CNBC's Carl Quintanilla stepped into the mind of powerhouse producer Dana Brunetti as he shared his outlook on a few big media names, discussed his criteria for future film projects and confidently predicted who would win the upcoming presidential election.
Before Brunetti became the president of Relativity Media or stepped into his role as the producer behind "The Social Network," "Captain Phillips," "Fifty Shades of Grey" and the "bingeworthy" "House of Cards," he tried his hand in the stock market.
Naturally, Brunetti was quick to respond when asked what companies he is long and short on.
"I'm long right now on CBS, even [with] the craziness that's happening with that." The "craziness" he's referring to is the network's potential merger with former parent company, Viacom. The deal has been muddled by media mogul Sumner Redstone's attempts to oust Viacom directors in a over the $40 billion Viacom media empire. He owns 80 percent of the voting shares of Viacom as well as CBS.
However, Brunetti was more optimistic about fixing Yahoo, which has struggled to stay relevant against competitors like Facebook and Google. He suggested the company just needs to "blaze new paths."
The suggested fix was timely. On Monday, following the company's second-quarter earnings release, Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer thanked the "resilient" team at Yahoo for laying the groundwork for the company's next chapter — which could make this quarter its last as a publicly traded independent company.
Yahoo is said to be in the final stages of reviewing bids for the sale of its core business, which reportedly could see suitors like Verizon.
The company posted second-quarter earnings per share of 9 cents on revenue of $1.31 billion, compared to 16 cents a share on revenue of $1.24 billion in the year-earlier period.
Given the "ups and downs" Yahoo has experienced, Brunetti said he believed it would make for an interesting plot line for a film. Tesla, the electric-car company, was also on Brunetti's list for movie ideas, and he said he's actually tried to pitch Tesla's CEO Elon Musk on a Tesla movie, to which Musk declined.
As for companies Brunetti said he's short on, ironically, Netflix was his first choice.
Brunetti said he believes the market for streaming platforms "is really going to get crowded." While he still thinks there is "some room to make some money ... [Netflix] is getting a bit overvalued. And I'm also talking about people that I work with, so I got to be careful."
Brunetti's relationship with Netflix dates back to 2013 when the two made "binge" history with the release of 'House of Cards' as the first Netflix original. Fast-forward three years, and Netflix has renewed the signature drama for a fifth season in 2017, according to Variety.
Brunetti said at this point he doesn't have an end in mind for the series, but he admitted the show would be significantly different had his team decided to go the "network television" route.
"[House of Cards] wouldn't be anywhere near as salacious as it is. It would be watered down considerably," he said.
Such creative limitations would interfere with the development of the psychotically calculated character arc of the series' protagonist, Francis J. Underwood, who believes that "there is but one rule: Hunt or be hunted."
It's for that exact reason Brunetti said he believes that if pitted against Trump or Clinton for the presidency of the United States, Underwood would "win by a mile."
Devour the full season of "Binge" with Carl Quintanilla here.
— Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report.