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The streamer HBO Max is the best thing to happen to classic movies since the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) launched in 1994. In both cases, the reason is WarnerMedia’s unparalleled classics catalog of Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and RKO Pictures.

The TCM hub on HBO Max — one of only a handful of cable channels with dedicated hubs on the service — currently includes everything from Casablanca and The Philadelphia Story to Unforgiven and Shakespeare in Love. Some films are HBO Max mainstays, and others rotate in and out of the service from the Warner catalog or other studios.

Earlier this month TCM launched a new logo, motion graphics, and tagline — “Where Then Meets Now” — to refresh the brand and signal across TV platforms, social media, and beyond that the classics are the classics for good reason.

“What we’re gaining is a more contemporary lens on these movies,” says Pola Changnon, TCM’s general manager. “These movies have had influence on the culture for decades and continue to do so. These movies are in our cultural DNA because they’ve shaped the movies that came after and shaped how people dress and talk and what music they love.”

I sat down with Changnon and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to talk about the network’s digital future.

When I first saw that TCM was rebranding, I wondered if you were changing the name. Did you think about it?

Pola Changnon: We had a brief discussion about what we would close by changing the name, but TCM is who we are. There’s also significant reverence for Ted Turner, and we don’t want to lose that. We focused the rebranding on the “C,” which suggests classic and curation. It suggests context. It suggests culture.

TCM has to live in TV platforms, websites, social media, and a lot of other places. Were there particular decisions you made with an eye toward those platforms?

Changnon: We’re not just designing a logo and setting a color palette. We pressure-tested those things for how’d they’d feel on Instagram and email newsletters. There’s a concentrated energy in the way we’re using the “C” that communicates our enthusiasm for these movies, and the social platforms in particular are very important for us.

Ben, the new set look a lot different than the previous set. What kind of feel did you tell TCM and the designers you wanted the new set to have?

Ben Mankiewicz: I learned very quickly to trust the creative convictions of the network when I started at TCM in 2003, so I was enormously grateful they consulted me at all. I don’t speak architecture, but the words Mad Men definitely came out of my mouth. TCM was already headed that direction with it. The new set is more intimate and feels like a place I’d want to go.

How many intros have you taped from the new set?

Mankiewicz: We’ve already taped a month’s worth, which is 50-something intros.

TCM is available on cable, on demand, on the WatchTCM app, and on HBO Max. Are you thinking differently about what TCM will be on digital — different kinds of intros, movie commentaries, interviews, etc.?

Changnon: We’re always making decisions for the network with an eye to the future. We’re excited to have a TCM hub on HBO Max, and we had the TCM Film Festival on the network and on HBO Max in May that was hugely successful. We know we’re going to get an opportunity to do more of those things over time.

We’re working with our partners at HBO Max on what that creative will be, and it’s early days still. We’re working through what’s the best experience for a subscriber in a streaming environment, and we’ve got the library and the depth of bonus content between TCM and Warner Bros. to develop that going forward.

Who is programming the TCM hub on HBO Max?

Changnon: HBO Max is programming that, and we’re working with them.

I’m reading Peter Biskind’s book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls about Hollywood in the ’60s and ’70s and finding a lot of those movies — Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, McCabe and Mrs. Miller — on HBO Max but not on linear TCM. How are you thinking about what goes where?

Changnon: TCM’s core library is the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s catalogs, and we’re looking toward a broader spectrum — licensing reasons, audience reasons — of movies across linear and streaming. If TCM and the hub on HBO Max are a Venn diagram, there will definitely be some overlap with each leaning a little more in their own directions — TCM linear maybe more on silent films and HBO Max on more contemporary titles.

Are any of TCM’s intros running on your films on HBO Max?

Changnon: We did some of that around the Film Festival on HBO Max in May, and we’ve worked on some things already for titles coming later this fall. We’re looking at how we can rethink some things we have and what kinds of new materials we can produce.

When you’ve got huge film catalogs, how do you think about availability? Do you want all of your Hitchcock movies available all of the time or just some of the time?

Changnon: For TCM, Charlie Tabesh is our lead programmer and has incredible freedom to dip into the catalog and into outside catalogs to program the network through his interests and curiosities. He’s very strategic about programming each month.

Is your Saturday night Noir Alley movie something that you and host Eddie Muller want to do other places — HBO Max or a film festival?

Changnon: Ben, don’t say anything bad about Noir Alley. [Laughs.]

Ben, why don’t you like The Maltese Falcon?

Mankewicz: I like The Maltese Falcon. I just don’t like when Eddie talks about it. [Laughs.] Eddie is one of my closest friends at TCM, and Noir Alley is a big piece of TCM.

Changnon: We just published a new edition of Eddie’s book Dark City, which is about the film-noir era in Hollywood and is doing so well. I’ve learned so much about noir from him, and it’s one of those things we’re really hoping to explore with HBO Max.

You’ve also got The Plot Thickens podcast and a new season of that coming soon about Lucille Ball. Are there other podcasts, film documentaries, etc., that you’re developing right now?

Changnon: Ben has really found an audience with The Plot Thickens. We were just at the Telluride Film Festival and ran into someone who listened to 13 hours of the podcast on the way up to Telluride. We’re developing a number of other podcasts, so I hope we’ll have more to say about that.

There’s a DC Comics podcast coming exclusively to HBO Max. Are TCM and some of WarnerMedia’s other content divisions developing projects for HBO Max?

Changnon: We don’t have anything to share yet, but audio is definitely an important space for us.

You’ve got a Francis Ford Coppola project coming this fall. What can you tell me about that?

Mankewicz: We were with Coppola in Telluride for a screening of his new cut of The Outsiders, and I spent a day and a half in Napa with Francis talking about some of his early movies. He’s been working on pristine new transfers with new edits of some of those movies.

I think he’s still in post-production on Godfather III. [Laughs.]

Mankewicz: I think he finally finished that, which is now called The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. He’s recut The Outsiders. He’s recut The Cotton Club. I think they’ve all gotten better, and that’s what he thinks too. We talk to him about those early movies, and he’s remarkably candid about those years and has a memory at 82 that I’d love to have at 52. I think people will really enjoy those conversations.

That’ll be on TCM sometime this fall?

Mankewicz: Sometime in October or November.

Are 4k restorations of classic movies something TCM is pursuing for streaming?

Changnon: Warner is definitely interested and investing in the presentation quality of its library. There’s such an incredible trove of films that we’re having to be selective about those restorations, but the interest is there and these films look great on HBO Max.

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider. He is a contributing writer for The Daily Beast and produces the Must Watch streaming podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.