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I'm told these are the clients who immediately followed those three UTA talent agents -- UTA co-owner Nick Stevens and his partners Sharon Sheinwold and Lisa Hallerman who together left a week ago -- to Endeavor. Listed in no particular order: Ben Stiller which I previously reported, Jack Black, Jason Lee, John C. Reilly, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Amy Heckerling, Rob Letterman, David Wayne, Frank Coraci, Tom Dey. Even though Endeavor won't confirm this list, it's firm.
UTA is still staking its claim to Owen Wilson, Patrick Dempsey, Jason Bateman, Paul Rudd, Steve Coogan, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Saturday Night Live cast members Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Casey Wilson. But things are definitely very fluid so stay tuned.
What happens with Judd Apatow, however, is anybody's guess. True, the movie mogul is self-generating when it comes to projects and doesn't think he needs an agent right now. But Apatow's manager and producer Jimmy Miller has systematically put many of his UTA clients with CAA in recent years because of friction with Stevens who has repped Apatow for seemingly forever. However, Miller is a close pal of Endeavor's Ari Emanuel who has mutual client Sasha Baron Cohen. So it will be interesting to watch where Judd goes, if anywhere.
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Forgive me my ignorance as a showbusiness outsider, but don’t these artists have contracts with UTA as a company, as opposed to with individual agents? How can they up and leave (breach their contracts) whenever they want? Do they come to terms with a buyout of these deals, or just say, “f you I’m leaving” with no recourse for the agencies? If so these are worthless contracts from the perspective of the agencies. I’m genuinely curious.
I don’t know if this warrants mention, but Apatow’s next directorial gig stars Endeavor client Adam Sandler, and he has projects in development with Endeavor client Steve Carell.
I really don’t know what the overall recourse is but I do know that if the talent has contracts that were formed with the previous agency he or she must pay out to them for those future projects even if they are with a new agency.
There is simply no way that these clients can remain at UTA. The agents that left were the funnel for ALL incoming material when it came to packaging comedies. There is no one that remains in the building with the required history and the deep relationships with the directors, writers, studio heads,and producers that are at the heart of this extremely insular area of the business. These movies were never cast in the traditional way. They were fully packaged at times before even being written. Why would a client stay when faced with the fact that they will have no way of knowing what movies are coming together?
Bill, Most of these top tier artists don’t have signed agency papers. Of the ones who do, they will often contain key man clauses that allows the artist to terminate the contract in the event his or her agent leaves.
Bill, even if they did have signed contracts with UTA, you can bet they used their leverage to include ‘key man’ clauses so that if Nick Stevens or whoever leaves they can go too. The value to UTA is that they still receive the revenues from any and all projects set up while the agents/clients were with UTA and this includes projects still in the development phase. So, Nick Stevens might have set up the greatest film project of all time one day before leaving UTA and if the film goes on to one day make millions then the share goes to UTA, not to Stevens or Endeavor.
Good for Jimmy Miller and all his successful clients
he deserves it all. It must be killing little
Eric Larry Gold that his ex-partner has a comedy empire
and he’s only left with 1/2 of Jim C and Ellen DeG.
Nice to see karma at work!
Truth is better than fiction! The town hasn’t witnessed an enormous shift like this in a long time. The intense loyalty that these agents have earned from their clients and the community has me itching to get back into the game. Ari I salute you.
Thanks guys for the insight. Wow, what leverage the agents with these “key man” provisions have, to say nothing of the talent without paperwork. What a business!
How can i get apatow to read my script?