Former William Morris agent David Lonner isn’t just finalizing his deal to become an independent manager. I’m told he and Atlas Entertainment founder and workaholic film producer Chuck Roven (The Dark Knight, Get Smart) want to join up in a talent management company together. Roven has always kept his hand in the management biz after starting two incredibly successful management companies — for musicians with 3rd Rail’s Bob Cavallo that was bigtime for 10 years, and for motion picture talent with Jimmy Miller that sequed into Mosaic for another decade. “Look, Chuck is a great producer and smart businessman and he adds a lot of value to David,” a source tells me. There’s no formal deal set, but I hear both parties want to get this venture up and running in the fall. For the past 3 1/2 months since I first reported that Lonner wouldn’t make the merge with WME, he’s been talking to every significant management biz — 360, 3 Arts, Brillstein, etc. But I hear Roven called him and said, “Look, I’ll tell you what I told Bob Cavallo way back when: you represent great talent, and I want to bet on you.” (Amazing to me that Variety left this info out of its Lonner story Monday. The trade didn’t know…)

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