Bilton’s credits include HBO’s “The Idol” and a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.

5 Hollywood projects you might not realize new 60 Minutes boss Nick Bilton helped create

Bilton's credits include HBO's "The Idol" and a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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June 9, 2026 3:16 p.m. ET

Martin Scorsese; Nick Bilton; Elizabeth Holmes. Credit:

Daniele Venturelli/Getty; Albert L. Ortega/Getty; Michael Kovac/Getty

- Nick Bilton, the newly appointed executive producer of *60 Minutes*, has a few production credits already under his belt.

- He served as a writer on the HBO show *The Idol* and as a producer for several documentaries.

- Bilton's next major project, aside from the CBS newsmagazine, is writing a Martin Scorsese–directed drama set in Hawaii.

Nick Bilton may be new at *60 Minutes*, but he's been involved in other media projects.

The newly-appointed executive producer of CBS' legendary newsmagazine joined its staff in late May. Days into his role, he fired *60 Minutes *host Scott Pelley after a tense staff meeting during which the 37-year veteran of the network expressed disappointment over Bilton's hiring.

After ousting Pelley, Bilton sent a memo to staffers, aiming to reassure them of his vision for the show. “The foundation of *60 Minutes* is its journalistic independence. We will always pursue stories without fear or favor,” he wrote, per CNN. “We will always make the story the North Star — not relationships nor politics nor anything else.”

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Bilton's resume boasts tenures at major publications such as *Vanity Fair *and *The New York Times*. He has also written three books: *Hatching Twitter. A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal*; *I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works: Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted; *and *American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road*.

Beyond the printed page, Bilton previously served as a producer on a number of documentaries and as a writer on several productions, both fiction and nonfiction. Here are five Hollywood projects you might have not realized bear his mark.

Martin Scorsese; Emily Blunt; Leonardo DiCaprio.

Valerie Terranova/WireImage; Karwai Tang/WireImage; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Untitled Martin Scorsese film

Bilton's most recent project in the works is an untitled Martin Scorsese film, which Bilton is writing.

Per a Deadline article from March 2025, the upcoming movie's description reads: "Imagine Robert De Niro’s Jimmy the Gent character from *Goodfellas*, but as a ruthless Hawaiian crime boss, based on a real figure, who battled encroaching rivals for control of organized crime in Hawaii."

Attached to the upcoming film taking place in 1970s Hawaii are Scorsese's longtime collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

“We’re developing it right now. It’s a really astonishing story,” Blunt told *Deadline** *in October 2025. “It’s the last great American mob story, and I can’t believe it hasn’t been told yet. It’s a terribly exciting role for [Johnson] to kind of dig into. So, it’s being written, we’re working on it. And that’s the wonderful part, is building it.”

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"Grateful for what’s been the most creatively inspiring time of my career — working closely with my friends and of course, the maestro Marty Scorsese," the former wrestler wrote on X in March 2025. "In the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s the mafia controlled New York, Miami, Chicago, Vegas, and a particularly strong hold on the island I was raised — Hawaii. Much more to come."

The main character will be based on Hawaii crime lord Wilford ‘Nappy’ Pulawa. Page Six reports that the movie has yet to be greenlit, however, and wouldn't begin filming until at least 2027.

The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp in 'The Idol'. Eddy Chen/HBO

The HBO miniseries' writers room featured Bilton and starred The Weeknd, Lily Rose Depp, Da'vine Joy Randolph, Dan Levy, Rachel Sennott, and Hari Nef, among others.

Created by The Weeknd and *Euphoria** *showrunner Sam Levinson, *The Idol* followed a self-help guru and secret cult leader (The Weeknd) helping Depp's character, pop star Jocelyn, create an edgier image after being scrutinized by the media.

It was considered controversial for its depictions of abuse, sexuality, violence, drugs, and mental health — and received bad reviews. Additionally, *Rolling Stone* published an exposé claiming that production was a "s--- show" after Levinson allegedly scrapped the almost-complete first season, rewriting and reshooting it in its entirety.

*The Idol* was ultimately canceled after one season.

'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal'.

Courtesy of Netflix

Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal

"Life is short. Have an affair," Ashley Madison, the dating service for married people seeking trysts insisted.

The three-episode Netflix documentary produced by Bilton explores the breach of a dating app designed to arrange extramarital affairs and the resulting exposure of personal data. In August 2015, hackers told the site to shut down or they would release information about its users. The hackers eventually followed through, releasing thousands of usernames and email addresses tied to Ashley Madison accounts.

The documentary asks what drew people to the site, what they were looking for outside of their relationships, and how their partners felt about it. The three episodes include interviews with real-life couples affected by the data breach.

"The fact that Ashley Madison had 37 million members tells us something else we all know — that committing to one person for the rest of your life is really hard," director Toby Paton told Netflix.

Courtesy of HBO

Fake Famous

Written and directed by Bilton, the documentary *Fake Famous *invents influencers. According to Bilton, he sought to take "some random people with a tiny following online and turn them into famous influencers," illustrating how easy it is to fake it until you make it, per CNBC.

“You don’t have to go to the dark web, or anything, you just go to the straight up internet and you can buy pretty much anything you want,” he says in the film. Bilton then curates luxury lifestyles for the social media personalities to live in which they pose at expensive hotels, rent mansions, and even hire a fake private jet just for clout.

By faking these extravagant experiences as part of the experiment, these influencers successfully get sponsorship deals, book influencer trips, and fool their many, many followers.

Elizabeth Holmes. Drew Kelly/HBO

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Elizabeth Holmes' now extinct Silicon Valley pharmaceutical company Theranos is the focus of this Bilton-produced HBO documentary. The tech startup convinced many to invest millions in Holmes' experiment, which boasted life-changing blood tests via machines called Edisons.

However, Holmes was secretive about how exactly these machines worked, and many grew skeptical over whether or not the biotech firm could actually deliver on their promise. The documentary features interviews from former employees, journalists who interviewed and investigated Holmes, and medical professionals, diving deep into what turned out to be a scam.

Holmes, now serving time at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas after being convicted of fraud, is set to be released in 2032.

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