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2ND UPDATE: ICM says Adam Weinstein is not joining Verve. Verve confirmed on Tuesday for me: “He’s a happy employee at ICM who signed a contract in May when he left UTA.”
UPDATE: I hear Bill’s brother Adam Weinstein, an ICM motion picture lit agent, is joining Verve, too. And Verve has just issued a press release with this joint statement: “We believe that in the ever-changing marketplace of today, artists need a focused, entrepreneurial, team-oriented group of agents. Verve will shift the emphasis from agency-first culture to artist-first representation.” It says confirmed clients joining Verve include Joe Kosinski (Tron, Legacy), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), and Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners).
Previous: Motion picture lit agents Bill Weinstein, Bryan Besser and Adam Levine were Endeavor alumni who stayed through the merger with William Morris. 
But now they’re leaving to start their own agency called Verve “modelled after Endeavor in its original incarnation”, according to sources. I’m told WME and the trio were talking about this for 3 months. “Discussions to keep them at WME have been a bust. They were upset that they’ve been passed over by the merger. Everyone thinks they’re crazy to go out on their own in this environment,” another source tells me. I understand there was one internal meeting where Ari Emanuel told the trio, “We can be foes or we can be friends. I don’t want to handle you like the way I was handled at ICM.” In the end, the agency paid their bonuses and December expenses, figured out their housing loans, and agreed not to go after their clients. Now everyone is claiming there’s no ill will. “We want them to be successful and we wish them well,” one of my WME insiders claims. Oh, puh-leeze. Where’s the fun in that for me?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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“crazy to go out on their own in this environment”? True today with the studios having cut back, but any chance studio’s are still going to keep their production numbers low after the 2009 numbers?
Inside track — just another nail in the coffin for former partner Tom Strickler’s “team”. It’s been a long time coming and something on AE’s to-do list since early last year.
There are still a few ‘Stricklerites’ there but watch for Ari to use the mop-and-glow in the next couple of months and get rid of these pesky spots.
Nikki – You were fed one of the more bogus stories I’ve heard. All three had to have been forced out. They won’t bring with them one client that WME cares about.
Have to agree, Nikki. Don’t go Variety on us and start printing that face-saving bullshit that everyone tries to peddle you. We expect the brutal honesty from you. No spin.
they’re great guys and it’s time for them to build their own house. need more agencies out there and everyone (including Endeavor and CAA) started real small once….
I’ve dealt a lot with Weinstein and Levine, both good guys, and I haven’t heard anything bad about Besser. They obviously had their reasons to leave, and all that I can say is GO FOR IT! I wish them luck, and I hope that they can grab a few more agents to join them be it from WME, CAA, ICM, etc. No one is saying this’ll be easy, but sometimes you just gotta try.
Can someone more clever than me explain “housing loans?” Are the agency’s carrying their agents mortgages? At what kind of rates?
It makes me laugh already knowing that half of them don’t own their expensive cars. Now you’re telling me the houses are part of the corporate image too?
how is this a corporate facade? agencies get to make a little vig on a loan and agents get a good mortgate rate … everybody wins. deals like this only work if you’re an earner and bring in money. “coffee’s for closers.”
I expect there will be plenty of back room treachery and sabotage to keep us all entertained.
Levine is a great guy and a fantastic rep, as are Besser and Weinstein.
Looking forward to big things from these guys.
Good name… for a band…
Besser was on his way out of WME, so he left before they slammed the door on him.
Great roster of clients…
/sarcasm
Wow! A former Endeavor alumni myself this is a huge blow to the culture these guys represented in the former incarnation what the agency represented. A great group of ambitious and smart guys I am sure they will succeed. There will be other agents, I am sure knocking on their doors to have the opportunity to join something fresh including recent fires Dawn Saltzman and Sara Lemkin Hammer.
Bryan Besser is a pompous asshole. He was one of those agents that loved to demean his assistant on a daily basis when I was there. He is NOT going to do well.
+1 on that comment.
These are three great human beings, but more importantly, three great agents. They have exceptional taste, are hard-working, passionate about their jobs and have excellent entrepreneurial instincts. In a world of over-inflated and bloated talent agencies, writers, directors and actors would be lucky to be represented at this new shop. They care about the clients first, rather than most agents who are instructed to care about the agency first. Like Endeavor and CAA before them, it feels like these young Turks are starting something special and this is their first step in a long journey to greatness.
With WME’s love-fest in Palm Springs coming up next week, it’s surprising that these three chose to leave now.
My guess is that these are the last unhappy campers in Ari’s campsite. Coming out of their love-a-thon next week, prepare for The Onslaught of Ari’s Minions—these guys are gonna make Ovitz’s “soldiers” look like Cub Scouts.
Good for these three. These guys are throwbacks to the old school agents – hard charging, hard negotiating and work horses. I guess they got tired of servicing bunk clients for other agents. What’s most interesting is that they chose to stay agents rather than segue to managers. Together they have a solid client list and plenty of up and coming directors and writers. From covering agent to partner all it takes is quitting.
Any contact info yet, Nikki? Thanks.
bill and adam are 2 of the best young agents around and are extremely hard workers. good luck to them at verve.
I smell blood.
Blood I bet it will be, and props to the 3-some for breaking free and starting fresh. Question is, will they end up like all the rest and eventually be indistinguishable from the cold-pressed top 5? It would be wonderful/refreshing to have someone/agency at the top remain real without having to try so hard to put everyone else down. It’s like royalty going bad, without the blue-blood, which leaves no excuse. If they can really break a barrier (and avoid revenge), they will be golden.
I wish them good luck with Verve, and Nikki, I’m sure WME will make sure there’s plenty of fun in it for you.
Honest question: where does this leave the remaining MP Lit Agents at WME2? Does anyone know?… Not scuttlebut, rumor, innuendo, or TMZ,…just curious about the remaining Lit Agents over there.
Its about time there’s a new shop on the block and it makes sense these are the 3 guys to do it. Weinstein is a pitbull. Besser has the eye for real directors. And Levine is as hardnosed as he is nurturing with his clients. The trio is solid. Your source who says this isnt the “environment” to go out and do this wrong…its actually the perfect time! Ask any writer who isn’t scott frank or david koepp if they like being one of a 100 names on an agent’s buckcard in font size 3. The real question is…who will come out of the wood work and follow?
i agree there needs to be a new shop on the block… this comment however sounds like it’s coming from the new verve publicist. being obvious is very 1992.
Well, you gotta give them some credit, they got a lot of nerve trying something like this, espeically in this ever shrinking marketplace. I guess we should all wish them the best of luck?
When can i start i want in. I am so happy someone stepped up and filled the huge void in the agency business!!!!
Good luck!! GO GET EM!!!
I was once a client of all three. One is a prince, one is a smart little prick, and one is a likable dunce — but their press release is spot-on. Endeavor began as a large boutique and ended up the precise sort of behemoth it was created to counter. These guys are going back to their original roots, to the ethos that was instilled in them before the originating partners became big, lazy, shallow whores themselves. When I fled Endeavor, I did so because I found it to be a dysfunctional, dispiriting place. My agents spent all day hawking clients from other agencies, packaging movies, and servicing the huge clients of the partners. The old team-attention to clients was long dead. Maybe Verve can bring it back.
I’m looking forward to my first spec script rejection letter on Verve stationery.
Amen to that. hahaha.
“Fear of failure is the greatest failure of all.” – Coach Wooden.
Good luck boys… get it done.
Adam Levine give me a break a blow hard to the nth degree all huff and puff and zero substance. Without the big agency and resources behind him push the ignore button.
how do you spell Levine: T I T A N T I C
not to take the obvious shot but, ah, wasn’t Titantic the single most successful movie in history? even by assasine internet comments that was a retarded metaphor. In Hollywood? Really? Wow.
just cause you don’t have the courage to do something valid – don’t put down those who do.