Why Is Fake Movie In ‘Only Murders In The Building’ From Paramount?

Self-promotion is built into the Hollywood marketing machine, which is why, if there is a movie within a movie or movie within a show, they carry the brand of the same or affiliated studio. The examples are numerous, from the Warner Bros./DC film Aquaman on HBO’s Entourage to Universal Pictures’ Metalstorm in this summer’s Universal movie The Fall Guy.

That’s why it was surprising to see that the film adaptation of Only Murders In The Building trio’s eponymous podcast — a main plot line in Season 4 of the hit Hulu/20th Television comedy series — is a Paramount Pictures production.

Paramount film executive Bev Melon, played by Molly Shannon, is a major character, and Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) visit the lot in the season premiere where they meet with Melon’s Paramount Pictures team, drop by the backlot New York street and have a heart-to-heart by the fountain, with the famous Paramount main gate arches as well as the water tower with the Hollywood sign in the background all showcased.

The theme carried over to the OMITB Season 4 premiere, which was held on the Paramount lot, with a post-screening party on New York Street.

Only Murders In The Building is a Hulu original produced by 20th Television, both part of Disney which owns several film divisions, including 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures.

Plugging instead box-office rival Paramount Pictures on the Disney show was a creative decision, I hear.

20th TV parent company owns the Disney lot in Burbank and leases portions of the Fox lot in Century City, which has a New York street. But the writers room for OMITB is based on the Paramount lot which also housed executive producer Dan Fogelman’s previous series, NBC/20th TV’s This Is Us.

Walking through the lot on the way to and from work and looking at it through the window as they brainstormed ideas for Season 4, scribes found themselves repeatedly pitching a storyline about Paramount pursuing a movie based on the OMITB podcast. The idea stuck, and Paramount found its way into the scripts, sources said.

Disney’s somewhat notorious multi-layered decision-making system where shows have to go through multiple approvals is well known in the industry. Yet, I hear there was no corporate pressure put on the writers throughout the process to change the studio on the fictional movie to a Disney-associated label. Instead, looking to execute what was on the page as envisioned, 20th TV production executives reached out to Paramount to find out whether OMITB could film there.

After they got the OK, I hear OMITB co-creator, executive producer and showrunner John Hoffman had to make the final call whether to proceed with the idea. It was the allure of one of the oldest Hollywood studios on a historic, picturesque lot that could entice industry vets like Charles and Oliver to fly to LA for a meeting and the opportunity to use the lot’s landmarks as backdrops that ultimately sealed the deal.

And this is how OMITB‘s fourth season unexpectedly brought together two strange bedfellows, Disney and Paramount, in a rare Hollywood instance of creative trumping synergy.