar benefits

Despite the compelling case I just made for the United Club℠ Infinite Card, we aren't going to sign up for it.

I'm sure it's of excellent value for some frequent travelers, but we can't financially justify the upfront cost of the annual fee — even if we'd eventually "make all the money back."

Fancy perks, like the Club membership, distracted me a bit at first. However, that membership isn't something we would've otherwise purchased, so I can't say we'd actually be saving that money by getting it for free.

Instead, we sat down and really thought about our travel priorities: faster security, priority boarding, and free checked bags.

The United Quest Card has a $250 annual fee, which can be partially offset the first year by its perk of a $125 United purchase credit.

It doesn't come with Premier status, but I would get 500 Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) for signing up and earn one additional point for every $20 spent. Premier Silver status — the lowest level — costs 6,000 PQPs. That's a lot of credit card purchases to get Premier status, but it's possible.

Even if I can't make it to Premier status, the United Quest℠ Card offers free priority boarding, two free checked bags, and many of the other smaller perks the United Club℠ Infinite Card offers — including the $120 security-skipping credit.

If I wanted an even less expensive card, I could try the United Explorer Card. Its annual fee is actually waived the first year — a great upfront win.

I'd earn fewer miles and could only earn up to 1,000 PQPs through spending on the card. But I'd still get priority boarding, one free checked bag, the $120 security-skipping credit, and other basic perks.

Additionally, the United Explorer Card comes with two free United Club passes a year, so my husband and I could have an annual luxurious airport experience.

Letting go of my obsession with Premier status saves me money

I was originally dead set on getting a United credit card that guaranteed us the Premier status we love so much.

Although the card that offers it isn't a perfect match for us, I'm glad I did more research before applying for the card.

This process helped me narrow down the perks that can actually save us money while still improving our travel experience.

By going with the United Quest℠ Card or United℠ Explorer Card cards, we can still access priority boarding in Group 2 — meaning we likely wouldn't have to worry about our carry-ons making it on the plane — and check one or two bags for free.

We could also use the $120 credit that comes with the cards to sign up for something like TSA PreCheck® to get through security faster.

Plus, we won't have to spend $525 every year to get those perks.