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EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed director Spike Lee. The Gotham-based filmmaker had been repped at WME. This gives CAA its third recent filmmaker signing, after Joe Carnahan and Paul Thomas Anderson made the move over from WME. There has been significant back and forth between the two powerhouses, with WME signing Steven Spielberg’s television business last weekend.
It’s the second move for Lee in two years, after a 15 year run with Dave Wirtschafter. He signed with Endeavor in 2008, which then merged with WMA. Lee, who last directed Miracle at St. Anna, has found the market narrowing for his indie-spirit films. The superb directing job he did on Inside Man should have given him a second wind, or at least a shot at another mainstream film, but it hasn’t happened. Maybe studios fear the outspoken and seemingly inflexible filmmaker he was years ago, or perhaps he had the bad luck to spend a long time developing LA Riots at Universal, a studio that had a rough run on adult-themed projects and just got scorched on the politically charged thriller Green Zone. It is a shame to see one of New York’s quintessential directors struggle.
Lee recently played a major role in the Dan Klores-directed ESPN docu Winning Time, a performance that is so hilarious his agents might consider booking him in comedies. A highlight of an excellent docu is Lee explaining what it felt like to suddenly become the most hated man in New York, after his courtside taunting of Reggie Miller incited the Pacers star to score 25 points in the fourth quarter of an infamous New York Knicks game.
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Wow I loved early Spike Lee. He used to be really talented. I hope they can get him working on something worthy of all that negativity. He’s at his best when he’s angry. Maybe he’s working on something now that I am not aware of. I hope so.
Sad that one of Spike’s best film’s was ruined on Showtime…Sucker Free City
My wife is at ICM, and no one seems to be talking about ICM much these days. I see a slew of headlines about WME and CAA, but ICM? Not so much. Are they still a viable agency?
um…not so much
The writers I know who are w/ ICM rave about the agency. Can’t say I haven’t thought about a move.
As long as I have lived in LA ICM has never played the headline game with the same fervor as CAA and WME. It’s a zeitgiest thing. All this signing activity will die down and then out of nowhere ICM will announce they’ve signed a guy from Bora Bora who directed an animated short about Baron von Munchausen using only his feet.
ICM is still a great Agency. If your wife is there why don’t you ask her if she feels they are viable? I work with them all the time and they cover projects better than any other Agency. They actually work there butts off for their clients. I have worked with ICM Writers, Directors and Actors and the Agents are passionate, smart, and have great taste. Not everyone but several of the ones that have covered me have introduced me to really great new and established talent that would have been overlooked elsewhere. Nicole Clemens is a killer in a good way and she has put together a great group of Lit Agents. The young Talent Agents are also really smart. So that is my experience!! The reason you are not reading about them as often is because they are stable in a crazy market. They have a great business and Chris Silbermann is terrific. Every Agency has good things about them as well as some bad. Don’t forget they all run their businesses in their own unique styles and they are all very profitable businesses. The touring business at all these Agencies is a major part of the revenue stream. Publishing is also huge. ICM, CAA WME and Paradigm all have great models in these areas. ICM NY has the most prolific Publishing department of any Agency today. Those gals run a major show and have for a very long time. WME is also great. Jennifer is a killer with taste…
What about UTA??
Hopefully he doesn’t mind that only ~10 black people work there, not that he should and certainly I don’t. (WME might have less?)
Huh?? Dave the Wave is as white as they come and Spike was with him for 15 years??? What difference does it make what color he is?
As a sidenote…I am IMMENSELY grateful you didn’t say “10 African-Americans”. So old. So 90s.
OH how I love high-level talent agency bloodsport! is there a Latin word we can use for it?
Chingasos.
He meant a Latin word like “Veni, vidi, vici” not a “Latino” word.
LOL Maaaan is that humiliating. I need to find a good excuse for myself on that one. “I wasn’t paying attention” just doesn’t sound viable.
Spike is talented but no studio wants to be in business with him based on past behaviors.
Past behaviors? Try past film (singular). Miracle was terrible. Who wants to fund him now?
Let them destroy each other. When are people going to realize that smaller agencies that give more attention to their clients are the better option? How does a writer at CAA or WME get action on an open writing assignement when they are competing against hundreds of other writers in their agency? How does an agent at one of these agencies speak up in an “open writing” meeting with 40 other agents, and say “can you please put up my client”…??? it doesn’t work that way. it becomes a free-for-all. these agencies are built to only properly service the top 10% of the client list. Everyone else is on their own…
You are right.
Thank you.
WME TV is best in the business no one can argue with that…
CAA Reality department is pretty cool too. What’s especially great about them is that you can go in there and pitch a reality show you’ve shot.
They’ll pass on it. Give it a year or so and their big reality producer client with bad plastic surgery will come out with the exact same show.
He of course is repped by the exact team of agents (one typical midget you’d expect, unattractive CostCo diet chick with charisma of librarian with constipation face, & man who looks like aging wannabe rocker) you pitched it to.
Mike Fleming:
There has not been “significant back and forth”. Aside from Spielberg, it’s basically been a steady exodus from WME. The Spielberg thing, while a much needed pr headline, probably won’t turn out to be that big of a deal on a commerce level anyways.
It’s a fair point, Fleming.
Spielberg probably just did it more to keep CAA on their toes anyways… He can’t possibly say that he’s heard good things about the place… Everyone has heard by now how bad the air is over there.
Good move for Spike. CAA is still the best out there! WME is a sinking ship due to the backstabbing among agents. Dave Wirtschafter thinks he’s the smartest man on the planet it makes me sick. I’m glad Spike saw the ways of CAA. Hopefully Speilberg will realize WME is not the right play…WME is aweful!
Spike is a great filmmaker. I thinks his constant white prejudice is annoying, but that’s what he does. CAA was a good move for him. UTA would of been great too with the team they have over there, but WME is bad news. The definition of scum = WME agents. They have no respect for anyone. John Fogelman and Dave Wirtschafter = scumbags galore. I hope they get caught on there IRS taxes one day. Horrible people. Spike, good for you…
You are an idiot! You are a WME assistant, you clearly should be in another business. You are truely pathetic. Fogelman is running a business not a frat house for loosers like yourself. He is one of the smartest guys in the Industry and you my friend will never be anything. So get a new job if you’re so unhappy. Wirtschafter is a unique personality, who has lasted longer than most. He has great taste and is a great Agent for his clients. Guys like you who never amount to anything and are bitter should just leave. WME is a great agency and you should go F— off. You will be found out soon enough so save me from having to send comments like this. What a waste of time!!!
Inside Man was wonderful and with DO THE RIGHT THING and, perhaps, X, solidifies him as a director who CAN get it right… That is not the problem. What if he shows up and delivers another sloppily directed atrocity of celluloid that played like paint drying as was Miracle at St. Anna? And that WAS his last film!
Inside man 2 will get him back on track, but–
Yo Spike. Think FUNNY. Do something FUNNY! Make us laugh again. Get back in your old shoes and Do The Funny Thing!
All Spike Lee is good at is crying racism every time one of his films tanks.
Imagine if a white director depicted blacks the way Lee depicts Whites…that director would be run out of the business. But hey, he’s black, so its okay. Needless to say, I’m not a fan. Go make another bball doc Spike.
Isn’t Clive Owen white, dick head?
So Over_Hollywood – today is your lucky day!! No need to imagine what would happen if a white director depicted blacks in a negative way. Just go to Netflix and rent a small little film that became the most successful independent film of its time called “Birth of a Nation”. Then come back here and answer your own question. Then rent “Gone with the Wind” , come back, answer your question. Then rent most of the early Walt Disney films like “Song of the South” then Al Jolson in “the Jazz Singer” and so on and so forth. For extra credit, throw in a few early Warner Bros & Disney Cartoons. That should just about answer your question.
Well done, you didn’t sleep through your film history class during black history month. How about something that was produced in the last half of a century?
On topic. Not certain what all the excitement is about. Spike Lee is a bit like QT, did some truly neat stuff 15-20 years ago but he has been riding those achievements ever since.
Nonsense…Exactly, how does Lee depicts whites in his films? The majority of Lee’s films are urban New York based films about black experiences.The character who are white in these films are mostly run of the milled movie cliche of the professions in which they hold.Harvey Kartel as the hard nose cop in Clockers for example.The last major release Lee made, the awful Miracle At St.Anna, white characters were the sympathetic reporter, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was trying to figure out why the black ex-soldier killed a seemingly innocent bank teller, and the italian boy who grew up to be the savior of the black soldier from his certain imprisonment.So, is being the savior a negative depiction? Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt religious background negates his ethnicity? Are Italians not white?
In person Spike Lee isn’t nearly as “angry” or “racist” as he’s been portrayed in the media. In real life, he’s much more inclusive, doesn’t really care what color you are. He’s also much more charming than he’s been portrayed in the media. But thank God for that “Angry Black Man” image before, it got him headlines and sold films.
Not nearly as angry, or racist? Yes, he is.
white guys portray black people like crap every day….. where are you living in your a#$
Do white guys portray black people like crap or do black people portray black people like crap? It comes down to accountability. Some blacks are self-destructive. Some whites are self-destructive. Some Asians are self-destructive. But own up to it. No one is “portraying” anything. The films exist. They are vocal. They are clear in what they illustrate. Anyway, I like Spike and think his best film was 25th Hour.
Incidentally, I am a little disturbed to see CAA basically annexing all the talent. What’s in the water there?
Maybe this will get The Inside Man sequel moving
As Outside said, Spike’s got the talent but he has been resting it on the bench for many years now. Pity, because like Qt he is gifted in some areas of film-making.
Some people here should remember what Clint Eastwood said about him:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jun/06/1